Ender's Game

Study Guide by Course Hero

and not with others.

What's Inside
TENSE
Ender's Game is written in the past tense.
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1
ABOUT THE TITLE
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1 In Ender's Game the main character Ender trains to be a
soldier by playing games. In the end, the games are revealed as
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 3 real technological warfare.

h Characters .................................................................................................. 4

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 7

d In Context
c Chapter Summaries .............................................................................. 12

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 28
Origins of Ender's Game
l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 30
Orson Scott Card's biggest influence on Ender's Game was
m Themes ....................................................................................................... 31
American writer Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. The
e Suggested Reading ............................................................................... 31 Foundation series was loosely related to The Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, an influential 18th-century history book.
Card was inspired by the way the Foundation books explored
psychology and sociology rather than focusing solely on
j Book Basics technological advances. Card writes, "I was no scientist, and
unlikely ever to be one," but he began drawing ideas from
history. A book on the Civil War (1861–65) led him to consider
AUTHOR
how armies might respond differently in battle based on their
Orson Scott Card
leader. From a history of World War I (1914–18), Card learned
YEAR PUBLISHED how the first air pilots in battle learned to think in multiple
1985 dimensions (up and down, not just front and back). Imagining
what battle training might be like in the future, Card envisioned
GENRE the battleroom, a key location in Ender's Game.
Science Fiction
When he began writing Ender's Game, Card focused on
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR children because historical readings supported the idea that
Ender's Game is written from the third-person limited soldiers are often very young. From the Foundation series,
omniscient perspective. The narration focuses mainly on Card took the idea that "the play of human history is always the
Ender's point of view but occasionally dips into the points of same," even when circumstances vary throughout the
view of other characters. This narrative point of view has the centuries. In the introduction Card describes hearing from very
effect of keeping reader sympathies with particular characters
Ender's Game Study Guide In Context 2

disparate groups of people, from gifted children to soldiers because different sections of the city experienced different
stationed in battlefields, all of whom found Ender's Game attacks.
meaningful.
Ender embraces maneuver warfare. In Battle School students
are assigned to "armies" to learn battlefield techniques. The

Controversies armies use guns that "freeze" or immobilize students, similar to

a high-tech version of freeze tag. Ender is assigned to
Salamander Army, whose commander resents him and forbids
In the novel's introduction, Card describes the most common
him to participate. Observing a battle, Ender notes with
criticism: children "don't talk like that ... don't think like that."
approval how the other commander confuses and demoralizes
Card disagrees, saying in his own childhood he never saw his
Salamander. Many of Ender's strategies take the same
emotions as "somehow less real than adult emotions." People
approach, such as his technique of using pre-frozen soldiers to
also object to the book's depiction of children as violent and
protect an unfrozen sharpshooter.
calculating. This echoes criticisms of other novels, such as
British author William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) or
English writer Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange (1962),
both of which show children or teenagers capable of horrific Technology in the 1970s,
violence. Others claim these complaints reveal people's
inaccurate beliefs about children. Today, and in Ender's Game
The novel is also criticized for its seeming support of genocide. The original version of Ender's Game was published in 1977. At
In battle Ender is celebrated as a hero when he destroys the the time personal computers were just beginning to become
bugger species. However, Ender, thinking he is in a simulated available for use at home. The earliest predecessors of the
game, is unaware he is in actual battle. Card makes it clear that Internet were not yet accessible to the general public. In the
Ender would not have destroyed the planet had he realized the novel Card talks about how "the nets" influence public opinion
battle was real. Thus, Card is not necessarily celebrating and governmental policy. Card himself refuses to take credit
genocide. Instead, throughout the book, adults are presented for the idea of the nets because Internet-type communication
as the enemy more so than the buggers. The adults celebrate was already being explored. He does, however, think his
the genocide, but Ender, the character with whom readers understanding of how the Internet might affect politics was an
most sympathize, does not. accurate and valuable prediction.

One of the most popular video games of 1977 was Pong, in

Military Strategy which players used a cursor to move paddles back and forth to
play virtual ping pong. Visually Pong consisted of two vertical
lines for paddles and a small circle for the ball. In contrast, the
Ender's Game emphasizes military strategy, including
"Giant's Drink" game in the novel is extremely vivid and
maneuver warfare. Maneuver warfare was most recently used
realistic. Although it is meant to be a game the students play
in the 2003 Iraq War—Operation Iraqi Freedom. The goal of
for fun, Ender becomes emotionally involved in the hyper-
maneuver warfare is to demoralize the opposing forces,
realistic gameplay, which draws on elements from his own life.
making them unable to fight effectively. This goal is
In the novel the Battle School officials suggest the game is
accomplished by taking dramatic actions to confuse the
working on its own to create new sections for Ender, which
enemy, avoiding confrontations where the enemy is strong, and
implies a level of AI (artificial intelligence), which was not yet
taking action against the enemy's weak spots. In the Iraq War,
possible. The games and simulations of Ender's Game would
for example, the commander ordered troops to attack specific
have been considered cutting-edge. Increasingly, photo-
targets within the city of Baghdad, but he did not give explicit
realistic video game design and developments in virtual reality
commands about how to attack. This meant different groups of
technology have suggested the visuals of a real-life Giant's
soldiers attacked at slightly different times and used different
Drink game might be achievable. However, the game creating
tactics as appropriate to their targets in their parts of the city.
its own levels has not yet been possible in gaming technology.
The enemy could not put together a formally planned defense
While video games adjust difficulty levels or character

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Ender's Game Study Guide Author Biography 3

appearances based on guidelines created by the game won the Nebula and Hugo Awards for science fiction, as did its
developers, there has been no game yet that can completely sequel, Speaker for the Dead (1986). For more than 30 years,
create a new level without any guidance from a human being. Card extended the series, writing numerous novels about
Ender, Bean, and others in the same fictional universe. Ender's
The long-distance warfare of Ender's Game was entirely Game has inspired devoted fans but has been criticized for its
hypothetical when Card wrote it. In the 21st century, though, violent portrayal of children. A Marvel Comics series is based
robotics and drones allow more fighting to be handled on the Ender novels.
remotely, raising ethical questions about how much technology
should permit human beings to distance themselves from their
actions.
Personal Life and Other Works
Of course, some of Card's technologies remain fictional.
Humanity's control of gravity is limited in real life, but in the Card and his wife married in the late 1970s and had five

book humans have learned to manipulate gravity. Ender uses children. One child died at birth and another died at age 17

the "Little Doctor," a molecular detachment device (a weapon from cerebral palsy. Card has written many science fiction and

taken from the enemy buggers), which affects ships or planets fantasy novels as well as novels and scripts based on Mormon

on a molecular level and utterly destroys them. On a simpler religious beliefs. He was a recipient of the 2008 Margaret A.

level, video games have not attained the level of Edwards Award honoring his contribution to writing for teens.

responsiveness featured in the Giant's Drink, when the game A sampling of his other works includes:

apparently creates its own new levels just for Ender.

American Frontier Fantasy

a Author Biography Seventh Son (2003), first in the "Tales of Alvin Maker" series

Young Adult Fantasy

Early Life
Pathfinder (2010), first book in the "Pathfinder" trilogy
Orson Scott Card was born in Richland, Washington, to a
prominent Mormon family on August 24, 1951. The family also
lived in California and Arizona before settling in Utah. Card has Biblical Novels
described his childhood as idyllic. Young Orson was an avid
reader and has identified many books of his youth as later Stone Tables (2010)
influences on his writing.
Rachel and Leah (2010), first in the "Women of Genesis" trilogy
Card became a theater major at Brigham Young University.
After graduating from college in 1975, Card launched his own
theater company, but it was not successful, and Card found Contemporary Fantasy
himself in debt. To supplement his limited income, he wrote the
Magic Street (2005)
short story "Ender's Game," which was published in 1977.

Enchantment (2005)

Ender's Game Lost Boys (2013)

Card has also written poetry, blogs, and periodical

The short story version was quite popular, earning Card an
contributions. In 2011 he suffered a stroke, but he continued to
award for best new writer. In the mid-1980s he extended the
write and consulted on the production of a movie version of
story into a full-length novel, also called Ender's Game. Card
Ender's Game in 2013. He has served as a distinguished
calls Ender's Game "the launching pad of my career." The novel

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Ender's Game Study Guide Characters 4

professor of writing and literature at Southern Virginia

University. Although he has written more than 60 books, Peter
Ender's Game is perhaps Card's most influential work.
Peter is the eldest Wiggin child. He is brilliant but vicious and
was rejected by the International Fleet (IF) because he was too

h Characters
dangerous and unreliable. He resents Ender because Ender
seems more likely to be chosen for International Fleet, and he
often injures Ender. After Ender is sent away to school, Peter
approaches Valentine and asks for her help in launching new
Ender identities "on the nets." As Locke, Peter presents himself as a
voice of reason and moderation. His influence grows. The
The International Fleet (IF) grants Ender's parents permission treaty that ends the Earth war is named for Locke, and he
to have a third child, which is ordinarily against the law. The becomes one of the leaders of the Earth nations. Valentine
child was Ender. Ender's development is tracked by a monitor persuades him to allow Ender to live on a far-off colony, but
until he is five years old. Then he is invited to Battle School. He after Ender writes Speaker of the Dead, Peter asks Ender to
becomes the youngest child ever promoted into a Battle write his story as well. Ender does so and publishes it after
School army and then the youngest commander ever of a Peter's death.
Battle School army. He is a remarkable strategist and becomes
the youngest student ever sent to Command School. He is also
personally responsible for killing two students who attacked Colonel Graff
him, but does not know they were killed. Ender ultimately
destroys the enemy buggers in battle although he thinks he is As the head of Battle School, Graff watches some of Ender's
only playing a simulated battle game. Ender is a sensitive and monitor videos and recruits Ender to the school. He genuinely
caring person, but he can be ruthless in battle or when he feels likes Ender but has little trouble suppressing his affection in
threatened. After the bugger war, Ender is viewed as a hero, order to make sure Ender is the ideal military commander. He
but he doesn't feel he has done anything heroic. accompanies Ender to Command School and tells Ender
everything they know about the buggers. After the bugger war
is over, Graff is put on trial for what he allowed to happen to
Valentine Ender and other students. He is acquitted and becomes
Minister for the new colonies.
Valentine is the middle of the three Wiggin children. She is just
as brilliant as Peter and Ender, but she is kinder than either of
them. She protects Ender from Peter's threats while he lives at Mazer Rackham
home. She misses Ender greatly when he goes to Battle
School. Peter persuades Valentine to work with him to create Mazer Rackham is a half-Maori man who was an ordinary
new identities "on the nets." As Demosthenes, an online soldier in the previous bugger war, 70 to 80 years ago. He
persona, Valentine wields great influence. She also has a ingeniously figured out how to stop the buggers by destroying
strong influence on Ender, which Colonel Graff uses to keep their queen's ship and was hailed as a hero. After the war,
Ender training to defeat the buggers. When the bugger war is Mazer was asked to leave his family behind and travel at light-
over, Valentine uses her influence to make sure Peter can't use speed to Command School in order to be available to train the
Ender as a tool to get more power. She and Ender travel to a next military genius. He is a harsh teacher to Ender but an
far-off colony and later explore other colonies together. effective one. He supervises Ender through all his battles with
the buggers (which Ender believes to be simulations). Mazer is
proud of Ender but realistic about life after the bugger wars.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Characters 5

Character Map

Valentine
Brilliant and kind girl;
has a diplomat's soul

Loving older
sister

Teacher Ender Peter

Mazer Rackham
Child genius; potential Brilliant and sadistic boy;
Hero of the bugger wars Abusive older
savior of the world has a bright future
brother

Superior
officer

Colonel Graff
International Fleet officer;
responsible for Battle School

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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Ender's Game Study Guide Characters 6

Full Character List The International Fleet officer in

charge of Battle School, Major
Major Anderson repeatedly argues with
Anderson Colonel Graff about Ender. In the last
Character Description
chapter, Anderson acknowledges
Graff was right about Ender.
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a child and
genius military strategist. He is
A very small, very young child in
groomed for military leadership from a
Ender's Dragon Army, Bean resents
Ender young age and—although unaware of
Ender's attitude toward him. Ender
what he is doing—eventually succeeds
Bean pushes Bean, who becomes a
in totally destroying the alien race
remarkable tactician—almost as good
known as buggers.
as Ender himself—and eventually one
of Ender's squadron leaders.
Valentine Wiggin, Ender's older sister,
is the only person Ender loves and the
A member of Ender's launch squad,
only one who loves him. She protects
Bernard begins harassing Ender in the
him from Peter, but they are separated
shuttle on the way to Battle School.
Valentine when he goes to Battle School.
Ender retaliates and unintentionally
Valentine ends up working with her Bernard
breaks Bernard's arm. This makes
brother Peter to create new identities
Bernard angry, but Ender ensures
"on the nets," but she never forgets
Bernard has limited power over him in
her baby brother.
the future.

Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, is

Ender's first commander, Bonzo
an extremely intelligent but violent
(pronounced Bone-​so), is a passionate
child who frequently abuses Ender. In
Spanish boy with a need for personal
later years Peter works with his sister
Peter honor. Resentful of Ender because
Valentine to create new identities "on
Ender is so obviously important
the nets," presenting himself as Bonzo
despite his youth, Bonzo misuses
"Locke" and eventually becoming a
Ender when Ender is under his
world leader.
command, trades him as soon as
possible to another army, and later
Colonel Hyrum Graff is the head of tries to kill him.
Battle School who is later removed
Colonel Graff
from his position so he can tend solely
Leader of the fleet and Command
to Ender's development.
Admiral School, Admiral Chamrajnagar
Chamrajnagar criticizes Graff for taking so long to
An international hero who saved the get Ender to Command School.
Mazer
world from the buggers in the last war,
Rackham
Mazer becomes Ender's coach.
"Mom" of Ender's launch squad, Dap is
responsible for the initial training of
Abra is a boy raised on the colony Dap "Launchies." Later, Dap informs his
where Ender is governor. It is Abra superiors of Bonzo's plot to beat and
Abra who finds the Giant's Drink scenes the possibly kill Ender.
buggers built to communicate with
Ender.
Ender's first toon (platoon) leader,
Dink Meeker noticed Ender and asked
Ender's first real friend, Alai is a to have him in the toon. Dink is an
member of Ender's launch squad and excellent toon leader, but although he
Dink
later one of his squadron leaders at loves "the game," he won't participate
Alai Command School. When they are in anything more battle-​like because
separated, Alai shares a secret he believes the buggers are no longer
message with Ender that binds them a threat.
together.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Plot Summary 7

The last bugger queen waits for Ender

in the Giant's Drink scene the buggers
k Plot Summary
Hive-​Queen
built. When they meet, she shows
Ender the buggers' side of the story. Unidentified voices talk about a child who may be able to save
the world: Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, age five. He has always
General Pace is the head of the worn a "monitor," a device strapped to his body which allows
International Fleet military police.
people to observe his life. The monitor is removed from Ender,
General Pace While he can advise Colonel Graff on
how to run Battle School, he cannot and he assumes he failed to impress the watchers. Now that
command him. he is not monitored, the class bully, Stilson, tries to beat him up.
But instead Ender beats Stilson severely.
One of the few girls in Battle School,
Petra Arkanian is a sharpshooter and At home Ender's sister, Valentine, comforts him, but his
becomes Ender's friend and shooting abusive older brother, Peter, treats him no differently. The next
coach. In Command School Petra
Petra morning an International Fleet officer, Colonel Graff, arrives at
becomes one of Ender's squadron
leaders, but she makes a serious Ender's house. They approve of how Ender defended himself
mistake in battle, losing many of her without his monitor. They recruit him to Battle School to learn
ships.
how to fight "buggers," enemy aliens. Ender will miss Valentine,
but he agrees to go.
Ender's second commander, Rose, is
extremely proud of his Jewish
ancestry because Jewish
Rose the Nose
commanders are believed to be very
effective in battle. Nevertheless, Rose
Battle School
is a lazy commander who succeeds
largely because of one of his toon On the way to Battle School, Graff praises Ender in front of the
leaders, Dink Meeker. other students. They begin to harass Ender. He retaliates and
breaks another student's arm. Once at school he is able to
A small boy who is a member of bond with some students, though he is clearly far superior to
Ender's launch squad at Battle School,
his peers at strategy. He is placed in an army early, earning the
Shen becomes a target of Bernard's
Shen resentment of his commander, Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo refuses
bullying. Ender and Shen become
friends because Bernard hates both of to train Ender, but another soldier, Petra, teaches Ender the
them. basics. Ender also organizes his own training sessions with his
friends from his launch squad. His only break is when he plays
At Ender's original school, when the a game called Giant's Drink.
bully Stilson attacks Ender, Ender
Stilson
retaliates. Later it is revealed Ender
killed Stilson during their fight. Bonzo trades Ender to another army, where Ender's toon
(platoon) leader, Dink, appreciates Ender's unique abilities.
Ender continues to train with his friends on his own time. In the
Ender's mother loves all her children
but feels uneasy about their "Third," Giant's Drink game, Ender finds himself confronted by images
Ender, because his existence is based of his brother Peter, and the soldiers controlling the game say
on the consent of the IF. She is
Mrs. Wiggin Ender has found himself in areas of the game no one ever
secretly religious even though
religions have been outlawed, and designed.
Ender has a dim memory of her
praying over him when he was young. Back on Earth Peter confronts Valentine, who is thinking of
Ender. Peter shows her evidence of a potential war brewing on
Ender's father loves his children, but Earth. He suggests the two of them might be able to shape
having a "Third" makes him uneasy. public opinion by writing "on the nets" under pseudonyms.
Mr. Wiggin Colonel Graff points out Ender's dad
Valentine writes as Demosthenes and Peter writes as Locke.
named all his children after saints even
though religions have been outlawed. Both become popular.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Plot Summary 8

Mazer tells Ender the truth: it was a real battle. Even though he
Ender's Army and Bonzo never knew what he was doing, Ender destroyed the bugger
home world and won the war.
Ender is rapidly promoted to command his own army. One of
his best soldiers is a very young, very small boy named Bean,
who reminds Ender of himself. Ender's army faces a strenuous
battle schedule, fighting at least once a day. They never lose.
After the Bugger War
The teachers set up battles that are unfair to Ender's army to
Ender is horrified. Mazer and Colonel Graff explain this was the
give other commanders a chance. In one battle Ender
only way to win: to find a child who could think like the buggers.
humiliates Bonzo; however, Ender is really angry at the
They had to tell the child it was a game so the child would play
teachers and not at the opposing army.
without thought for the loss of life. Ender is a hero now, but a

One day Bonzo and a group of other students corner Ender in war has broken out on Earth. Mazer and Colonel Graff want to

the shower. Ender and Bonzo fight, and Ender knocks out protect Ender, but he no longer cares about his own life and

Bonzo. Then Ender begins to cry, saying he didn't want to hurt refuses protection.

anyone. That night Ender's army is given a battle against two

Ender sleeps for multiple days, and when he awakens, the war
other armies. Exhausted and depressed, he arranges a trick
is over. Peace has been restored on Earth, thanks to Ender's
that allows his army to win without really fighting. After the
brother Peter and his sister Valentine. After some time,
battle Ender is informed all his subordinates are being given
Valentine comes looking for Ender and asks him to join her on
their own armies. He is sent to Command School.
a far-off colony. Ender agrees.

Years later, Ender is exploring the planet now called "Ender's

Command School World." He discovers an area that looks just like the Giant's
Drink game. He finds a bugger queen pupa and is able to read
Ender is given a vacation at a controlled location on Earth, but her thoughts. He learns the buggers wanted to communicate
he refuses to go to Command School after beating Bonzo and with him, so they built this area to look like the game. They
Stilson to death after an attack. Colonel Graff gets Ender's knew he was not trying to kill them, and they ask his help in
sister Valentine to persuade him to keep going. As Ender and transporting the queen pupa to a place where she can create a
Graff travel to Command School, Ender asks about the new bugger colony. He hesitates but carries the pupa with him.
buggers. Graff explains buggers and humans cannot He anonymously writes a book called Speaker for the Dead, in
communicate with each other. The buggers attacked Earth 70 which he tells the human world what the buggers really
years ago and have not attacked again, but the International intended. Ender asks Valentine to travel with him, and they visit
Fleet has sent ships to find the bugger home world. Ender other planets. Ender calls himself Andrew again, and
wonders if the buggers might let humanity live in peace, but everywhere he travels, he brings the queen's pupa, searching
Graff says attacking their home is the only way to ensure for a new home for the buggers.
humanity's survival.

Ender experiences harsh training under Mazer Rackham, the

greatest hero of the last bugger war. Ender now commands
squadrons, and he discovers his squadron leaders are many of
his old friends: Bean, Petra, and others. Their simulations get
progressively harder, and Ender and his squadron leaders all
suffer psychologically.

One day Ender is presented with his "final examination," a

simulation of battle near a planet. Many people have gathered
to watch him work. Ender wins the battle by blowing up the
planet, suffering devastating losses. Everyone cheers, and

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Ender's Game Study Guide Plot Summary 9

Plot Diagram

Climax

7
10 Falling Action
Rising Action
6
11
5

4 12

3 Resolution

2
1

Introduction

Introduction Climax

1. Ender fights with Stilson. 9. Ender's final examination is an attack on the bugger home
world.

Rising Action
Falling Action
2. Ender is recruited to Battle School.
10. Watching Graff's trial, Ender learns what Graff has done.
3. Alai and Ender become friends.
11. Valentine and Ender travel together.
4. Ender fights in his first battle.

5. Ender takes command of Dragon Army.

6. Dragon Army stays undefeated.

Resolution

7. Bonzo and Ender fight. 12. Inspired by the buggers, Ender becomes Speaker for the
Dead.
8. Mazer Rackham trains Ender.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Plot Summary 10

Timeline of Events

Early in Ender's life

Ender's tracking monitor is removed.

Later that day

Ender fights with Stilson.

The next day

Ender is recruited to Battle School.

A few days later

Ender breaks Bernard's arm on the shuttle to Battle

School.

A few weeks later

Ender makes friends with Alai.

Months later

Ender disobeys Bonzo's directive not to practice with

another group.

Much later

Ender takes command of Dragon Army.

One month later

Dragon Army remains undefeated.

Later that day

Bonzo attacks Ender but loses the fight.

Three months later

Valentine persuades Ender to keep fighting.

After a long space voyage

Ender is trained by Mazer Rackham.

Later that day

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Ender's Game Study Guide Plot Summary 11

Ender's friends become his subordinate officers.

Months later

Ender's "final examination" is an attack on the bugger

home world.

After the war

Ender watches Graff's trial and learns what he has done.

Months later

Ender agrees to travel with Valentine.

Many years later

Inspired by the buggers, Ender becomes Speaker for the

Dead.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 12

know and give the reader a broader sense of this world. It also
c Chapter Summaries sets a businesslike, almost harsh tone. The two voices are
discussing a child they may treat horribly because they need
In 1991 Card added an introduction to the novel, though he him to save the world. This world is unfamiliar, but Card offers
gives the reader permission to skip it. He recounts how he a few important clues in this chapter: Technology is highly
developed the ideas for the book and defends his unusual advanced, population is strictly controlled, and the world is
portrayal of children, saying he "never felt that [his] emotions ... under threat from the "buggers"—a slang term referring to an
were somehow less real than adult emotions and desires." enemy group. Human beings commonly use insulting or even
Card says people interpret his work in their own ways and he racist terms to describe the opposing side in battle, but at this
accepts it, calling the true story "the one ... audience members point it is unclear who the enemy truly is. Peter's reference to
create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text." playing "buggers and astronauts" suggests the buggers are
aliens.

Chapter 1 The advanced technology is evidently not new, as the

characters are not impressed by it. Some type of "monitor" can
be attached to a child to allow a viewer to observe through the
child's own senses, and desktop "screens" allow for three-
Summary dimensional presentations of information. Also, families are
forbidden to have more than two children without government
Two unnamed people are talking about a child who could be
permission, which suggests a strictly controlled society.
"the one" to save the world from "buggers." This child is
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin. Card introduces Ender as he is having In the midst of this unfamiliar world Ender starts out as a
a monitor device removed from his body. Ender is cynical relatable little kid—someone the reader has seen before: the
about adults; when someone tells him removing the monitor smart boy bullied by classmates. Ender's ruthless strategizing
won't hurt, he knows it's a lie, "But since adults always said it makes him unique. When he hits Stilson almost by accident and
when it was going to hurt," he uses the lie "as an accurate knocks him down, he is any other frightened small boy. Once
prediction." He's right. he considers the ramifications of his behavior and deliberately
beats Stilson into unconsciousness, he crosses into uncharted
With the monitor gone, Ender feels no one will help him deal
territory. Card asks the reader to sympathize with Ender. He
with his threatening older brother, Peter, or the class bully,
didn't want to be violent. This will prove to be a constant
Stilson. Both harass him for being a "Third." In this society
dilemma for Ender—his talent for battle paired with his
parents need government permission to have three children,
abhorrence of hurting others. After the fight Ender fears he is
and Ender is his family's third child.
no different than his big brother Peter.

Ender is highly intelligent and ostracized by his classmates.

Peter looms large in Ender's life. Some of Peter's
After school Stilson and his friends confront Ender. Stilson
actions—making Ender play games he doesn't like—seem like
grabs him and Ender kicks Stilson in the chest, knocking him
typical brotherly behavior. However, the unidentified voices say
down. Although he knows he shouldn't hit someone who's on
both Ender's brother and sister "tested out impossible" for
the ground, Ender decides to do it anyway so the group will
reasons other than their abilities. Card uses words like
leave him alone in the future. He beats Stilson repeatedly, then
dangerous and mad to describe Peter's behavior, and when
walks away and begins to cry, thinking, "I am just like Peter."
Ender has beaten Stilson in a dramatically violent manner, he
associates such behavior with Peter. The reader may wonder
what happened in this family to produce two violent children.
Analysis
Although much of the book tells the story through Ender's
eyes, Card starts each chapter with a discussion between
adults. This allows him to share information Ender would not

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 13

understand Ender's distrust of authority figures. The

Chapter 2 unidentified soldiers at the start of the chapter know they are
likely to get Ender hurt or killed. One says, "We're the wicked
witch. We promise gingerbread, but we eat the little bastards
Summary alive." They don't exactly seem happy about it, but they have
confronted this unpleasant fact, and it hasn't stopped them.
Two unidentified voices, soldiers, discuss Ender. They praise The other adults in this chapter are Peter's parents. They are
his violence against Stilson and compare him to someone absent for most of the chapter and ineffectual when they are
named Mazer Rackham. However, they are waiting to see what home. Ender is only six, but he observes his parents with a
happens when he faces his brother. They express a certain detachment and cynicism one more commonly expects in
black humor about the likelihood they will get Ender damaged adolescents. Like clueless parents throughout literature and
or killed. pop culture, they say the things they think they should say but
have no idea of Ender's real feelings. They seem to be
At home, Ender's sister, Valentine, says she's sorry his monitor
outmatched by the collective intellect of their children.
is gone. Peter, the eldest, walks in during the conversation.
Adults see Peter as "beautiful ... with ... a face that could have When Peter first appears in this chapter, Ender notes the
belonged to Alexander the Great," but all Ender sees is a difference between how adults view Peter and how he does.
possible beating. Peter is delighted Ender's "guardian angels" Adults associate Peter with Alexander the Great, an interesting
aren't listening any more. He wants to play "buggers and comparison. Alexander the Great is famous for ruling much of
astronauts" and makes Ender be the "bugger." Valentine the known world of his day at a young age. He was a
protests, but with their parents away Peter insists he is in conqueror, but he was also intelligent, having been tutored by
charge. Ender tries to think like a bugger—apparently some Aristotle. He was seen as a military genius, and he often
alien humanity has fought or is preparing to fight. Peter knocks maintained his empire through threats, intimidation, and
Ender down and threatens to kill both Ender and Valentine. He violence. He rose to power at age 19 and died when he was 32.
only stops when Valentine announces she has a letter on file Ender, on the other hand, only watches Peter to get a sense of
which will prove Peter's guilt if either she or Ender dies how dangerous he is.
unexpectedly. She admits it may not save their lives, but it will
prevent Peter from attaining his goal of becoming a world Card has already established Peter as a threat, almost a
leader. Peter lunges at Valentine, then laughs and claims it was bogeyman for Ender. In this chapter Card makes it clear Peter
all a joke. Ender wishes he could do to Peter what he did to has a genuine problem. In clinical terms Peter would probably
Stilson. be diagnosed as a psychopath—someone with an antisocial
personality disorder. A psychopath tends to ignore rules and
When Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin come home, they sympathize with disregard the rights and preferences of others. Psychopaths
Ender about losing his monitor but they also try to sound have a definite tendency toward violence and a lack of
cheerful about it. Their conversation suggests Ender would remorse, but they are also often able to manufacture the
have been taken away from them if he had "passed." Ender expected emotional response. Peter's threats toward Ender
doesn't believe their cheer and thinks they are embarrassed to and Valentine only stop when Valentine tells him it will serve his
have three children with "no obvious explanation." He lies in own self-interest to keep them alive—and even then he
bed thinking about it. He hears Peter approach his bed and continues to taunt them. When Peter approaches Ender at the
wonders if Peter will kill him, but instead Peter says he is sorry end of the chapter and speaks kindly to him, Ender cannot
for Ender and he loves him. Peter falls asleep, and Ender cries. even respond. With Peter, one can never be sure what is a trap.
But once Peter is asleep, Ender allows himself to cry. He wants
Peter to love him, but Peter may never be capable of it.
Analysis
Valentine is the only source of love in Ender's life, and she
One of the ongoing themes in this book is adults versus loves him devotedly. But she is hardly a typical child either. Few
children. In Chapter 1, Ender expresses his belief that adults typical children manage their tyrannical older siblings by
always lie, and the adults in this chapter help the reader resorting to sealed letters left to be opened in case they are

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 14

murdered. Valentine is far gentler than Peter, but all three The last time the buggers attacked, they were defeated only
children exhibit a tendency for large-scale planning and a by the brilliance of Mazer Rackham. Now the IF uses Battle
calculating intelligence. School to find the next Mazer. Ender finally decides: "I'm afraid
... but I'll go with you."

Chapter 3
Analysis
In the first chapter, Ender reflects on how untrustworthy adults
Summary can be. Card reinforces this at the start of Chapter 3, when
two voices—one of them presumably Colonel Graff—talk
The unidentified voices speak again. They identify Valentine as
casually about lying to him, reserving truth for emergencies
Ender's "weak link," because he will not want to leave her. One
only. This cynicism is still ringing in the reader's ears when
voice plans to persuade Ender to come, even if he has to "tell
Graff arrives at Ender's family home.
the truth," which is permissible "in emergencies."

The brief breakfast table scene before Graff's arrival is the

The next day, as his family jokes at the breakfast table, a man
most normal, most functional interaction Card ever shows
in an International Fleet (IF) uniform arrives at the door. The
between Ender's family members. With Ender's monitor gone,
officer speaks to Ender's parents, then Ender is summoned.
could the family—particularly Peter—actually adjust and get
Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin have just learned about the fight with
along? Given their history, it seems unlikely. Still, they'll never
Stilson, and they criticize him for his actions. The officer asks
have the chance to find out.
Ender why he acted as he did. Ender reluctantly admits he was
excessively violent to try to "win all the next ones, too. So Card goes out of his way to make Ender's parents the epitome
they'd leave me alone." The officer, Colonel Graff, invites Ender of normality. They speak to him in a predictably parental
to Battle School. Ender's parents have no say. The choice is manner, disappointed by how he treated Stilson. His father
Ender's alone. He is reluctant to leave Valentine and doesn't objects because kicking Stilson "wasn't exactly fair." Graff, on
"like fighting ... the strong against the weak ... the smart against the other hand, cares little about "fair." Real battles may not be
the stupid." Graff asks to have a private conversation with fair. What matters is why Ender acted as he did.
Ender.
Ender worries he will be seen as "more monstrous" if he tells
Graff admits Ender will not see Valentine for years because the truth. Graff knows Ender pretty well—he tells him later he
there are no breaks from Battle School. Although Ender asks has been watching the monitor recordings—and he pushes
about his parents, Graff says he doesn't think Ender will really Ender into responding by suggesting he enjoyed the beating.
miss them very much. Ender starts to cry. Graff asks him to Graff already knows Ender fears being like Peter, who would
understand his parents' actions. Both of them came from enjoy it. Ender explains his strategy, which is all Graff needed
"noncomplian[t]" families that were religious and had many to hear.
children—two things that were against the law. As
noncompliant, Ender's parents promised not to have more than Although Graff talked about lying to recruit students, he
two children and to stop practicing their religions. Yet they doesn't lie to Ender in this chapter. He presents a sales pitch to
named their children after saints and secretly baptized the Ender's parents, emphasizing Ender's potential career
children at home. They feel "ambiguous," Graff says, about possibilities. But to Ender himself, Graff is honest and direct. It
their religion and about Ender. Ender's existence as a third is jarring to read the scene and remember Ender is a five-year-
child is based on International Fleet (IF) consent, which makes old child. Graff's conversation sounds as if he were speaking to
him IF property. Graff says Ender causes tension in the home an adult. But then Ender is clearly not a typical child. How many
without meaning to because Peter resents him and his parents five-year-olds would be capable of saying, "I don't want to go ...
are uneasy about him. Only Valentine loves him unreservedly. but I will"?
Graff warns Ender "if it were just ... choosing the ... happiest
future for you, I'd tell you ... stay home," but Ender is needed. Card uses Graff to demonstrate to the reader how accurate
Ender's perceptions are. Graff calls Peter "a jackal," but he also

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 15

admits Peter "was the best we'd seen in a long time." He

reassures Ender there will be no Peters at Battle School. But
Analysis
he also says there are worse things than Peter, and Battle
Card bookends this chapter with Graff's conversations about
School is one of those worse things.
Ender, both of which emphasize Ender's sweet nature. On
Ender is reluctant to go to Battle School, not only because of some level Graff genuinely cares for Ender, but he believes this
leaving his family, but because he does not like killing—a is what Ender needs to become the great commander
strange comment from a kid who beat another boy into humanity needs in order to survive. No child should be made to
unconsciousness just the day before. But he does not really feel the world is against him or taught to believe no one will
feel as if he has a choice. Graff makes him realize his awkward help him. Although Graff says he feels for Ender, his feelings
position in his own family. Ender says, "It's what I was born for, are a secondary matter. Graff also specifies Ender will need to
isn't it?" He was designed for this moment, whether he likes it lead others. This is another reason Ender was selected rather
or not. than Peter. Peter might have Ender's tactical brilliance, but it is
unlikely many people would choose to follow him in battle.

Ender's mental adjustments on the shuttle reveal exactly how

Chapter 4 unusual he is. In the book's Introduction, Card describes
reading about flyers in World War I who had to adjust their
thinking to account for maneuvers in multiple directions, rather
Summary than forward and back like ground troops. Ender instinctively
makes the adjustment. Graff belittles the other boys in order to
The unidentified voices talk about Ender. They agree Ender isolate Ender, but what he says about Ender is not hyperbole.
needs to be isolated so "he remains creative," but they also
want him to be a leader. One voice says, based on the video of Ender's capacity for violence is an unexpected element in such
Ender and Stilson, Ender is "not a sweet little kid." The other a sweet-natured boy. He breaks a boy's arm and, in his own
voice—possibly Colonel Graff—says Ender is "even sweeter mind, Ender is honest about it: "He had meant to hurt him, and
than he looks" though he plans to "purge that (sic) in a hurry." had pulled with all his strength." Yet he also feels guilty: "I am
not Peter. No matter what Graff says." In the real world, a child
Ender and 19 other boys take the shuttle to Battle School. The with such dramatically different attitudes and behaviors would
boys are all disoriented by the lack of gravity, but Ender makes probably qualify for some intensive therapy. Instead, Graff
a mental adjustment so he can buckle himself into his seat. aggravates the disparity, believing it will make a better soldier.
Graff reveals he is principal of Battle School and will travel with
them. As Graff speaks to the boys, he singles out Ender for
praise. Graff tells the other boys they will mostly end up as Chapter 5
non-officers because they "don't have the brains" Ender has.
When Graff stops speaking, the boys gang up on Ender: "When
the officer prefers you, the others hate you." They start hitting
him. Ender retaliates and breaks a boy's arm. Graff again
Summary
praises Ender. When Ender complains the other boys hate him,
Two unidentified voices—presumably Colonel Graff and
Graff says he must be better than everyone else so they will
another person—discuss Ender. Graff did not intend for the
respect him. Later, a teacher named Anderson asks Graff
broken arm to happen. He worries the boy with the broken arm
about Ender. Graff says Ender may be "the one." He admits he
will cause problems in the launch group. The two voices agree
feels bad about Ender. He tries to justify it by saying Ender
Ender must continue to believe no one can help him. Just in
might save the world, but also admits, "For his sake, I hope it
case, they will also make a list of potential replacements if
isn't him."
Ender fails.

Ender and his fellow "Launchies" (new arrivals) are greeted by

Dap, who says he is their "mom"—the person responsible for

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 16

managing their group. Dap tells them the rules, saying they in two out of three games. In the previous chapter, Graff
should be prepared to stand up for themselves, but serious advised Ender to earn respect by being better than everyone
injury or murder will get them "iced out," or kicked out of else. Ender is off to a good start.
school. Ender is already resented and Bernard, whose arm
Ender broke, begins recruiting Launchies to harass Ender. Ender also adopts the students' slang when talking to an older

When Bernard begins harassing a boy named Shen, Ender boy. The slang is an interesting choice on Card's part: it is

uses the opportunity. He creates a fake account in the almost its own dialect, a patois of grammatically incorrect

computer system and uses it to send messages humiliating phrasing and colorful insults. In Battle School, with its us versus

Bernard. He then hacks into Bernard's account and sends them and student versus teacher mentality, the slang becomes

more embarrassing messages, which appear to come from an identifier, a way to mark whose side you are on. Students

Bernard. Bernard is embarrassed, his hold on the others is use slang. Teachers and other leaders, like Dap, do not. Ender

weakened, and a bond begins to grow between Ender and picks up the slang quickly, but does not stick with it.

Shen. Linguistically, Card reminds the reader: Ender is not really part
of this group—at least not yet.
Ender spends his free time watching the bigger kids play in the
game room. He figures out the game's strategy. Then,
speaking in the student slang they all use, challenges an older Chapter 6
student to play "two out of three." The older student beats
Ender once, but Ender wins the next two times. Ender knows
now he can handle these games, just as he always did at home.
Summary
Two unidentified voices discuss Ender again. One is concerned
Analysis because he is "stuck at the Giant's Drink in the mind game."
The other voice is more worried about Ender's launch group
The broken arm makes Bernard a hero to some in the launch
because Ender is "poisoning that group." One
squad. This wasn't Graff's plan, but he will not intervene to help
voice—apparently Colonel Graff—takes responsibility for the
Ender. In battle, things don't always go as expected, and a
problems, and Ender stays with his launch group for now.
commander will have to adjust. Their list of replacements for
Ender emphasizes the calculated nature of what they are Ender and his group enter the battleroom, which has no
doing. Ender is a piece to be used when possible and gravity. Ender experiments with the lack of gravity and with his
discarded when he ceases to be useful. suit. He figures out how to use the suit faster than the others.
Bernard and his friend Alai are the next to experiment. Ender
For the first time, Card shows evidence of Ender's ability to
notices Bernard tenses up when he is flying, but Alai doesn't.
work with people. He figures out how to disable Bernard
Soon all of them are experimenting. Ender almost crashes into
without any further violence on his part. He knows what will
Alai, but Alai saves him. They work together, trying out new
hurt Bernard the most—making him look ridiculous—and he
ways of moving in the suits and figuring out how to use their
does it. Ender never officially takes credit for it. Yet Bernard
guns to "freeze" each other. They team up with Bernard and
knows, and Shen knows, and probably even Dap, their "mom,"
Shen and freeze everyone else in their launch group. Alai and
knows. Ender has reset the launch squad and weakened
Ender become friends, and Alai, their first launch leader, forms
Bernard's influence.
a bridge between Bernard's group and Ender's group.

Card also reinforces Ender's strategic genius in this chapter,

In free play Ender keeps playing a game called Giant's Drink.
as Ender is able to defeat a much older boy on one of the
The Giant gives him a choice of two drinks, but whichever he
game room games. "Within an hour," the narrator says, Ender
picks, the drink will kill him. Ender gets angry because he can
feels confident he can defeat the older boys who "each tried to
never beat the Giant although he doesn't know if the game
emulate the computer." This may be why Graff is isolating
even continues after that point. Finally he attacks the Giant's
Ender: He wants to prevent Ender from falling into the same
eye and kills him. He climbs past the giant's body and meets a
patterns of thinking the other boys use. Ender defeats the boy
bat who asks Ender how he got there because "Nobody ever

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 17

comes here." The next game section is called Fairyland, but

Ender signs out of the game. He regrets killing the Giant and Chapter 7
again compares himself to his brother Peter: "I'm a murderer,
even when I play. Peter would be proud of me."
Summary
Analysis Unidentified voices discuss Ender and the Giant's Drink. One
voice is disturbed by Ender's violent response, while the other
Alai is Ender's first real friend and Ender's equal—or close to is satisfied: "He won the game that couldn't be won." The
it—when it comes to figuring things out. Ender needs someone voices agree he solved the Bernard situation well. One voice
who can keep up with him, and Alai can, at least for now. The wonders about how the children are treated because they
two of them bond over their desire to figure things out. Alai lets don't act "normal," but the other dismisses the concern
Ender know they can be friends, saying, "I'm not Bernard, I because of the war.
never tortured cats for fun." For Ender, strategy is important.
He doesn't worry what anyone thinks of him, including Bernard. Ender, not yet seven, has been transferred to Salamander

He's happy to let Bernard believe he has joined Bernard's Army, under the command of Bonzo Madrid. Ender is

group. Ender knows it isn't Bernard's group, but it is disappointed to leave Alai. Alai promises they will always be

strategically useful for Bernard to believe it is. Alai becomes friends. Alai kisses Ender on the cheek and whispers, "Salaam"

the leader of their launch group by "almost unanimous" vote. in his ear, then leaves. Ender wonders what it means, but

Ender sees it as a positive step. After all, he would never understands Alai has shared something very personal—a

become launch leader of a group with Bernard in it. But with vulnerability—with him. Instead of going to his new commander,

Alai as leader, the two factions of their launch squad can be Ender explores a new area of the Giant's Drink game. He finds

united. a playground full of mean children and some woods full of killer
wolves, then a cavern labeled "The End of the World." Ender
For the first time Card introduces Giant's Drink, as this section passes the end of the world and gets trapped in a castle. A
of the game will continue to be called for the rest of the novel. serpent appears and tells him, "Death is your only escape."
From the adult conversation at the start of the chapter, the Before Ender can fight the serpent, his game is shut off
reader learns one student who obsessed over Giant's Drink because he is late in reporting to his new commander. He
later killed himself. Ender also demonstrates an inability to leaves, wondering if he can kill the serpent and just go to a
leave the Giant's Drink alone, even though he calls it "dumb" quiet place in the game "with nothing to kill and nothing to kill
and "stupid." In fact, Ender recognizes Giant's Drink as an me, just living there."
unwinnable situation. The no-win situation is actually used in
some real-world training scenarios, such as preparing first In his new barracks, he meets a girl soldier, sharpshooter Petra

responders to react in emergencies. It is also a well- Arkanian. The commander, Bonzo (pronounced bone-so),

established trope in popular culture and fiction, such as the resents Ender and plans to trade Ender to another army. In the

Star Trek Kobayashi Maru scenario. In the Star Trek universe, meantime, Bonzo instructs Ender to stay out of their way in a

the Kobayashi Maru was an unwinnable simulation at Star Fleet battle and never even draw his weapon. Petra trains Ender to

Academy, one Captain Kirk beat by reprogramming the shoot during their free time. He also observes Bonzo's drills

computers. Ender takes a similarly novel approach to defeating with the rest of the army. Ender knows he is not ready for

the giant. The point of a no-win situation, arguably, is to push battle yet, but he also recognizes Bonzo's weaknesses as a

students to think creatively under pressure. Ideally, the commander. He relies on pre-planned maneuvers and keeps

situation only appears to be unwinnable, as in this case, where too much control over his soldiers. Ender wants to improve, so

no one ever thought to attack the Giant. Even the game seems he practices with his Launchie friends. Bonzo forbids it. In a

surprised by his victory. Ender can be ruthless. He wanted to private conversation, Ender points out Bonzo cannot stop him

defeat the Giant, and he did it, but the victory leaves him practicing in his free time. He suggests what Bonzo could say

shaken and uninterested in playing further. Card may be publicly so it doesn't look like Ender defied him. Bonzo is

foreshadowing Ender's future. If he leads the IF to victory, what furious, but does as Ender suggested.

will be left of Ender when the battle is over?

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 18

In his first battle, Ender observes, as Bonzo ordered, even living' might actually be. He had never done it." This is a
though following orders costs Salamander the win. Other comment about Ender's entire life experience. He has been in
Salamander soldiers begin talking about Bonzo's bad decision, Battle School for a month or two out of his six years of life, yet
but Bonzo won't change his mind. During his fourth battle, he has never just lived. For most of us, our childhood is the
Ender defies Bonzo's orders and prevents the other team from time we remember "just living" without worries about classes or
winning. After the battle, Bonzo announces Ender has been jobs or anything else. But at age six Ender already sounds
traded to Rat Army. He also strikes Ender in the face for being burned out.
disobedient. Ender hears the other soldiers reacting, and he
knows Bonzo has weakened his position as leader. Ender signs Ender is assigned to Bonzo's army for a reason though Card

up for a personal combat class so he is prepared if anyone hits never states it explicitly. Ender decides Bonzo can teach him

him again. how not to be a commander. Bonzo reacts based on emotion.

When they argue, "Ender's anger was cold ... he could use it.
Bonzo's was hot ... it used him." Ender already understands a
Analysis commander cannot make hasty decisions out of anger.
However, Bonzo repeatedly does exactly this—even though he
Card asks a question in this chapter that will return throughout may regret those decisions. He forbids Ender to practice with
the book: Does the war justify treating children in this way? the Launchies during his free time, a command Bonzo is not
How damaged are the children by what they experience? One allowed to give. Ender points this out to him and suggests how
speaker says the children aren't "normal," but a child like Ender Bonzo can save face with his army. Bonzo resents Ender for
would never have been normal. The stressful and violent making the suggestion but follows it because it will allow him to
environment of Battle School, however, may exacerbate these continue to appear completely in charge. Bonzo values others'
children's issues. acknowledgement of his position of leadership above
everything else, even victory. Bonzo loses battles because of
In a school full of unusual children, Ender is the most unusual. his orders to Ender to stay out of the action and never fire his
He is promoted far sooner, and he is not happy about it. "I gun, but he never reconsiders those orders. When Ender
wanted to learn what it was like to have a friend," he says to defies them and prevents a total loss for Salamander Army,
Alai when he realizes the two will be separated. Ender thinks Bonzo is angry at the slight to his authority and seems to gain
his life in his launch squad "was finally getting livable." He is a no insight into his own leadership style. The Salamander
six-year-old child and is being separated from his first and only soldiers resent losing because Bonzo won't change his mind.
friend. No wonder the kids in Battle School aren't normal. The biggest lesson Ender learns from Bonzo is "soldiers can
sometimes make decisions that are smarter than the orders
Ender's goodbye moment with Alai is significant—so significant
they've been given."
Ender cannot even fully find the words for it. Alai whispers,
"Salaam," an Arabic word meaning peace often used as a
greeting in Arab countries. Ender doesn't know what the word
means but suspects it may have a religious connotation. He
Chapter 8
perceives Alai as having "uncovered himself for Ender," an
interesting choice of words. Ender sees an affectionate
gesture as leaving oneself open to attack. This conveys a great Summary
deal about Ender's childhood.
Colonel Graff and another officer, Major Anderson, discuss the
Ender revisits the Giant's Drink game. Past "the End of the games. Graff has ordered Anderson to create more
World" he finds a peaceful place. The narrator says Ender challenging, unfair games to prepare Ender for battle, even if it
didn't worry about "what the game of this place might be ... damages other soldiers. Ender has to be ready to command by
seeing it was its own reward." Ender longs for a place where the time their fleet arrives "at the bugger homeworlds."
he doesn't have to play games. After he is kicked out of the Anderson threatens to report Graff, and Graff says politicians
game and ordered to find his commander, he thinks about the make his life more difficult. Anderson says Graff does that to
game. The narrator says, "He could not imagine what 'just Ender, and Graff responds, "Ender Wiggin is ten times smarter

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 19

and stronger than I am." Anderson agrees not to complain

about Graff's tactics—for now.
Analysis
Ender is now in Rat Army, led by Rose the Nose, who is Considering the repeated emphasis on the banning of religion,
aggressively proud of his Jewish heritage. Jewish military Card's discussion of Jewish leadership is unexpected. In
leaders are admired and there is a myth that a Jewish general Ender's universe Jewish leaders are famously successful, and
will not lose. Rose's army faces anti-Semitism because of his Card introduces several Jewish leaders in high positions of
leadership, but Rose is aware of the historical precedent: An power and leadership. Rose feels pressure because of his
American Jewish president, an Israeli Jewish commander of heritage. Anti-Semitism is unfortunately also present in Ender's
International Force defenses, and a Russian Jewish leader of universe. Rose's army is called Rat Army, which may trouble
the fleet all worked together during the Second Invasion. some readers, considering how anti-Semitic propaganda
However, it was Mazer Rackham, a half-Maori New Zealander during World War II often compared Jewish people to rats.
with a bad reputation, who defeated the buggers. However, this choice of name could also be understood as
Card subverting the anti-Semitic rhetoric and propaganda the
Rose doesn't like Ender either, but he assigns Ender to Dink Nazis promulgated in World War II.
Meeker's toon (platoon). Ender learns Dink asked for him.
Bonzo lied about Ender's skills, so Rose punishes Ender by While Rose is no great leader, Ender can learn from Dink. Dink
sending him into the next battle first—and alone. Using drills his toon frequently and tries new approaches to battle,
techniques he developed with Alai, Ender freezes several but he can't keep up with Ender's ideas. When he asks Ender
opponents before he is fully frozen himself. Dink adopts to demonstrate new techniques, Ender realizes "He had seen
Ender's new technique, and it spreads through all the armies. what Ender was doing, but he had not understood" Ender's
reasons for doing it. Dink also provides a cautionary voice,
Dink is an excellent toon leader but has refused to be a warning Ender about the adults. Ender sees Dink's attitude as
commander. He thinks the buggers are no longer a threat, but alarmist, but it provides cautionary advice: adults cannot be
IF is using them to control people on Earth. Ender doesn't trusted. Dink is foreshadowing. He won't be the only person
agree, but Dink's comments do make him more suspicious of who wonders why the buggers haven't attacked again.
what adults tell him. Dink also warns Ender both Rose and
Bonzo hate him. Dink's skepticism about the bugger threat reminds readers
how young Ender is. Despite his strategic intelligence, he is still
Older students start threatening Launchies to keep them from only a child and has little understanding of history or adults'
practicing with Ender at night. Ender offers to cancel practice, capacity for subterfuge. This will change, but not until the
but Alai encourages him to keep going. One night older boys, novel's final revelations.
including Bonzo, attack them at practice. Ender and his team
use their tactics, but Ender gets separated from his squad. He Ender continues having his nighttime practices with Launchies,
is surrounded and injures some of the older boys in self- experimenting with new, "stupid" ideas, some of which work
defense. Later Ender notices the fight injuries are listed as well for Dink's toon in battle. Alai is the only person so far who
"accidental" and wonders if the teachers intend to interfere at can keep up with Ender, but even he acknowledges Ender's
all. Some student commanders send word to Ender: they like superiority. Ender's ability to train troops is unexpectedly
his nighttime practices. They send bigger, older boys to study demonstrated when the bigger boys attack them. Once again
with him and to provide backup if people harass him again. Ender is rather disturbingly effective at responding with
violence. Just as Dink warned him, the teachers stay
He revisits the room with the snake in the Giant's Drink game. uninvolved. They do not break up the fight and they do not
He kills the snake and looks for a way out. Instead, he finds a punish anyone for it, listing the injuries Ender causes as
mirror with Peter's face in it "and a snake's tail coming from the "accidental."
mouth." Ender shouts in shock. He throws the snake at the
mirror, which breaks, revealing many smaller snakes who bite In Giant's Drink, Ender is beyond the "End of the World" when
his character to death. Ender is terrified he is a killer, maybe he is confronted by an image of Peter. To Ender, Peter is a
worse than Peter. He feels he deserves the death his character symbol of everything he most hates in himself. Card repeatedly
faced in the game. uses Peter to represent Ender's darker, violent side, much like

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 20

Dr. Jekyll's evil alter ego, Mr. Hyde. The Strange Case of Dr. A year has passed. Nine-year-old Ender is a toon leader in
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a novella by the Scottish author Robert Petra's Phoenix Army. Alai is a toon leader in a different army,
Louis Stevenson, tells the story of Dr. Jekyll, who invents a and Dink is a commander. Ender's nighttime practice sessions
potion to separate his good from his bad impulses. His bad are now an elite tradition and everyone, even the adults, treats
impulses, including violent tendencies, are expressed as Mr. Ender with great respect. But Ender is lonely. His friends treat
Hyde, while his good impulses are part of Dr. Jekyll. Similarly, him more like an adult than a fellow student. Even the Giant's
Peter and Ender may be interpreted as two versions of the Drink game no longer interests him. There, he gets killed in the
same person. Peter's violence is more obvious and less room with Peter's face, no matter what he does.
controlled, but Ender has the same capacity for violence. The
game makes him face his fear "that he was (sic) a killer, only Colonel Graff visits Valentine at school to ask for help with

better at it than Peter," which is why he is successful at Battle Ender. He wants to know about Ender and Peter. Valentine

School. insists Ender is nothing like Peter. Graff asks her to write a
letter to Ender to encourage him to keep going at school. She
does, but she feels she has sold him out. As Demosthenes she

Chapter 9 writes a screed against population laws and honoring Thirds as

a private tribute to her beloved baby brother.

Ender is surprised to receive her letter. Valentine clearly wrote

Summary it, but Ender knows the teachers must have allowed it to be
transmitted. Even his relationship with Valentine is being
Colonel Graff demands to know how Peter's photo got in the manipulated now. Ender begins to cry. He goes to the Giant's
game. Ender has apparently gone past the programmed Drink game, grabs the snake, and kisses it. He expects it to kill
section of the game into areas which should not exist. The him, but it turns into Valentine. Ender passes through to the
computer is creating the game just for Ender now and even next part of the game world.
inserted Peter's photograph. Graff worries about how Peter's
photo affects Ender, saying Peter is "one of the most ruthless
and unreliable human beings we've laid hands on." Analysis
Back on Earth, Ender's family lives in North Carolina now, Peter and Valentine use "the nets" to build their new identities.
where Peter wanders the woods. Valentine knows he tortures In 1977 when Ender's Game was first published as a short
small animals, but his parents believe he is happier and less story, personal computers were only just beginning to arrive in
violent in their new home. Peter finds Valentine as she lights a homes, and the Internet was still in development. Card was
fire to celebrate Ender's eighth birthday. Peter thinks the aware of the development of the Internet but anticipated its
bugger war will end soon and will be followed by a war on potential use for worldwide communication and the shaping of
Earth. He wants Valentine to help him use this chaos as an public opinion.
opportunity. They can present themselves "on the nets" as
adults and shape world events. He claims he will create a "Pax Valentine adopts the name Demosthenes. Demosthenes was a
Americana through the whole world." But he needs Valentine's Greek orator famous for his passionate arguments
help because she can prevent him from becoming a monster. encouraging Athens to stand against Phillip of Macedonia and
Valentine agrees although she does not fully trust him. They his son, Alexander (later known as Alexander the Great).
work together to create online identities: Valentine as Demosthenes was partially responsible for planning the
Demosthenes, Peter as Locke. Their identities are the opposite defense of Athens and even fought in battle. The name suits an
of their true natures. Demosthenes is aggressive and fear- anonymous writer who warns about potential military conflict,
mongering, while Locke is moderate and understanding. This but it is an odd name for the loving Valentine. Of course, Peter
forces them to work together to write under both identities. picked the pseudonyms. Given Peter's affinity for Alexander
They quickly become popular, contributing regular columns to the Great, it is interesting he chose an opponent of Alexander
publications, and Valentine is particularly disturbed when her for Valentine's pseudonym.
father quotes Demosthenes.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 21

In contrast, Peter's pseudonym, Locke, comes from John friendship with Alai will survive. He refuses to cry, though. After
Locke, a British philosopher who helped inspire the the adults used Valentine to get to him, Ender vowed never to
Enlightenment in Europe and influenced the US Constitution. let them make him cry again.
Locke would seem to be a better pseudonym for Valentine
than for the potentially psychotic Peter. Yet on the nets Locke
is a voice of reason, calmer than Demosthenes. Analysis
Reaching out to Valentine is clearly a last resort for Graff. Ender is finally a commander, yet one of his first choices is to
Ender is depressed and, in the game, suicidal. (He probably treat a soldier exactly the way Graff treated him—treatment he
would have no chance to commit suicide in real life.) But even hated. This may be a testament to its effectiveness, or it may
the letter from Valentine does not help. Ender feels be a sign of how Ender has been damaged by his training.
manipulated by those around him. Peter and Valentine also talk Despite this, Ender seems to be an instinctively good
about their own lack of control. Children are rarely allowed to commander. Certainly he has learned from being commanded
be fully in control of their own lives, but for children like the by Bonzo, Rose, Dink, and Petra, but he also has insight into
Wiggins it must be insulting to be so tightly managed. Maybe what will make his soldiers better. This makes his choice with
that is why Valentine agrees to write with Peter—it gives them Bean even more interesting. Ender acknowledges how Graff's
both power. Certainly Ender would like some power over his efforts to isolate him made him a better soldier. He also
own life—or even a sense he could trust what he hears from realizes he became "lonely, afraid, angry, untrusting ... maybe
others. those traits, too, made him a better soldier." At the same time,
he feels compassion for Bean, a compassion he thinks no one
feels for him.
Chapter 10
Bean is, in some ways, the next Ender. Despite the tension
between Bean and Ender, the reader can already see how
Bean thrives under a commander who challenges him. Bean is
Summary the first Dragon soldier to follow Ender's thought processes.
"The enemy's gate is down" becomes a mantra for his army,
After Colonel Graff and Anderson agree to it, Ender is
and with good reason. In the battleroom students can navigate
promoted to commander at age nine-and-a-half. He will
in any direction and many get confused. Ender reorients his
command Dragon Army, a new army with new rules. His whole
thinking in much the same way he did on the first shuttle up to
army is his age or younger, and he immediately starts training
Battle School. He defines "down" as the location of the
them to think like he does: "The enemy's gate is down." One of
enemy's gate, where his army must go to win the battle. When
the youngest is a small boy named Bean, who is arrogant but
all his soldiers think that way, they navigate together more
learns quickly. Ender finds himself treating Bean as Graff
cohesively.
treated him years ago: making him the favorite student,
isolating him but also putting pressure on him to live up to his The loss of time with Alai is a hard blow for Ender. Major
new reputation. After practice, Bean confronts Ender. He Anderson presents a plausible argument against their meeting:
doesn't like how Ender treats him, and he wants to be a toon How can a commander of an army practice with soldiers of
leader. Ender says Bean can lead a toon when he has earned other armies he will fight against? The separation also further
respect. Bean agrees. isolates Ender. Ender grieves for the loss of his friend, and
Card uses language even more vivid than Ender's grief on
Now Ender is only allowed to work with his own army, so there
leaving Valentine, reflecting Ender's growing desperation.
are no more nighttime practices with Alai. After practicing with
Ender's greatest fear is that Alai does not share his feelings, a
his own soldiers, Ender drifts into the game room. Alai finds
fear familiar to almost any reader. Most of us have experienced
him there. Alai jokes about being on opposite sides, but Ender
a time when we worried someone doesn't care about us as
doesn't laugh. He says "Salaam" to Alai, but Alai responds
much as we care about them. Ender has very normal feelings,
regretfully, saying "Salaam" means "Peace be unto you," and
but in his artificial and unhealthy environment, they are
peace no longer seems possible. Ender wonders if his
magnified. Ender sees himself and Alai as "infinitely apart, and

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 22

what had been sure and unshakable was now fragile and
insubstantial." He fears it can never be the same again.
Analysis
Graff's conversation prepares the reader for Dragon's rapid
series of battles, but Card cleverly uses an offhand remark by
Chapter 11 Graff to demonstrate the power Peter and Valentine are
already beginning to wield. Graff says conversations "on the
nets" about the Warsaw Pact are causing trouble and he
Summary wonders about the "stupidity of the rest of mankind," which
seems to be rushing toward war. It shows how quickly Peter
Colonel Graff and Major Anderson discuss putting Ender's and Valentine's postings have begun reaching a large
Dragon Army into battles with less than a month of practice. audience: even Graff, stationed in outer space, has heard
Graff wonders if they are pushing Ender too hard. He mentions about them.
discussions "on the nets" about using the IF on Earth and
wonders aloud, "Are we absolutely sure that we ought to win It is interesting that Card foresaw the uses of computer and
this war?" When Anderson challenges him, Graff says he was Internet technology but did not foresee the fall of the Soviet
only joking. Union. On Graff's Earth, the Warsaw Pact—the post–World
War II alliance among the Soviet Union and its satellite
Ender has created an army with five toons instead of four. He countries—is a continuing threat. In reality this alliance ended
created assistant toon leaders so they can break into smaller with the collapse of the Soviet Union, its strongest member.
groups. He avoids formations and encourages "toon leaders to The Warsaw Pact was formally dissolved on July 1, 1991.
use ... small units effectively in achieving limited goals ... on
their own initiative." They are eager for their first battle and win Ender's army is intentionally different than any other. He
easily. His next battle, with Petra's army, is more difficult, but practices what the US military describes as maneuver warfare.
he still wins. His army fights a battle a day and never loses. Maneuver warfare is designed to make opposing forces
Other commanders resent Ender. People trip him and throw ineffective by confusing them. It may include the use of
spitballs at him, but no one can beat him in battle. He knows he dramatic actions to draw attention to certain parts of the battle
has to keep it up, so he begins studying "vids" of the bugger but also means avoiding the enemy's areas of strength and
wars, watching how the buggers fight and learning from them. moving against weaker areas. Ender has studied military
strategy, but most of his ideas seem to flow organically from
Graff and Anderson summon Ender to report on his army, then his brain. He also learns from the buggers, who use their own
immediately give him another battle. It's the second battle in a form of maneuver warfare. When Ender studies the videos of
day, and it's against Bonzo's army. Bonzo knew in advance and the last bugger war, he notes "how well the buggers used
set his army up inside the battle room, but Ender's army was seemingly random flight paths to create confusion." He
unprepared. Thanks to Ender's quick thinking they defeat identifies their key strategy as "gather the greatest number of
Bonzo, although they experience heavy losses. Angry at the ships at the key point of conflict," another maneuver warfare
adults because of the unfair battle, Ender refuses to attend the strategy.
end-of-battle ceremony to receive Bonzo's formal surrender.
Later he realizes Bonzo will have felt insulted by this and want At the end of the battle with Bonzo, Ender is understandably
revenge. frustrated. He must be exhausted, and the adults are not
playing fair. His reaction reminds the reader how young Ender
Ender summons Bean to see him. Ender admits he is tired and really is. Even an adult would be frustrated by what Ender has
worries he will not be able to think of enough new ideas to faced, but how much more frustrating to be a child and feel the
keep ahead of the other armies. Bean is honored Ender adults around you are trying to make you fail? For one moment,
confides in him. Ender asks Bean to create his own special Ender reacts as a child would, and it will cost him. Bonzo has
small toon to try out new, crazy maneuvers: "things that no one always hated him, but now he has made Bonzo look foolish in
has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid." Ender says public. Ender was not trying to insult Bonzo—he was angry at
Bean's small team will not always be used, but they will be the adults—but Bonzo will take it as an insult. Ender realizes his
available when Ender needs them. Bean is pleased. mistake, but it is already too late.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 23

If Ender knew at this point what he learns after fighting the School. He cannot even say goodbye to his army. Bean goes
buggers, he would realize war is not fair and there are no rules back to his own room and grieves because he may never see
limiting the number of battles to one per day. By making his Ender again.
army fight a second time and enter an ambush, the adults have
posed a realistic battle scenario. And Ender and his army were As they leave Battle School together, Graff tells Ender he will

ready for it. have a brief "landside leave." They are joined on the shuttle by
the head of the military police, General Pace. Ender is afraid to
ask to see his family. He notices General Pace studying him.

Chapter 12 When they land on Earth, Ender feels uneasy. He misses Battle
School, "the only place in the universe where he belonged."
Back at the school, Anderson reveals Ender killed Bonzo and
actually killed Stilson years earlier—though Ender does not
Summary know of either death. Anderson ponders what they've done to
Ender, but he also wonders if even Ender can be ready for the
Dap, Ender's old "mom" from his Launchie days, reports Bonzo
approaching bugger war.
is organizing a group of students to attack Ender. When asked
by General Pace to intervene, Colonel Graff refuses. Ender is
warned, first by Petra, then Dink: Bonzo is out to get him, and
Analysis
he must never go out alone. His toon leaders begin protecting
him, but Ender comforts himself with the belief the teachers Ender feels isolated, but many people try to protect him. His
will not let him get hurt. old "mom" Dap, Petra, Dink, and his toon leaders all try to make
sure Bonzo cannot hurt him. Alai is not mentioned. Card does
Ender's army has fought a battle every day for a month and
not explain whether Alai is simply not present or is no longer
never lost, even when the teachers change the rules to help his
Ender's friend. In spite of this support, Ender feels alone. He
opponents. One day, exhausted after a morning battle, Ender
may wonder if people care about him or only about his value as
dozes off unexpectedly and must shower alone at lunchtime.
a commander. When Dink tries to stop the fight, he argues
Bonzo and his cronies corner Ender in the shower. Dink tries to
Ender is needed to defeat the buggers. This is a purely
break up the fight, arguing Ender is too valuable against the
practical argument Dink hopes will work with Bonzo. Still,
buggers, but Bonzo grabs Ender. Ender uses his head to
Ender must wonder what would happen if he wasn't the great
smash Bonzo's nose. Bonzo collapses, unconscious. Dink helps
hope for the future.
Ender escape. He tells Ender it was Bonzo's fault, but Ender
begins to cry: "I didn't want to hurt him ... Why didn't he just The fight with Bonzo recalls the fight with Stilson from years
leave me alone!" Ender thinks Peter is right: "the only power earlier. Ender never initiates the fight, but once someone starts
that matters, the power to kill and destroy," is what keeps you it, Ender finishes it. Colonel Graff wants Ender to believe no
safe. Later that day Ender's army is assigned another battle one will help him, and after the fight with Bonzo, Ender believes
against two armies at once. Ender doesn't want to play it. The grief he feels must be overwhelming when he is forced
anymore and decides to send a message to the teachers. His to conclude Peter was right after all: The power to kill makes
soldiers perform the victory ritual and end the game without you safe. This twisted and unhealthy view of the world is what
ever really fighting. Graff has—albeit with a heavy heart—worked to create.

Ender shouts at Major Anderson about how unfair his battles Card uses a form of dramatic irony in this chapter. Dramatic
have been. One of the other commanders says a battle will irony, more commonly identified in plays, occurs when the
never be equal if Ender is on one side. Soldiers begin cheering audience (or reader) knows more than a principal character. In
for Ender, but he walks out. Bean follows to tell Ender all his this chapter, the reader learns both Stilson and Bonzo died
toon leaders and assistant leaders have been transferred to after their fights with Ender, something Ender does not know
serve as commanders of other armies. Colonel Graff and newly (though he suspects Bonzo is dead).
promoted Colonel Anderson arrive with orders for Ender to
skip pre-command training and go straight to Command Ender's training has been discussed throughout the book, and

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 24

in this chapter it becomes clear Ender can handle unfair Valentine agrees to persuade Ender.
battles and rushed training. Ender literally cannot be beaten at
Battle School—even the other commanders say so. In addition Valentine and Ender are both a little uneasy at first. She tries to

to being an excellent commander himself, Ender develops a tickle him, but he grabs her arm in a strong grip and is slow to

whole cadre of new commanders in his image. Just as Ender relax his hand. Later Ender kills a wasp which Valentine was

graduates, Bean and the rest of Ender's best soldiers are given planning to let go. She tells him about Locke and

their own armies to command. Ender's unique battle style may Demosthenes. They talk about how Peter wanted to be

be disseminated through the rest of Battle School before long, Alexander the Great. With Peter's writing and Ender's fighting,

but Ender won't be there to see it. He is being sent to Valentine says he and Ender could be "two faces of the same

Command School—not pre-command, as Bean notes. coin." After hearing about the state of the world, Ender agrees
even Peter might be an acceptable leader in such
Up until this point, Ender has been promoted quickly, but he circumstances. He complains about feeling manipulated.
experienced everything another Battle School student might Valentine argues, "We play by their rules long enough, and it
experience: He was a Launchie, a regular army soldier, a toon becomes our game." She reminds Ender he might save her life
leader, and then a commander. Now, however, he will skip a by fighting. Ender worries he cannot defeat the buggers if he
three-year Pre-command program and go straight to doesn't understand them. He describes studying an enemy
Command School. This could be an indication of Ender's until he understands and even loves that enemy, but "in that
brilliance, or it could be, as Anderson suggests, a sign another very moment when I love them ... I destroy them." Ender just
bugger war is imminent. wanted Peter to love him. Valentine tells Ender she loves him,
then leaves, angry at herself for having done what Graff
wanted. Ender finds Graff waiting for him inside. As they
Chapter 13 prepare to leave, Graff says they gave Ender time to remember
why Earth is worth saving.

Graff and Ender talk a lot on the long trip to Command School.
Summary Graff explains the buggers have some things in common with
humans, but they have much better technology. They
Two unidentified voices discuss the true identities of Locke
communicate faster than the speed of light. Through their
and Demosthenes, relatives of "the (sic) Wiggin." One doubts
communication, the buggers knew instantly of their defeat 70
children could manage such a complex scheme. The other
years ago, and they have not attacked again. Instead, the IF
says Colonel Graff believes "nothing these children have done
has adapted bugger technology—even creating instantaneous
is out of their reach" because their abilities are almost identical
communication technology called the "ansible"—and is on its
to Ender's. The two agree to keep the identities secret for the
way to attack the bugger home world. Ender wonders if the
moment.
buggers might never attack again, but Graff says they can't
take the risk. Ender asks why Graff thinks they are fighting the
Valentine enjoys Demosthenes now although she still winces
buggers. Graff says it may be because buggers and humans
when Mr. Wiggin quotes Demosthenes at the dinner table.
cannot talk to each other. He thinks fighting them is what
Peter gets angry when Demosthenes gets recognition,
humanity must do to survive. Ender responds, "I'm in favor of
however, and refuses to help her write her column. But she can
surviving," and Graff says, "That's why you're here."
write Demosthenes without his help now. Important and
influential people write to both Demosthenes and Locke, and
she and Peter put together information which proves the world
is in a very dangerous state. When Colonel Graff comes to see
Analysis
her again, Valentine thinks he will ask about Demosthenes, but
Peter's plan has succeeded. Locke and Demosthenes are so
instead he takes her to see Ender. Ender is at a lakeside
influential the government investigated them. Valentine didn't
house, reluctant to take the next step in his training. Graff asks
expect to grow comfortable as Demosthenes, but she has, but
for Valentine's help and says he knows about Demosthenes.
she still sees a difference between herself and what she
With her newfound knowledge of how fragile world peace is,
writes. Graff persuades her to talk to Ender by speaking to

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 25

both Valentine and Demosthenes. Valentine now knows the whether or not they want to kill you. Ender has learned from
world is in danger, so she is more willing to persuade Ender to experience that the power to kill is what keeps you safe. He
keep fighting. does not question Graff's argument.

Although the book is primarily told in close third-person

perspective, focusing on Ender, the scene with Valentine is told
through her eyes. Card does not provide Ender's internal
Chapter 14
monologue and the reader, like Valentine, may wonder what he
is thinking. He appears perversely proud of his soldiering skills,
and in some ways she finds him unrecognizable. But in other
Summary
ways he is still her baby brother, scared of Peter. Valentine
Colonel Graff and Admiral Chamrajnagar discuss plans for
calls them "two faces of the same coin," touching again on the
Ender's continuing education at Command School. Graff
theme of duality: Ender is the military genius and Peter,
suggests they teach Ender about the fleet's weapons systems.
unexpectedly, is the peaceful scholar. Although Valentine
When Graff asks about the other students, Chamrajnagar
cannot know it, her comments closely parallel Ender's concern
makes clear they are moving beyond Graff "into the mysteries
that he is just like Peter. He probably feels like crying when she
of the fleet." For the admiral, the interstellar fleet is "a god" and
draws the comparison, which implies he is not only like Peter
"a religion." Graff finds this distasteful. He tells the admiral, "I
but much deadlier.
came here for Ender. And neither of us came here for you."
To Valentine and only to Valentine, Ender confesses his
Command School is located in an asteroid called Eros. Ender
biggest fear: He will not be able to defeat the buggers because
hates it from the moment he arrives; it is uncomfortable and
he never defeated Peter. Readers may remember a bogeyman
gives him vertigo. He spends a year training almost entirely
from their childhood—some person or character who
alone, learning to control everything from a single fighter to a
frightened them in their childhood nightmares. Peter is Ender's
fleet. One morning he finds an old man in his room when he
bogeyman, another reminder of how young Ender really is. The
wakes up. Ender is locked in, and the man will not speak. Ender
buggers are a bogeyman for the entire world. Ender is being
begins doing exercises, but the man knocks him down. He is
asked to learn how to think like and even love the whole
Ender's new teacher, Mazer Rackham: "I am your enemy, the
world's greatest enemy. No wonder Ender is afraid.
first one you've ever had who was smarter than you."
On the long flight to Command School, Ender learns important
From then on, Mazer is always with Ender. They study footage
details about the buggers and how they communicate. Their
of bugger battles. Mazer explains his theory: Buggers are like
communication is difficult for humans to understand, which
bees or ants, with a queen to lead them. He destroyed the
means humans and buggers cannot communicate directly.
queen ship and ended the war. Ender, like Mazer, is able to
Ender simplifies Graff's lengthy lecture into a single statement:
identify queen ships in bugger formations. Humans captured
"The whole war is because we can't talk to each other." In fact,
Eros from the buggers and learned the buggers' technological
many real wars occur when communication fails. Ender's
"tricks." Humans have also developed a weapon called Dr.
apparent oversimplification is true. At the time Card was
Device—a pun on its real name: M.D. (Molecular Detachment)
writing, the United States was still in the midst of the Cold War
Device.
with the Soviet Union. The Cold War began in the late 1940s.
Both nations had nuclear weapons and the possibility of World
In the simulator Ender is given a headset so he can direct
War III seemed imminent. By 1977, however, nuclear war had
squadron leaders. His leaders include many old friends: Alai,
been averted on more than one occasion because the leaders
Bean, Petra, Dink, and more. They practice for a few weeks
of the two countries talked before firing off missiles. Although
before Mazer begins programming simulations for them. The
the buggers have not attacked Earth for over 70 years,
simulations get progressively harder. Ender's squadron leaders
humans are not waiting to talk. They are attacking. Had the
begin to struggle. Ender dreams about the buggers at night
United States done that to the Soviet Union, a nuclear war
and barely eats during the day. One day he passes out during a
would certainly have taken place. Still, Graff has his argument:
drill and is sick for three days. Another time he dreams he
If you can't talk to the other side, you can never be sure
hears Graff and Mazer worrying about his health, talking about

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 26

how well he fought, and saying they love him. hard would be charged with child abuse, but who can lay
charges against Mazer or Graff? Who could Ender complain to,
One morning Ender arrives in the simulator room to find it full if he ever thought to complain? Mazer and Graff have both
of people. Mazer explains his final exam will involve a emphasized what is at stake, making it difficult for the children
simulation near a planet. Ender wonders what happens if he to say anything.
fails the test. The final exam is unfair—old, slow ships, vastly
outnumbered. Ender thinks of his last Dragon Army battle—the This chapter includes the big revelation, the truth which has
one against two armies. He adopts the same I don't care been concealed from Ender the whole time: he has been
attitude. His fleet suffers horrific losses, but he gets his ships commanding the fleet. He has gotten soldiers killed and has
close enough to blow up the planet with the Dr. Device, wiping destroyed the buggers. When he is finally able to confront
out all enemy ships as well. Everyone in the room bursts into Mazer and Graff, he shouts, "I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm
cheers. Graff hugs him, and Mazer congratulates him, saying not a killer ... you tricked me into it." One of them responds,
he "made the hard choice .... It's all over." Ender is confused. "We aimed you. We're responsible. If there was something
Mazer explains it was not a game. Ender was controlling the wrong, we did it." But Ender doesn't accept that. As he has
real fleet, and he just destroyed the bugger home world. ever since fighting Stilson at age five, he blames himself for the
violence he has inflicted.
The next day Graff and Mazer come to see him. Ender is
furious that he was manipulated into destroying the bugger Card may have wanted this revelation to shock the reader as it
home world. He is responsible for innumerable deaths of IF shocks Ender, but he also uses foreshadowing to prepare the
soldiers and buggers, but he had no idea. Graff and Mazer reader for it. Ender recognizes adults' capacity for lying at the
explain it was intentional. Only a child playing a game could be start of the book. He is warned repeatedly by Petra, Dink, and
as creative and as ruthless. They needed someone with eventually Mazer himself: the teacher is the enemy; the adults
enough compassion to understand the buggers, but someone cannot be trusted. In the adults' conversations at the beginning
that compassionate would not kill, so they made it a game. of each chapter, Card builds tension through regular warnings
Ender is a hero now, but war has broken out on Earth, and the of the imminent war, phrased to suggest the buggers will
Russians want Ender dead. Ender doesn't care. He sleeps for attack Earth. Of course in Chapter 13 Graff explains the
multiple days. When he wakes up, Alai and his squadron humans are heading to the bugger home world. For some
leaders join him. The war on Earth is over, ended by something readers Card's foreshadowing makes the ending predictable. If
called the Locke Proposal. Ender is a hero. Everyone looks up Ender is so smart, they argue, why doesn't he realize what's
to him, but he sees—and accepts—himself as a killer. happening? There are several possible explanations. In
general, humans tend to look for simpler explanations rather
than thinking everything they have been told for years is a giant
Analysis lie. Ender might also have been willfully deceiving himself. He
persisted in believing the adults would save him long after they
Throughout Ender's Game Ender is often compared to Mazer made it clear they wouldn't help. If he wondered about these
Rackham, hero of the bugger wars. Rackham is described as simulations, he might have chosen not to speculate—and who
half-Maori. The Maori are the indigenous people of New could blame him?
Zealand, known as fierce warriors with unique weapons and
fighting styles. Mazer's combative attitude and expressed The question that bothers Ender in this chapter is whether the
belief of the importance of survival and duty fits with the end justifies the means. Ender abhors violence and blames
warlike Maori culture. Maoris had regular periods for tribal himself again and again for injuring Stilson and, especially,
warfare during the year and were known to eat their dead Bonzo. While the adults have hidden those deaths from Ender,
opponents after battles. Compared to those traditions, Ender's in his dreams Ender realizes he killed Bonzo. He knows Bonzo
training with Mazer is pretty straightforward. wanted to kill him but doesn't believe this excuses him for
killing the older boy. The final battle with the buggers is still
The previously intensive training schedules are only worse because it is impossible to know whether the buggers
accelerated now, and Ender and his whole team suffer as a would ever have attacked Earth again, so destroying their race
result of it. Any coach or teacher who worked children this cannot definitively be explained as self-defense. But in Chapter

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Ender's Game Study Guide Chapter Summaries 27

14 Ender at least resolves his personal dilemma by accepting asks Ender's help to find a place to hatch. Ender hesitates but
he is "a killer" and would "rather be alive than dead." agrees to search for a suitable place someday.

This same question troubles Graff. However, his concern is for Ender writes a book about what he learned from the buggers.
Ender. He worries that Mazer's training regime is destroying It is called Speaker for the Dead and inspires a new religion.
the boy, whom he truly loves. But Mazer, who has personally Although it was published anonymously, Peter knows who
fought the buggers, seems to have a clearer view of the end wrote it. Peter, now old and dying, asks to talk to Ender. After
goal. He also recognizes Ender's strength of character and Peter's death, Ender publishes a book "speaking" for Peter.
reassures Graff Ender will survive the training and save Then he asks Valentine to travel with him. They explore the
humanity. For him, the end clearly justifies the means. galaxy as Andrew Wiggin, "itinerant speaker for the dead," and
Valentine Wiggin, historian. Everywhere they travel Ender
carries the queen's cocoon, looking for a place where she
Chapter 15 could live.

Summary Analysis
Graff and Mazer tried to tell Ender not to blame himself for
One year later Colonel Graff is put on trial for what he did to
what happened. Still, Ender holds himself fully responsible for
Ender. He talks with Anderson after being acquitted. Graff says
what he sees as mass murder. Everyone else celebrates it as a
Demosthenes arranged it so Ender will never come back to
great military victory. He is no longer shocked by Stilson's or
Earth. Anderson asks who Locke and Demosthenes are, but
Bonzo's death, and he wonders how humanity can weigh two
Graff won't say.
deaths more heavily than millions. In war, of course, the enemy
Ender, who is now 12, knows he will never go back to Earth. side is often dehumanized. For example, American students
Watching Graff's trial, he learned of Stilson and Bonzo's are rarely asked to learn how many Germans died in World
deaths. Ender is "amused" by how seriously people take those War II although American planes bombed the civilian
two deaths: "In battle I killed ten billion buggers ... no one thinks population of Germany countless times. To people in the book,
to call it a crime." He tries to help with peace planning, but no the buggers are even more foreign and less sympathetic. The
one really listens to him. He can sometimes get his ideas entire population of buggers seems frightening and militaristic,
listened to if adults suggest them. Otherwise he spends time but when Ender explores their colony, he finds evidence of
hiding from colonists, embarrassed by their flattery. farming and caring for young. There were civilian buggers, not
just military ones. He destroyed them all.
One day Valentine arrives. She asks Ender to join her on a new
colony. Peter wanted Ender back on Earth. Valentine admits With the war over, Ender needs a new purpose. He wants to
Peter was responsible for the treaty that ended Earth's war but help shape the peace, but for the first time in many years, he is
fears he would have used Ender to take over the world. treated like a child. No one listens to his ideas and he must
Valentine made it impossible for Ender to go home. Instead, prove himself to earn people's respect as a governor. Ender's
she arranges for Ender to be governor of the first colony, with compassionate heart makes him an excellent governor. Peter
Demosthenes living in the colony anonymously. would want to rule. Ender works to reach consensus. He even
gives up power to an elected council—something Peter would
Ender is a good governor, and the colony thrives. He cedes never do.
most of his control to an elected council. One day as he
explores a new region and recognizes it from the Giant's Drink In an earlier chapter, Graff joked he wasn't sure humanity
game. He discovers the castle room where his character used should win the war. No sooner is the bugger war over than a
to die and finds a queen bugger pupa ready to hatch. He sees war breaks out on Earth—a war settled by Locke's intervention
the queen's thoughts. He realizes they found him through the with Demosthenes's support. Humanity in the book is no
ansible, which explains the strange dreams he used to have. different than in real life. On the other hand, humans look
They understood Ender didn't want to kill them. Now the queen downright primitive compared to the buggers as Ender comes

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Ender's Game Study Guide Quotes 28

to know them. of these "unspoken" rules, like "Don't hit someone who is
down," but he deliberately defies them. This appeals to Colonel
Although they look like Earth bugs, the buggers have an Graff: Ender ignores convention in order to win.
extraordinary morality. The queen tells Ender, "We did not
mean to murder, and when we understood, we never came
again." They recognized humans are thinking creatures and
"We're the wicked witch. We
retreated. They understand why the humans attacked them,
and they accept it as a consequence of their attack on Earth. promise gingerbread, but we eat
The hive queen invites humanity to take over the bugger
worlds, calling humans "adopted daughters" since power in the
the little bastards alive."
bugger world passes through the female. This portion of
Ender's Game has an almost Christian mythology. The buggers — Colonel Graff, Chapter 2
accept death and forgive those who cause it just as Jesus
forgave those who persecuted him. Although Card Colonel Graff is blunt and darkly comedic about his role in
acknowledges these interpretations, he never states which he recruiting children into the International Fleet. Here he alludes
prefers. The buggers' words to Ender actually do inspire a new to the fairy-tale "Hansel and Gretel," in which a witch tempts
religion. In fact, Card wrote a sequel to Ender's Game entitled children with a house full of gingerbread so she can eat them.
Speaker for the Dead, which explores issues of religion and Graff tempts children with glamorous stories about
belief that arise when an older Ender becomes involved with International Fleet, but their experience is traumatic, and their
the discovery of an entirely new alien species. lives are changed forever. However, Graff does not lie to or
tempt Ender. He is honest about the challenges of Battle
School.
g Quotes
"We might both do despicable
"Sometimes lies were more
things, Ender, but if humankind
dependable than the truth."
survives ... we were good tools."
— Narrator, Chapter 1
— Colonel Graff, Chapter 4

These words establish Ender's character: an extremely

perceptive child who has been repeatedly misled by adults. It Graff tells Ender their suffering may ensure humanity's survival.
also serves as foreshadowing: Ender will be lied to by adults This may be his honest perception of the risks, but he is also
throughout the book. manipulating Ender. If Graff is talking about humanity's survival,
Ender can hardly complain about loneliness.

"Ender knew the unspoken rules

"Adults are the enemy, not the
of manly warfare, even though he
other armies. They do not tell us
was only six."
the truth."
— Narrator, Chapter 1
— Narrator, Chapter 7

The narrator draws on the reader's preconceived notions

about fighting with the phrase "manly warfare." Ender is aware Petra tells Ender the teachers keep secrets from the students.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Quotes 29

Ender interprets this as a warning: adults are the real enemy.

enemy."
This line also foreshadows later events when adults lie to
Ender.
— Mazer Rackham, Chapter 14

"I've got a pretty good idea what Mazer Rackham, hero of the previous bugger war and Ender's
new teacher, gives Ender this warning. The enemy is the one
children are, and we're not who can best teach Ender. This is an interesting variation of
children." Ender's theory that adults are the enemy. Mazer says a
teacher must be an enemy for a student to learn.

— Dink, Chapter 8

"Humanity does not ask us to be

Dink, Ender's toon leader, is a teenager, but he sounds like an
old man. He identifies the worst part of Battle School: Training happy ... Survival first ... happiness
child soldiers ruins their lives. They no longer behave like
as we can manage."
children. Their lives are full of pressure and violence.

— Mazer Rackham, Chapter 14

"If you can't kill then you are

Mazer sacrificed his own happiness and life with his family to
always subject to those who can." train Ender. He says this is what was required to ensure
humanity's survival. This also means Ender cannot complain.
— Narrator, Chapter 12 There is no room for complaints if survival comes before
happiness.

After the fight with Bonzo, Ender comes to this conclusion. He

learned this from Peter: be able to kill or you will get killed. This
mentality is what the International Fleet officers want in Ender. "I won't let you beat me
It is later echoed by Graff when he justifies humanity's war
unfairly—I'll beat you unfairly first."
against the buggers.

— Ender, Chapter 14

"So the whole war is because we

Ender sees his "final examination" as an unfair battle just like
can't talk to each other." his last Battle School battle. He decides to play recklessly as
he did then. He has no idea he is fighting an actual battle and
— Ender, Chapter 13 his "unfair" play will get humans and buggers killed.

This is how Ender interprets Graff's explanation of the war

against the buggers. Ender's simple statement is, on some "Any decent person who knows
level, an accurate description of many wars in human history:
what warfare is can never go into
When the two sides cannot communicate effectively any
longer, war occurs. battle with a whole heart."

— Mazer Rackham, Chapter 14

"There is no teacher but the

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Ender's Game Study Guide Symbols 30

Mazer and Graff explain why they tricked Ender into fighting.
They made it look like a game so Ender would take chances a l Symbols
"decent" person would not take in a real battle. They couldn't
allow themselves to consider what it would do to Ender.

Buggers
"All his crimes weighed heavy on
him ... Stilson and Bonzo no Buggers represent the unknown. Fear of the unknown is a
powerful force. Everything done to Ender and the other
heavier ... than the rest."
children is justified by the bugger threat. On Earth, humanity
works together as long as they fear the buggers. Once the
— Narrator, Chapter 15 bugger war is ended, war between human factions immediately
breaks out. The buggers had vastly superior technology and
While most of humanity thinks these two human deaths are far greater numbers. They are perceived as merciless and
particularly horrifying, Ender sees them as less terrible than unstoppable. Yet when Ender finds the queen pupa, he learns
the deaths of the entire bugger population. Most humans don't they are very different from what humanity expected. When
care about bugger deaths, but Ender does. they realized humanity was a responsive species, they stopped
attacking. They anticipated humanity's attack upon their planet,
yet they accepted it as a consequence of their own actions.
The queen believes buggers and humans can live in peace
"Nobody controls his own life,
once they know each other, but Ender disagrees. He knows
Ender." humanity's fear of the unknown will keep humans and buggers
from living together easily.
— Valentine, Chapter 15

Ender resists having anyone control his life. Valentine argues Giant's Drink
all people can do is decide whether to fulfill what other people
ask of them, particularly people who love them as Valentine
loves Ender.
The Giant's Drink game represents the unwinnable scenario. In
a strategic sense, an unwinnable scenario forces students to
make decisions under pressure. It represents the reality that
"What we cannot do, you are now sometimes a leader must decide between multiple bad options.
our hands to do for us." Ender's entire life is an unwinnable scenario: He never has a
good choice. In Giant's Drink he confronts his own fears. Ender
fears he will end up like Peter, and the game uses that, but
— Hive-Queen, Chapter 15
Ender beats it. By beating the unwinnable scenario and literally
moving past "the end of the world," Ender finds a sort of
When Ender finds the queen bugger pupa, he sees her freedom. The buggers also use the game to communicate with
thoughts. The buggers forgive humanity and give their planets Ender when they are faced with their own unwinnable scenario.
to the humans, telling Ender the humans will take responsibility
for their home now. This remarkable forgiveness and
generosity inspire Ender to write Speaker for the Dead and
give his life new purpose.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Themes 31

consequences of his actions would be evident and he would

m Themes behave differently as a commander.

Increasingly powerful weapons are another danger of

technology. Bugger technology and subsequent developments
Humans' Inhumanity gives humans enough firepower to destroy the buggers' planet.
Without such technology, human ships wouldn't have been able
to find the buggers, much less destroy them. This is a common
Human beings are capable of immense cruelty and inhumanity theme in science fiction, particularly in the mid- to late-20th
when defending their own interests. Ender and the other century, when writers were exploring the consequences of
children are abused throughout the book. The children are weapons like the atomic bomb.
treated like little soldiers, separated from their families,
Technology can also give power to anonymous people "on the
prevented from having normal life experiences—all of it
nets." Peter and Valentine create false identities to shape
justified, supposedly, by the ever-present bugger threat. In real
world events. As Locke, Peter becomes a world leader
life, using child soldiers is considered a "grave violation" by the
because of how he manipulated peoples and ideas. Peter
United Nations, though it does, tragically, happen.
ultimately uses his power for good, but he and Valentine could
The most egregious example of inhumanity, of course, is the have caused a lot of problems.
bugger genocide. The author clearly does not hold Ender
responsible for it. Ender says he would not have done it if he
knew the battles were real. Yet Graff, Mazer, and the adults
who cheer Ender's last battle are all aware they just destroyed
Duality
a planet and erased a species. For them the destruction of the
buggers and their home world is fully justified by the
elimination of a potential threat to Earth and ensuring the When Ender and Valentine are at the lake, Valentine sees her
survival of humanity. brothers as "two faces of the same coin." This image reflects
the duality of both Peter and Ender's natures. Ender is a
Graff claims survival is perhaps the most human of all
sensitive and caring person, but he is responsible for
characteristics: "Nature can't evolve a species that hasn't a will
unimaginable violence. Peter is a more violent and less caring
to survive." Biologically speaking, Graff is correct. However,
person, but he drafts a peace agreement and rules on Earth
humans usually pride themselves on being more advanced
for many years, apparently without excessive violence or
than species who operate solely based on biological
bloodshed.
imperative. The author presents humanity as equally ruthless in
pursuit of its own survival. At the end of the book the buggers A similar duality is also present in Peter and Valentine's
are more accepting of humans than humans are of them, which adopted identities. The opinionated and violent Peter is
says something about the limitations of human nature. Locke—the moderate, rational persona—while Valentine, who is
much milder in real life, is the fear-mongering Demosthenes.

Power of Technology
e Suggested Reading
The book warns about the power of technology. Technology Berlatsky, Noah. "Orson Scott Card's Unconscionable Defense
distances people from reality: Ender sees the battle as a game of Genocide." Salon, Salon Media, 19 Sept. 2013.
and acts accordingly. He commits genocide because in a video
game, who worries about what happens to the enemies? Graff Kessel, John. "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game,

and Mazer admit they used technology so the children viewed Intention, and Morality." Foundation: The International Review

battle as a game. If Ender saw real ships being destroyed, the of Science Fiction, vol. 33, no. 90, 2004, pp. 81–96.

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Ender's Game Study Guide Themes 32

Reiter, Geoffrey. "Ender's Game, Genocide, and Moral

Culpability." Christ and Pop Culture, Patheos, 8 Nov. 2013.

Snow, Shane. "Orson Scott Card Talks Ender's Game in Rare

Interview." Wired, Conde Nast, 31 Oct. 2013.

Wittkower, D.E., and Lucinda Rush, editors. Ender's Game and

Philosophy: Genocide Is Child's Play. Carus, 2013.

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