Chapter 1

The novel takes an omniscient perspective opening outward from Andrew Wiggin's (Ender's) perspective, but it is punctuated by conversations between characters who are at first unknown. As the novel opens, two characters are discussing a boy and his older siblings. One says, "I tell you, he's the one." The other voice is not as sure, but he acquiesces to the first's request to "take him," because they're "saving the world, after all." Already we learn of "the buggers," or Formics, the alien enemy.

Andrew (Ender) Wiggin has been wearing a "monitor" that permits the authorities to understand his experiences from the inside. He has it taken out on the day that the book begins. Ender is extremely smart for a young boy. For instance, he understands that the nurse is lying when she says that the removal of the monitor will not hurt. He is also very cynical about such things: "Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth." Ender turns to inner discourse about whether his brother Peter will stop hating him now that Ender is without the monitor. But Ender decides that Peter will never leave him alone.

During the monitor removal, Ender feels intense pain. He needs a shot to stop the pain and muscle spasms, and the doctor is angry that "they" left the monitor in for so long. Eventually, the drug wears off. Ender keeps looking around for something without remembering what he is looking for.

When Ender returns to class, the other kids whisper about the fact that his monitor has been removed. After school, several of the kids, including the lead bully, Stilson, taunt Ender. Soon they physically attack him, but Ender manages to manipulate Stilson into fighting him alone, playing off his pride and taunting, "it takes this many of you to fight one Third?" (Ender is the third child in the family, and Thirds are looked down upon.) When the others back off, Ender kicks Stilson, taking him by surprise, and drops him with the kick. Then, Ender walks up to him and kicks him several more times, making the point that he will win decisively so that no bullies will attack him again--the others will be far too afraid of Ender to try anything. After the fight, Ender sits down and cries until his bus comes, afraid that he is becoming vicious like Peter.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 also begins with two anonymous speakers. They seem like the same two from the first chapter, and they are again discussing Ender, the removal of his monitor, and his fight with Stilson. One compares Ender to Mazer Rackham, who will turn out to be the man who beat the "buggers" in their last invasion. He remarks that "in the judgment of the committee," Ender has passed some sort of test--so long as he deals with Peter correctly now that the monitor is off. The two people also acknowledge that they are a kind of "wicked witch. We promise gingerbread, but we eat the little bastards alive." Even so, one of them says that he likes Ender.

When Ender gets home, his sister Valentine tells him that she is sorry that his monitor was removed (it suggests that he did not pass). Ender is glad is is gone. When Peter walks into the room, he immediately gets angry at Ender. Valentine says that without the monitor Ender is "like us," but Peter denies the claim because Ender wore the monitor for so long. Peter's ruthlessness comes out when he realizes that "they" can't check up on Ender through the monitor anymore, and he suggests a game of "buggers and astronauts"--Ender is always the bugger and gets beaten up by Peter. Peter pushes Ender down and presses on his groin with his foot, and then he kneels on Ender and threatens to kill him--until Valentine tells Peter that she would tell everyone that he murdered his younger brother. Even when Peter lets up, he tells the others, "So. Not today. But someday you two won't be together. And there'll be an accident." And although Valentine has left a letter in the city library saying that Peter killed her--so that, in the event of her death, the secret will be revealed--Peter calmly states that some day, Ender and Valentine will forget that they had this conversation, or will decide that he was joking, and then when Ender is killed, Valentine will believe that it was just an accident and will keep silent. Finally, Peter says that he was joking after all and that Ender and Valentine are "just the biggest suckers on the planet earth." They do not believe him.

Ender realizes that Peter is the one he should have fought, not Stilson. Valentine keeps him from doing anything. But when Peter taunts Ender, Ender points to his shoe and says, "See there, on the toe? That's blood, Peter. It's not mine." Peter disregards this fact and mocks Ender more.

When the Wiggin parents get home, Mrs. Wiggin commiserates with Ender about the monitor being removed, and Mr. Wiggin goes on and on about how happy he is that they get to keep all three children, that "they still had a Third." Ender, however, feels like his father is lying, since he is an embarrassment to his parents now, because all three children will be at home with "no obvious explanation."

That night, when Peter leaves their bunk bed to go to the bathroom, he returns and stands over Ender. Ender expects him to smother him with a pillow, but instead, Peter leans over and whispers, "Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels, I'm sorry, I'm your brother, I love you." When Peter gets back in bed and eventually falls asleep, Ender cries for the second time that day.

Analysis

The manipulation of human beings is pervasive in this society of the future. It is exemplified best by the discussion about Ender in the initial conversation between the two adults. They agree to "take him" in order to save the world, and they thus are going to start to control all aspects of Ender's life. Their desperation to ensure that he succeeds as "the one" is clear, however, so their manipulation is set up as something to be excused because it is necessary. The conversations in the beginnings of many chapters, set in different type, act as an adult counterpoint to the focus on the children's lives through their own perspective.

From the beginning, Ender is an extremely bright but very cynical young boy. He understands that the nurse is lying when she says that the monitor removal will not hurt, realizing that every time an adult says that, it means that it really will hurt. From such experiences, he infers that lies are more dependable than the truth. This is a cynical point of view for anyone, but it is especially cynical for a boy that young. The author has presented a future in which many children are not carefree anymore; indeed, Ender and his siblings, and even his classmates, seem mature far beyond their years.

Ender's real name is Andrew Wiggin, but Ender is the name he chose for himself. All but his parents tend to use it. The nickname "Ender" is significant in that it foreshadows his eventual role in ending the bugger war. Moreover, Ender "ends" many other things in addition to (soon enough) the lives of several billion buggers: he kills Stilson and will kill Bonzo, acting decisively. He also ends other parts of his life beyond the war with the buggers: he will successfully complete all the tasks set for him.

Ender is caught between the characters of Valentine, who is too good to be "the one," and Peter, who is too evil. Ender is more good than bad. Instrumentally he also is extremely good, not only because he tends to make good decisions, but also because he makes up for mistakes. Ender is kind, fair, forgiving, and will make major sacrifices for the good of the world. Ender makes hard choices that include pain and suffering beyond what we might imagine Valentine to be able to stand. Peter, on the other hand, always acts out of his own self-interest, and he is willing to be violent to achieve his ends. Even though Peter's actions sometimes yield good results, he does them for the wrong reasons.

Part of Ender's maturity is that he "knew the unspoken rules of manly warfare." This is part of the vicious streak in Ender. He decides not to follow the "rule" against kicking an opponent while he is down. Even so, he does it for the purpose of ending the fight decisively: "now, and for all time, or I'll fight it every day and it will get worse and worse." After his attack on Stilson, Ender cries for several minutes, showing that while he did the calculated, smart thing in order to win decisively, he hated it. Thus, while ruthlessness is sometimes necessary, he tends to use it only when nothing else is available. In this he is somewhere between his two siblings in temperament.

After huring Stilson, Ender thinks, "I am just like Peter. Take the monitor away, and I am just like Peter." He will remain worried, throughout the book, that he will end up like his horrible older brother. Even so, the fact of his conscience seems to make him different from Peter, who displays little effort to stop himself, at least at the beginning of the book. Peter seldom shows remorse after doing the horrible things that he does.

Ender is a "Third," and although the designation is not fully explained in the first chapter, it becomes easy to conclude that being a "Third" means being the third child in a family. (It also reflects the idea of being a "third-class" citizen.) Since Ender's family has three children, his parents are breaking the population code (with permission) by having more than the allotted two children. The government authorized his parents to have a third child, but the other children, including his brother and the kids in his class at school, mock him anyway for being a Third. Thus, they have established a pattern of isolation of Ender, giving him an independence and a loneliness that pervades his character throughout the rest of the novel.

The two voices again begin Chapter 2, and we still do not know who is who. Still, we learn a little more about them, and the important name Mazer Rackham is brought up. The first passage of Chapter 2 is important because it shows the extremes to which they are going in order to develop Ender into the "one" they want, if they can. Despite possible affection for Ender, they will do whatever it takes, even "screw him up." Interestingly, however, we still do not know what they actually need Ender for, or why he is so important to them.

Ender's reaction to Peter's "joke" about killing his siblings is interesting. Although just several hours earlier, he cried for several minutes about having to beat up Stilson, now he decides that Peter actually deserves a beating. Ender's switching back and forth between feeling remorse at his actions and wanting to recreate them is worth noting as a sign of character. He seems to be hovering between two entirely different personalities, again in between Valentine and Peter. Does Ender's personality actually switch between the two extremes, or can it survive the tension as a hybrid personality?

Up to the end of Chapter 2, Peter has only been portrayed as completely heartless. Yet, he tells Ender, when he thinks his brother is asleep, that he loves Ender and that he is so sorry that Ender's monitor was removed. This complete reversal of Peter's character gives Peter a bit of moderation in his personality. We are led to wonder if Valentine has something belligerent in her own sweet personality.

Chapter 2 introduces the first war game as a reflection of reality, the common "buggers and astronauts." Although games are often separated from reality, in Ender's Game they are completely interconnected. Many important ideas and interpreted and discovered through the games, and strategies are learned for the later real battles against the buggers. In the final battles, the boundary between game and reality is completely removed for those who have manipulated Ender. The difference between reality and games is unclear even in "buggers and astronauts"; although Peter makes it sound harmless, he intends actually to hurt Ender, and the game originated in Peter's very real jealousy and hatred of his younger brother. This hatred also reflects a reality in which much of humanity seems to hate the buggers.

The battle between good and evil is also represented in "buggers and astronauts," with Ender's bugger representing good and Peter's astronaut representing evil. This is an ironic reversal in that Ender is actually the good one, while Peter plays the human. Once again, we see the fine line that separates good and evil, in personalities as well as in actions. Peter, Ender, and Valentine will be too complex as characters to be simply good or evil in many of their actions. Ender will kill billions, but Peter probably never kills a person (though he will kill animals brutally).

Finally, the battle between good and evil is closely interconnected with the motif of sibling rivalry among the three pairs Ender and Peter, Peter and Valentine, and Ender and Valentine. Readers are led to wonder if there is some sort of sibling rivalry, rather than simple belligerence, between the humans and the buggers.

Chapter 3

Again, we hear the two anonymous voices. They are discussing what Valentine's effect will be on Ender. One speculates that she "can undo it all, from the start. He won't want to leave her." The same voice says that in order to get Ender to join them, he will lie to him, and if that will not work, he will fall back to "tell the truth."

The Wiggin parents and Peter are eating breakfast together. Ender does not feel like eating, and Valentine has not come down yet. They banter normally until a man from the I.F., the "International Fleet," rings the bell. Mr. Wiggin goes to find out what the man wants, and then he comes back to take his wife to see him. Valentine and Ender have arrived, and when Valentine is told that her parents are talking to a man from the I.F., she instinctively looks at Ender, which hurts Peter's feelings.

Mr. Wiggin brings Ender from the breakfast room to talk with the I.F. man, who questions him about his attack on Stilson. When pressed to answer why he continued kicking Ender, Ender replies that he "wanted to win all the next [fights], too. So they'd leave [him] alone," and he once again cries. The officer introduces himself as Colonel Graff, the director of primary training at Battle School, and he invites Ender to attend the school. He points out that the Wiggin parents have no choice (this was part of the deal when he was conceived), but Ender still has a choice.

Colonel Graff speaks with Ender alone, explaining that the first time Ender will get a chance to leave Battle School will be six years later, at age twelve, and everyone, including Valentine, will be different. He says, "I'm not pretending it's easy." Graff also mentions that Ender will not miss his parents for very long, and they will likewise stop missing him. Graff notes the background of Ender's parents. Both were very religious (Mr. Wiggin is Catholic; his wife, Mormon). While they are still feel their religions' call for a large family, they are ashamed of their non-compliant family. It will be easier without Ender around.

They also discuss Battle School. The studies are hard and based heavily on mathematics and computers, military history, strategy, and tactics. In the Battle Room, the children are organized into teams or "armies" and have mock battles in zero gravity. Graff answers Ender's question about whether any girls are there by saying that there are few girls, because "too many centuries of evolution are working against them"--for one thing, they tend to be too caring to pass the tests to get in. Nevertheless, since Peter was the best they had seen in a long time, they asked the Wiggin parents to "choose a daughter next," hoping that she would be like Peter but less ruthless. Since she was too mild, they requisitioned Ender to be "half Peter and half Valentine."

Finally, Graff notes that more is at stake than Ender's happiness; he is needed to defeat the buggers, who "damn near wiped us out last time." Mazer Rackham is again mentioned, and Graff calls him "the most brilliant military commander we ever found." After considering everything, Ender says, "I'm afraid. But I'll go with you." He says goodbye to his parents and Valentine--even Peter, who shakes his hand and says, "You lucky little pinheaded fart-eater." Valentine's last, anguished words are, "Come back to me! I love you forever!"

Chapter 4

This chapter again begins with the two anonymous voices. This time, they are discussing their strategy of keeping Ender isolated while teaching him both to lead and to work well with his subordinates. One of the voices tells about his plan to "have him completely separated from the rest of the boys by the time we get to the School."

The rest of Chapter 4 tells of Ender's flight to Battle School. Right from the beginning, Ender feels isolated from the 19 other boys in his launch. They are joking around and getting to know each other, but Ender does not see the humor and cannot think of any jokes himself. Instead, Ender contents himself by imagining a televised interview in which he is the spokesperson for all of the boys. Ender considers running up to one of the cameras to ask if he may tell Valentine goodbye (but this would be censored anyway, since boys going to Battle School are supposed to be stoic and brave, not missing the people left behind).

Ender orients himself to the null gravity with a game, imagining that he is climbing down a wall and that the ship is hanging onto the bottom of the planet. Ender sees Graff, who turns out to be the principal of the school. Ender is glad to see Graff manipulating his sense of gravity, but when he smiles, Graff shouts at him to explain himself. Ender's good answer leads Graff to reply that Ender is the only boy on the launch with any brains, and this statement makes the other boys look stupid, so they naturally begin to hate him.

One boy directly behind Ender hits him repeatedly on the head after taking off his seat belt. Ender accepts the beating for several minutes until he figures out how to time the hits. Ender grabs the boy's arm and pulls, sending him flying into a bulkhead and breaking his arm.

Graff again isolates Ender by reinforcing his statement that Ender is the best of the launch and that the others should not mess with him. But Ender hates himself for hurting the boy and declares that he is just like Peter. Soon, though, Ender tells himself over and over again, "I am not a killer. I am not Peter. No matter what Graff says, I'm not."

Ender sees that Graff is not going to be his friend, despite his hopes, based on the idea that Graff does not lie to him. Graff says that his job is to create a Napoleon, an Alexander, a Caesar, or a mixture of the three, plus all the subordinates he needs to save the world--but "nowhere in that does it say that I need to make friends with children." Graff adds that Ender is needed by humankind to save them; "Human beings are free except when humanity needs them." The only way for Ender to get the other boys to stop hating him is to be so good at what he does that they cannot ignore him.

Soon after, Graff meets Anderson and says, "The kid's wrong. I am his friend." He regrets that he will screw up the boy, who is good "right to the heart."

Analysis

In the initial conversation of Chapter 3, one of the anonymous voices says that he will tell Ender the truth, if necessary. At this point we still do not know "the truth," having just a vague that Ender must save the world, probably from the buggers, and that he will need to be ruthless like he was with Stilson. Again, the conversation shows the manipulation that the adults are willing to use on Ender in order to produce the results they desire.

When deciding whether or not to go to Battle School, Ender thinks about the fact that he does not actually like fighting, either Peter's kind, "the strong against the weak," or his own, "the smart against the stupid." It is interesting, therefore, that he decides to go to Battle School anyway. His reasoning is that the world needs him. He agrees with the argument, as he remembers the videos of the First and Second Invasions of the buggers, that his personal happiness is not comparable to the wellbeing of the world. Yet, he also considers Mazer Rackham, who became famous for winning in the past invasion. Ender seems to want, at this moment, that sort of recognition. In this way, Ender is a new Achilles, who must choose between the life of a warrior-commander that leads to fame, on the one hand, and on the other hand the everyday family life at home that might lead only to obscure personal happiness.

It is interesting that in the future that Orson Scott Card envisions, children are much more mature than they used to be, but no amount of social engineering has been able to do away with the basic evolutionary differences between males and females. Battle School is almost completely made up of boys, since evolution has made most girls unfit for the school. While some girls make it into Battle School, "none of them will be like Valentine." No girls in Battle School are sweet and mild; they need a certain ruthlessness that the boys also have, and this characteristic is more rare among the girls. It is important to note, however, that once in Battle School, boys and girls are treated equally and seem to have the same ability--and later, one of the most important and able characters, Petra, is a girl. She will be the one who is willing to take Ender under her wing when no one else will have him, and she will teach him much of what makes him good in battle.

The goodbyes in Ender's family as he leaves tell a lot about each character. The most obvious reflections are of Valentine and Peter. Peter tells him, "Kill some buggers for me!" which demonstrates not only his vicious nature, but also some of his brotherly affection toward Ender, which is not often portrayed: he has faith in his brother to do good for the world. Valentine tells Ender that she will love him forever, and she asks him to come back to her. This sisterly love is really the only thing that might have kept Ender from going to Battle School. If she had invoked her love so explicitly a little earlier, Ender might just have stayed; she is the one person he truly loves. The feeling is clearly mutual, and the strain on their intense bond is the saddest part of Ender's departure from Earth. It is also extremely significant that Valentine's voice is the last voice Ender hears before he leaves home to go to Battle School, because hers is the voice that will keep him going whenever he feels like giving up.

In Chapter 4, the two anonymous voices plan to isolate Ender, because they think it will make him a good, creative leader. Moreover, he cannot be too nice or else the buggers would "have us all," but he will need to be able to work well with his subordinates. Ender is only six years old, but they will completely isolate him from the other boys in terms of friendly social contact, which means essentially that the adults will make all the other children hate him. This plan will develop Ender's character in the ways they want, but it may hurt him in terms of the usual gentlemanly social virtues. The adults acknowledge that they are going to break Ender down completely, in order to force him to put himself back together. He thus will be better than if they, less intelligent than he, had tried to do it themselves. Thus, they realize that they are trying to make someone who is better than they are themselves.

The author plays with the idea of human manipulation throughout the novel: when the ends involve saving the human race, are there any means that are off limits? In this case, Ender at least is intelligent enough to understand that he is being manipulated and can choose whether or not to keep participating in his own breaking down and building up. Therefore, while we might feel horrible for Ender in some ways, we can accept Ender's wise acquiescence in choosing to be unhappy for the sake of a greater good. In general, this is the problem that a good leader has; a truly good leader would rather be enjoying his own life, but he sacrifices his individual pleasure for the sake of the community.

Indeed, Ender is essentially separating himself from the others by means of his own character. He can be manipulated by the adults because he is the kind of person who already is so much like the one they want. Ender does not laugh at the other boys' jokes, nor does he come up with his own to share. He seems to consider himself superior to them, as it seems that he always has done. When he considers his imaginary television interview, he thinks, "They think I'm smiling at their joke, but I'm smiling at something much funnier."

On the shuttle, Ender refers to the Earth as "this planet." Already it seems less special to him. This switch of Ender's point of view happens before the launch has even left Earth. Ender is extremely adept at reorienting himself whenever he needs to do so, and his ability to orient himself regardless of gravity reflects his surpassing adaptability.

Graff's colleague Anderson will become important later. When Graff tells him that Ender is Graff's friend after all, he expresses regret for screwing up a boy who is good "right to the heart." Here we see a new level of sympathy on Graff's part. Also, we now can guess that one of the anonymous voices has been that of Colonel Graff. The conversation between Graff and Anderson closely relates to many of the conversations of the anonymous characters, and later in the book, the beginning passages will name Graff as one of the voices (although it is possible that multiple others are involved, it is probably the same two or three people throughout). In any case, Ender has perceived Graff as a friend because, he says, Graff has not lied to him. It is interesting that Ender seems to think that someone who is truthful must be his friend, so perhaps Ender is lying too--we know that he sees lies as sometimes more dependable, and Graff seems to be one of those who is willing to lie to Ender to achieve the result he wants.

Ender remains unsure about his true personality, as he will throughout the novel. He still has parts of both Peter and Valentine in him, and they are constantly competing for control.

Chapter 5

Two voices are discussing Ender's incident on the flight. Graff seems to be one of the two, since the other commends him for allowing such a thing as a broken arm, even though Graff insists that it was an accident--it was too strong a reaction, and it made the other kid into a hero. Ender might be too isolated now. But they realize that they can do little for him, because if Ender comes to believe that anyone will ever help him out, he's "wrecked." Ender needs to know that there will never be an "easy way out," or else he will not become the commander they need for the upcoming war.

The boys arrive at Battle School, and Ender comes in last, so he gets the bottom bunk next to the door. He follows some directions on paper in order to activate his locker and "desk" (some kind of computer). Ender's locker includes the desk, outfits, and some kind of laser gun for freezing others during the battle games.

The boys are given an orientation, and a man named Dap says that he is the only person at the school who is paid to be nice to them. Dap warns them against fighting and the prospect of being "iced," that is, killed or sent home.

Bernard, the boy with the broken arm, starts to gather a gang of the larger boys of the launch group. "It was Ender against the gang again ... Peter again, but without Valentine." Ender feels homesick, but he is better than the others at hiding his feelings.

In school, the boys go through hours of classes, watch videos of the past invasions, and play in the game room--"what they lived for." Ender tends to go to the harder games to study tactics. After watching one game, Ender asks to play against one of the older boys, and Ender soon learns how to beat him. By the third game, Ender wins "quickly and efficiently." Some of the others start to use his tactics.

Bernard's group picks on Ender, but Ender starts planning a rival group. When Bernard makes fun of Shen for "shimmying his butt when he walks," Ender sends an anonymous message to everyone saying, "Cover your butt. Bernard is watching." Although the group continues to pick on Ender, everyone soon sees another message: "I love your butt. Let me kiss it. -Bernard." Dap seems to know who was responsible, but he takes no action. Thus, Bernard's "attempt to be ruler of the room was broken" and Ender became less isolated.

Chapter 6

Graff talks with someone who is apparently leading the International Fleet. Ender is being prepared to become the fleet's "battle commander," and the men are discussing his involvement in the "mind game." Ender keeps returning to the "Giant's Drink" part of the game, which is supposedly impossible to win: the giant gives a choice of two drinks, but the player always dies after choosing one. One boy named Pinual may have killed himself because of this game.

Back to the children's perspective, the chapter portrays the boys' introduction to the battleroom. Right away, Ender starts teaching himself the mechanics of the null gravity. He teaches himself to maneuver and does much better than the others, though he and Alai start to learn together. They also investigate their guns. With Bernard and Shen, in about 20 minutes they have "frozen" the practice suits of everyone else. These experiences help establish a friendship between Ender and Alai.

Ender plays the "mind game" and generally does well, but the game always returns to the Giant's drink. Although he figures out that the choice is pointless, Ender keeps returning and trying to find ways to beat the Giant, because the Giant talks about a "Fairyland" that the players can go to if they beat him. Finally, Ender kicks over the two glasses, jumps into the Giant's face, and digs into the Giant's eye. Eventually, the Giant falls over dead, and Ender reaches Fairyland. A bat flies up and notes that "nobody ever comes here." Ender worries that even in the game, he is a murderer--"Peter would be proud of me."

Analysis

In Chapter 5, it is interesting that Ender feels thankful to Peter for teaching him to weep silently. If Peter has done anything to help him, it has been to make Ender into the type of person who knows how to deal with an enemy. Ender has a strong exterior and a strong ability to be independent.

Others in Ender's life tend to resolve conflicts by fighting. Stilson and Peter beat Ender up, and Ender often needs to fight back. But, as in the case of Bernard, Ender is excellent at using his brain in order to fight his battles, whether he chooses violence or not. With Bernard, he breaks the computer code in order to send messages to all the other students in class. This choice of method shows Ender's maturity. Ender's strategy rips apart Bernard's gang, ending Ender's isolation without any physical violence on his part, although Bernard's group still tends to choose violence. Ender's leadership skills are starting to show in Chapter 5.

In Chapter 6, we hear of Pinual, the one child in Battle School who killed himself. It seems that the mind game led Pinual to the breaking point, most likely at the Giant's Drink. It is also significant that despite the harshness of the training, no other students have passed their breaking point to such a degree.

In the battleroom, when Ender jumps to join Alai, he is not thinking about taking away Bernard's friend and support system--or building his own--but that is essentially what he does by bridging the gap between them. When they make the plan to shove off each other in the air, and Alai asks, "OK?" he is asking whether it is okay for them to work together. Ender's reaction is to "take Alai by the wrist and get ready to push off." These two boys, in effect, are the reason for the sudden "cure" of the "disease" that the fleet commander thinks their launch group has. Now, it is not Ender's group versus Bernard's group, but they are all combined under Alai, and Alai can offer a certain amount of social protection to Ender. Alai is quickly chosen as the chief officer for their launch group. "Now others might believe that Ender had joined [Bernard's] group, but it wasn't so. Ender had joined a new group. Alai's group. Bernard had joined it too." At this stage in their training, Alai is the "commander" of their launch group, being more the kind of person who the raw recruits will stand behind. But Ender's leadership ability is developing, and he already is choosing to train with people when he can, rather than doing it alone. In zero gravity, one even needs a partner in order to do certain maneuvers. Ender is clearly the teachers' pick for commander of the International Fleet in the bugger war, and eventually the other students will realize that he also is their pick.

The "mind game" that is introduced in this chapter is another of the games bordering on reality. While it is just a game, Ender remains engrossed in and almost obsessed with it and the need to beat it. It is not clear that the game ever ends, however; the computer can always add new scenarios. The Giant's Drink, at least in Ender's case, is designed so that he only can win by breaking the rules--he has to refuse to drink the Giant's Drink but instead attack his eye. The first time Ender broke the rules in such a "game" was against Stilson, when he chose not to follow the "rules of combat" and kicked Stilson when he was down. We will see, later on, that whenever Ender grows desperate, he breaks the everyday rules in order to win. When he breaks those rules, he is taking himself out of the normal interpersonal relationships that the rules are designed to protect. In the final battleroom battle, Ender will choose to circumvent the game's rules by performing the victory ritual before actually winning the game by freezing the opponents; finally, he will destroy the buggers by shooting the Dr. Device at their homeworld, something no one expected him to do.

Ender continues to be a very fast and very able learner. His curiosity leads him to concentrate on solving puzzles, learning how to use new items and techniques, and watching others in order to learn from their mistakes and their successes. Ender seems to be able to succeed no matter how difficult the challenge, but readers should remember that the adults are carefully manipulating the challenges he faces so that he learns quickly without being broken. After all, he remains six years old.

Chapter 7

Two adult voices, Graff and General Levy, discuss Ender once again. The General is not sure that they want a boy who would dig through the Giant's eye, but Graff points out that "what matters is that he won the game that couldn't be won." They decide to promote him from the launch group ahead of his time. They also note that the children seem less like children and more like "history. Napoleon and Wellington. Caesar and Brutus."

At dinner, Alai and Ender discuss Ender's ability to manipulate the desks' security system. Ender agrees to help Alai with his desk, but when they return to the barracks, Ender finds that he has been transferred to Salamander Army. He is upset to be promoted, now that he has a true friend. He hugs Alai "almost as if he were Valentine," and Alai whispers "Salaam" and kisses him on the cheek. Ender appreciates the tenderness and senses that the kiss and word are somehow sacred to his friend.

On the way to Salamander, Ender visits the Game Room to play the mind game. He starts in Fairyland and finds himself on a playground surrounded by children. They laugh and taunt him, and when he leaves the playground and wanders into a forest, they follow him, transform into wolves, and kill him. Ender figures out that he needs to drown them one by one in order to move on. This leads him to a door to the "End of the World." The door opens onto a cliff, and Ender notices the beauty around him. Surrounded by such perfection, he does not care whether he dies or not in the game, so he jumps off the cliff. A cloud catches him and takes him to a room in a castle with no apparent exit other than windows that look out "over a certainly fatal fall." A snake there says, "I am your only escape. Death is your only escape." At this point, Ender's screen tells him that he is late for Salamander Army.

At Salamander, he is mocked for being so small, and only Petra Arkanian is friendly even though his reputation has preceded him. His commander, Bonzo Madrid, has "beautiful black eyes and slender lips," but Bonzo will not let him participate in any battles or practices, being worried that Ender will hurt Salamander's good record. When Petra mocks him by saying, "He's all heart," Bonzo slaps her across the face, leaving drops of blood where his fingernails cut her. Petra offers to teach Ender things that he should know as a soldier, in the battleroom during free time. Ender accepts and thanks her; she will be his friend.

When Ender meets up with Petra outside the battleroom after breakfast the next day, they talk about the mechanics of the battlerooms and the fact that the teachers do not tell the children everything. The realization that the teachers lie about some things brings Ender to the conclusion that the other armies and the other children are not the real enemy; the teachers are. Petra teaches Ender how to shoot.

In the battleroom, Ender learns by watching Bonzo and the soldiers. He studies the way Bonzo commands, learning both what to do and what to do differently. He also considers the formation of the toons, the subgroups of soldiers in the army (generally in groups of ten with one leader): the toons are too formal, too rehearsed, while more fluidity would give them an advantage.

That night, Ender goes back to his old Launchie barracks to get his younger friends to practice with him. He teaches them techniques from the armies and practices his new skills. Bonzo disapproves but technically can do nothing, so they come to an understanding in Ender's favor, but one that saves face for Bonzo before the other soldiers.

Ender watches Salamander battle ineptly with Condor, although the game is fairly even. He quickly discovers that the most obvious and useful orientation in the null gravity is to consider the enemy's gate as "down," and he maintains this orientation throughout the rest of the novel. This idea alone gives him an advantage. In the battle, he is shot, and he instinctively pulls his legs up to ensure that only his legs get frozen. Thus, most of his body remains mobile, and he is only scored as "damaged." The game is so close that Ender could have given Salamander a draw if he had been allowed to participate.

Ender continues practicing with Petra and observes two more battles. On his birthday, he remembers home and Valentine, becoming extremely homesick for a night. The next morning, in a battle with Leopard (commanded by Pol Slattery), Ender notes some of Pol's good ideas, such as keeping his army constantly moving. Ender feigns being frozen, and at the end he breaks his orders, shoots several Leopards, and forces a draw.

Bonzo trades him to the Rat Army, led by "Rose de Nose," even though Ender has usually been at the top of the standings of individual players. Bonzo also slaps him hard across the face and socks him in the stomach. Ender tells Petra that they can no longer practice together, leaves, and signs up for a self-defense class, just in case Bonzo or someone else tries to beat him up.

Chapter 8

The opening conversation is between Major Anderson and Graff. Graff tells Anderson to think of every possible way to alter the battleroom--unfair positioning of stars, uneven forces, late notification--to force Ender to become the best commander he can be within the shortest amount of time. Anderson worries that changing the battleroom will ruin the whole school, so Ender better be "the one." Graff points out, however, that if it is not Ender, there will be no adequate commander when their fleet arrives at the bugger homeworlds. Major Anderson threatens to tell the Hegemon and the Strategos what Graff is doing, but he relents.

Ender arrives at the disorderly Rat barracks. Rose de Nose is Jewish, and due to a superstition that Jewish generals never lose wars, Rose has an attitude. Rose's only three rules are "Do what I tell you and don't piss in the bed." The third rule is implied: winning each game is the most important thing. Rose encourages him by ordering him not to practice with his Launchie group or use his desk until he has frozen two enemy soldiers in the same battle. Again, Ender's reputation has preceded him; Dink Meeker chose him for Dink's toon in Rose's army. Dink tells Ender to ignore Rose's orders; his toon works independently of Rose's commands anyway.

Rose is surprised to learn that Ender's high individual standings are due to Bonzo's restrictions, which kept Ender unfrozen but out of the fighting. He tells Ender, "You're not only short and incompetent, you're insubordinate, too." In their first battle, Rose tells Ender to jump through as soon as the door opens and go straight toward the enemy's gate. Ender freezes several of the Centipede Army soldiers before becoming disabled. This success leads to a new strategy across the school: instant emergence into the room. As Ender joins in the fighting, his standing sinks to fourth place, but he soon learns enough to make it back to first place.

Ender talks with Dink one day, and Dink notes his own realization that the teachers are the enemy. Dink also explains that he has read old books about "normal" kids, which showed him that the Battle School boys are not "normal." "Children aren't in armies, they aren't commanders, they don't rule over forty other kids, it's more than anybody can take and not get crazy." Dink notes that no one there ever cries or talks about home.

For Ender, some of the other students do seem to be the enemy. Some commanders suggest that Launchies who practice with Ender will be blackballed, and those who do practice with him get bullied. The remaining Launchies in training are confronted by the older boys, which starts a fight in the battleroom. Ender's hand-to-hand combat training helps him do well in the fight.

Ender returns to his desk to play the fantasy game. At the room in the tower, he again sees the snake and grabs it. He finds a mirror, but when he looks he sees Peter's face with blood "dripping down his chin and a snake's tail protruding from a corner of his mouth." Ender is startled and tries to move or break the mirror. Finally he throws the snake at the mirror and shatters it, but dozens of tiny snakes came out and bite Ender, killing him. Ender gives up for the moment.

The next day, several commanders back up Ender regarding his extra practice sessions. They agree to defend his sessions and the students. That night, 45 boys show up instead of the usual 12.

Ender dreams about the mind game and is disturbed that the computer knows so much about him. He insists to himself that the "game tells filthy lies. I am not Peter. I don't have murder in my heart." Ender's biggest fear is that he is a killer, and he considers that what makes the teachers and the generals like him so much is that in addition to his skills, they need a killer for the bugger wars.

Analysis

Ender thinks that Alai's whisper of the word "Salaam," and his kiss on Ender's cheek, might be a part of some forbidden or repressed religion. Ender remembers the only other time someone showed such sensitivity to him, when his mother prayed over him when he was just a baby. The word "Salaam" literally means "peace," but in this book it is used in a special context, suggesting tenderness between two best friends. While Ender does not know what the word exactly means, he realizes its importance to Alai, and he sees its significance for their friendship. "That was what Alai had given him; a gift so sacred that even Ender could not be allowed to understand what it meant." Ender thinks that after something so sacred, nothing can be said, so the two best friends share a look of understanding and then Ender leaves. This moment, like Ender's departure from Valentine, is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the book. Ender and Alai, at this point, share a deep friendship, and it is a shame that Ender is being made so independent that he will not be able to maintain the friendship later. In the place of Alai, but in a much lesser quality of relationship, Ender becomes friends with Petra. Ender and Petra also train together, and their friendship tends to be more instrumental.

Throughout the novel, Ender tries to avoid violence but always ends up getting dragged back in. He originally walks away from the taunting children in the fantasy game, but when they turn into wolves and kill him repeatedly, he must figure out a way to kill them. The computer makes him kill them somewhat gruesomely in order to proceed, and Ender complies rather than give up the game. This pattern is, in some ways, much like the bugger war; in the war, Ender must use violence to kill the buggers, even though he hates to fight.

By this point, the computer is providing scenarios that no other student has encountered. This part of the game is solely Ender's game, and the symbols in the game directly reflect Ender's life and mind. Ender really is at the "End of the World" in that the future of humankind seems to rest on him. Ender proves willing to jump into the abyss, but he does so without the hope of surviving; he is content with the beauty and willing to see what happens. In the bugger war and some of the battles, Ender must be willing to jump "down" and do the best he can, regardless of the usual rules.

In the castle, Ender refuses to accept the snake's claim that death is his only escape. He has escaped before, without death, and he will continue to fight on.

As Ender is walking to his new barracks for the first time, he ponders whether, after he finds a way out of the tower, the "end of the world" actually means that he could just live a normal life in one of the villages he could see below. He realizes that he has never really "just lived," and he wants to try. It is extremely sad that such a young boy, not quite seven, has never had a "normal life" and probably never will. But this is again the soldier's choice: he has foregone domestic tranquility in order to be a "tool" of society and serve a greater good.

Ender continues to remember his launch group, training with them in his free time. Even though the Launchies are so mature for being so young, Ender stretches them beyond what the adults have perceived they are capable of achieving. Ender can teach what Petra taught him, but he also teaches what he has learned on his own initiative. Those who train with Ender have an advantage.

In Chapter 8, we learn for the first time that the humans are going to be invading the bugger homeworlds, instead of the other way around. We now see that Ender needs to be developed into an aggressive, attacking commander rather than merely a defensive one. All the civilians have been assuming that the next bugger war would be another invasion of Earth, but the International Fleet officers know otherwise. This is another example that supports Ender's belief that the teachers are the enemy; they never tell the children the whole story.

Dink Meeker is just as important to Ender's development as Petra was. Dink's acceptance of Ender's talent is important in that his abilities are being supported by his immediate superior. Dink not only lets Ender participate in the battles, but also uses Ender's ideas and tactics when teaching his toon new strategies. Dink is unusually willing to let the younger boy contribute to his battle plan; he recognizes Ender's worth, and he often studies Ender's practices with his launchies to get new ideas. Thus, Dink not only becomes Ender's friend and mentor, but also he becomes one of Ender's followers. This relationship will be extremely important later in the novel as the teachers build Ender's team for commanding their fleet.

Dink is also an important character because he is the only one at Battle School who talks to Ender about life back home. This conversation becomes an outlet for Ender to miss Valentine. Dink also expresses significant facts about Battle School, like the fact that no one ever cries and that pretty much everyone is crazy. He is willing to discuss his frustrations with the setup of the school, and his distrust of the teachers closely mirrors Ender's. Dink deals with the situation by refusing to become a commander. Ender, on the other hand, thinks that Dink should become commander in order to change the way things are done.

Dink also shows that he has been thinking more broadly, telling Ender, "Listen, Ender, if the buggers were coming back to get us, they'd be here. They aren't invading again. We beat them and they're gone." He suggests that the only reason the IF are claiming that there is still going to be a bugger war is to remain in power--this is a classic manipulation of the population by means of fear--but Ender does not agree. Ender decides, "The buggers were real. The threat was real." And while Ender is right that the buggers are still out there, Dink is right in saying that the buggers are not planning to invade against humanity again. One of the most important outcomes of the conversation, however, is that it plants an additional seed of doubt in Ender's mind. He will "listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise." He already has been discounting what people explicitly say in favor of determining what they actually value, but he is starting to do so on a wider, more strategic level.

Chapter 8 ends with Ender's question to himself, "What difference does it make if I hate the part of me that you most need? What difference does it make that when the little serpents killed me in the game, I agreed with them, and was glad"--this is a terrifying question for a seven-year-old. The teachers should be worried about his being suicidal, like Pinual, as they were when he kept returning to the Giant's Drink. Ender knows he is being manipulated to develop a part of himself that he hates, and he would prefer to live a peaceful life or even to die in obscurity rather than kill mercilessly. Still, Ender needs to be reminded that while he does have some of Peter in him, it is also Valentine's personality inside him that makes him maximally valuable to the teachers.

Chapter 9

The opening conversation is between Colonel Graff and Major Imbu, who seems to be the head of the computer system--or at least the fantasy game--at Battle School. Graff wants Imbu to explain why Peter Wiggin's face appeared in Ender's game scenario, but Major Imbu does not know; Ender is beyond the "End of the World," and someone else programmed the computer to go wherever it thinks best. Imbu suggests that the End of the World represents Ender's desire to end something about his life. Besides, the computer works to help, not harm, the players.

The first half of Chapter 9 focuses on Valentine and Peter Wiggin. Valentine is celebrating Ender's eighth birthday in the woods near their new house in North Carolina. Only Valentine seems to remember Ender. As for Peter, the natural setting has only somewhat calmed his violence; Valentine saw a skinned squirrel (Peter's terrible work) one day. Somehow his teachers call him "a model student," but she sees him as a fraud who is now simply better at getting away with everything. Peter comes by, and Valentine considers that he "always, always, acted out of intelligent self-interest ... so, to keep herself safe, all she had to do was make sure it was more in Peter's interest to keep her alive than to have her dead."

Peter says that he has been tracking Russia's passenger and freight train schedules for three years, and it seems that over the last six months, Russia has been moving troops and preparing for a land war. Valentine considers that Peter often uses her to test his ideas, "to refine them," and that although she and Peter rarely agree about "how the world ought to be," they usually agree about what the world "actually was." Though he is twelve and she is ten years old, they are good at sifting the accurate information out of the generally inaccurate news. Peter notes that in a war, since the "shields" prevent the use of nuclear weapons, the humans would "have to kill each other thousands at a time instead of millions."

Peter takes the situation as an opportunity. He proposes that they begin writing anonymously, in two different personas, to try to influence world politics. After all, they write like adults, and on "the nets," no one has to know who they are. Peter essentially wants to rule the world, so he wants to produce a unified world of peace for him to rule. Valentine convinces their father to let them use his adult account so that they can get into the international debate columns. They practice by using "throw-away personas," getting the hang of adult language and style, refining away any childish tendencies or arguments. Once they are ready, the create permanent personas: Peter is "Locke," the levelheaded peacemaker, while Valentine is "Demosthenes," the anti-Russian warmonger.

They plan out debates for their personas and then post them as though they were not planned. After seven months, Valentine/Demosthenes and then Peter/Locke are asked to write newsnet columns. Valentine is dismayed that people often agree with Demosthenes over Locke--including her father, who quotes Demosthenes at the breakfast table.

Meanwhile, a year has passed since Ender was promoted and then traded to Rat Army. Things have "gone sour" in that Ender has respect but no camaraderie with his old friends. They treat him now as a commander and teacher but not as one of them. Ender still cannot get past the castle's mirror in the fantasy game.

Valentine is commissioned by Graff to try to help Ender, though he is unsure what she can do. He tells her about the fantasy game and Peter's picture, but Valentine does not understand why Peter's picture would show up--she thinks Ender and Peter are nothing alike, since Peter is evil while Ender is good and would never hurt anyone. Graff suggests that Peter and Ender are more alike than she realizes. She says that she often reassured Ender that he was not like Peter, so Graff suggests that she write to Ender to reassure him once again. She does, and later she regrets selling out her brother, despite receiving a high civilian award for her service.

Ender receives the letter, which includes signals proving that it is really Valentine's writing. But he grows upset when he realizes that Valentine has become "one of them now," agreeing to the adults' plan. He perceives that the adults now know all about his feelings about being like Peter and about the mirror in the game.

Ender returns to the game and enters the castle room at the End of the World. This time he kisses the snake on the mouth instead of killing it. It turns into Valentine, and when they touch the mirror together, the wall parts and allows them through. He thinks that "wherever he went in this world, Valentine was with him." He is distressed that the snake was Valentine all along while he kept killing it.

Chapter 10

Graff and Anderson discuss their plan to promote Ender to commander at age 9, even though most students must wait until age 11. They sadly perceive that now that Ender is finally happy, they will ruin him again--for the sake of saving the world.

Ender becomes commander of a reconstituted army called Dragon, which had been known for poor scores. Ender's soldiers are mainly young and inexperienced soldiers. When Ender arrives at his army's barracks, he immediately goes to work forming them into a respectable force. He hustles them out the door to practice after just three minutes, despite the fact that some of the boys are still naked.

Ender trains them to jump quickly into the battleroom, and he reminds them to think of the enemy gate as down. One small child, Bean, is very smart and takes the training well. This situation reminds Ender of his own experience, and it seems to him that he is isolating Bean just as Ender himself was isolated before. After practice, Bean corners Ender and says in Ender-like fashion, "I can be the best man you've got, but don't play games with me ... Or I'll be the worst man you've got. One or the other." Bean and Ender share a conversation characterized by respect, though Ender hides his respect for Bean. He senses that he is becoming mean like Bonzo: "Everything I hated in a commander, and I'm doing it."

The adults pass a new rule stating that soldiers may only practice with their own armies and that Ender's army may only hold an extra practice once every four days. The teachers are again isolating Ender by keeping him from relying on Alai and Shen in the training sessions. Alai and Ender later discuss how they are "enemies" now--they are now colleagues at best, and Ender feels as though he has truly lost his friend. Ender says "Salaam" to Alai, but Alai answers, "Alas, it is not to be," explaining that they no longer share peace. These words remind Ender of Biblical words his mother read to him when he was very young: "Think not that I am come to bring peace on earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword." Even so, the memory of the friendship, "the kiss, the word, the peace[were] so intense that they can't tear him out. Like Valentine, the strongest memory of all." Sadly, Ender perceives that Alai is "glad of the separation, and was ready to be Ender's enemy." Ender once again sulks over Valentine and the idea that she was made a stranger to him when she was persuaded to write him that letter.

Analysis

The fantasy game at the beginning of Chapter 9 has outrun the ability of humans to manipulate or control it. Major Imbu cannot tell Graff what the "End of the World" means or why Peter's face has been showing up in Ender's mirror. The computer is automatically cleared to get a recent picture of Peter, while the officers of the I.F. would have to requisition one. Moreover, the power that the fantasy game has in the students' lives at Battle School is astounding, considering that no one really understands it. Someone in the past programmed it, so it is unclear why the teachers trust it to only help the students. Can technology really be reliable enough to trust with the independent development of a child's mind and character? Graff also is extremely surprised when Major Imbu says that the computer is essentially making up the plan as it goes along. How far into the future can it plan, after all? And if Ender is unique, it seems that the computer needs to let Ender be in charge of his own game to some degree, since Ender's ability might outstrip the ability of the computer.

It is curious that Valentine will play Demosthenes (named after the ancient Greek general) while Peter will play Locke (named after the modern political theorist). Valentine understands that Peter is using the warlike persona as a way to control her--she will need help from Peter understanding Demosthenes' point of view--but at the same time, Peter now needs Valentine to in order to write as Locke. In fact, both Peter and Valentine will become more moderate in their views after writing in the guise of people with opposite opinions. Valentine admits that she has started occasionally thinking like Demosthenes, and soon she can write his pieces without Peter. Peter also seems to pick up how Locke would think and write, and it is reasonable to assume that Locke's "personality" has softened some of Peter's more ruthless characteristics. Even so, from the beginning Peter and Valentine may have had more in common than they ever thought. More generally, the ability to think from the perspective of one's enemy is essential to peacemaking, and in battle against the buggers, it will be essential in war.

At the room in the castle at the End of the World, Ender realizes that the sour taste that had come to him was despair. At this point, Ender has lost all hope, all desire to keep striving at Battle School. There is no one to pick him up or remind him why he works as hard as he does. No one reminds him that his life matters--that he is going to save the world. Most importantly, no one is his friend, because everyone is too busy being his student or his teacher. Ender is living inside a huge training game, and he has had enough of it. It is not the life he wants.

Valentine tells Graff that "if there's ever anybody who was the opposite of Ender, it's Peter," so she does not understand why Peter's picture would show up in the mirror in Ender's fantasy game. Unlike Peter, Ender does not want to take over the world. But both do have a ruthless streak, and Ender's continuing identity crisis comes in his recognition that he has something of Peter's viciousness after all. Valentine has often taken up the responsibility of reassuring Ender that he is not like Peter, but in doing so, she has hidden from herself the fact that they do have something in common. It is important to point out, however, that Ender's viciousness shows itself in times of necessity, whereas Peter's is just a common part of his personality. When Valentine says that the two brothers are opposites, neither she nor Ender knows that Ender killed Stilson. All they know is that he hurt Stilson badly and that Stilson essentially deserved it. Graff, knowing that Ender has killed before, is in a better position to see that Ender could be like Peter. Peter has killed a squirrel, but he has probably never killed a person, despite his threats. But Graff encourages Valentine to reassure Ender once again, for the sake of putting off until later the major character crisis that Ender faces.

It is interesting that Ender and Valentine share a similar reaction to the fact that she wrote the letter to him for the International Fleet. He feels like she betrayed him, that she became one of them, just another tool for Graff, and she feels the same way, saying that they "paid" her for selling out her brother. Despite their disgust, Ender does change after reading her letter, understanding that Valentine did intend to help him. In the game, he chooses to kiss the snake instead of killing it, choosing love over hate.

Graff needs a commander who is willing to kill, but Ender is not ready to accept that he can be a killer. He has to move on in the game by choosing love. He will have to become ready to do whatever is necessary to end the war, it seems, but he is not ready to become the necessary killer. Being a killer just sends him into loneliness and despair. but At this point, the letter from Valentine brings back Ender's kindness, not his ruthlessness.

In Chapter 10, Ender isolates Bean in his first day as commander the same way that Graff did to him on their flight to Battle School. Even while he is doing it, he does not understand why-he asks himself, "What does this have to do with being a good commander, making one boy the target of all the others? Just because they did it to me, why should I do it to him?" He decides that he cannot undo it, needing to preserve his authority, because "on the first day, even his mistakes had to look like part of a brilliant plan."

Why does Ender isolate Bean? Bean's isolation might be painful for him, but it might also unite the rest of the army around a common enemy. Besides, Ender knows that his own isolation has made him more independent and a better commander. As Graff says many times throughout the book, Ender must understand that no one will be there to catch him. He must be able to handle everything himself. Isolation forces one to struggle, to earn friendship and respect by proving that one is better than everyone else, and Ender probably realizes that Bean also needs this isolation in order to prepare for the war.

Bean is clearly the youngest of the group, but he is just as obviously the smartest, and he is very talented in the battleroom. Although the two are in many ways different, Ender and Bean are also very alike, and, Bean has the makings of a commander. (In a sequel, Ender's Shadow, Bean is the International Fleet's backup commander in case Ender cannot serve.) Ender might also have a fear of competition, although the age difference suggets that Ender is simply doing what he can to make Bean as good as he can be.

Ender analyzes his actions himself, after the conversation with Bean in the corridor:

That's what I'm doing to you, Bean. I'm hurting you to make you a better soldier in every way. To sharpen your wit. To intensify your effort. To keep you off balance, never sure what's going to happen next, so you always have to be ready for anything, ready to improvise, determined to win no matter what. I'm also making you miserable. That's why they brought you to me, Bean. So you could be just like me. So you could grow up to be just like the old man ... Well, what I've done to you this day, Bean, I've done. But I'll be watching you, more compassionately than you know, and when the time is right you'll find that I'm your friend, and you are the soldier you want to be.

Ender clearly sees much of himself in Bean and, in describing the plan of training, demonstrates his understanding of what has been done to Ender himself.

In his actions and attitude toward Bean, Ender is becoming much like Graff. He is beginning to perceive that manipulation can be an important part of a soldier's experience at Battle School, even though he prefers that his commanders be honest in his own case.

Chapter 11

Colonel Graff and Major Anderson are talking. Anderson notes that the computer has finished setting a schedule of battles and game alterations to further stack the deck against Ender. Graff is hesitant to give Dragon Army their first battle after only about three weeks (most armies get three months). But Anderson points out that the computers have predicted that Ender's army would be ready. Graff reamins distressed about ruining Ender's life outside of his Spartan training.

Ender believes his army is ready for battle. In their first battle against Rabbit Army, commanded by Carn Carby, Ender gives his toons general directions, but he lets the toon leaders direct their own soldiers. Dragon Army destroys Rabbit magnificently, proving the quality of Ender's training regimen. Ender lines up his army in formation, and Carn Carby congratulates Ender with dignity and honor.

At practice later that morning, Ender points out several things that they could have done better during the battle, and then he sets them to work. Ender eats lunch for the first time in the Commander's mess, and he notices that Dragon Army is first in all of the rankings on the scoreboard. Dink sits with him and warns him not to get too cocky. Ender wonders whether Petra and Dink are still his friends, but Carn talks with Ender with respect: "Usually new commanders are cheered when they first join the mess. But then, usually a new commander has had a few defeats under his belt before he first makes it in here."

Ender wakes up later than usual the next morning, and after his shower, he notices a slip of paper announcing a battle against Petra's Phoenix Army (his previous army) in half an hour. It is unprecedented to have two battles in two days, but Dragon wins handily and Petra becomes furious and humiliated.

After seven battles in one week--all victories--Ender's Dragon Army remains at the top of the rankings. The other commanders are divided between those who try to learn from Ender and those who try to learn how to beat Dragon by talking with the beaten commanders. Some of them hate him, and some students turn violent. Ender despises them and fears them, since he is reminded of Peter's violent jealousy.

Ender studies videos of the first two bugger invasions, trying to learn from the bugger formations and the fleets that beat them back. Most of the films are meaningless propaganda, however. The other commanders start going to the library too, but the videos are not very revealing to anyone. Ender finds it strange that despite all of the talk about Mazer Rackham, the hero of the Second Invasion, there is little actual video from his battle. All they show is Mazer's fleet being horribly outnumbered by the bugger ships, then one shot from Mazer's cruiser, one enemy ship being destroyed, and the end of the battle with soldiers entering the bugger ships to find them already dead.

It is just one week after Dragon's first battle when Graff and Anderson ask him how his army is doing. Ender replies that all are now veterans, and although they are tired and not really studying for class, they have not yet reached their limits. Graff asks why Ender no longer plays the fantasy game, and Ender replies that he won--but Graff says, "You never win everything in that game." Finally, after Graff says that they want to make Ender as happy as possible, Ender retorts that they only want to make him the best soldier possible--and considering his rankings, they are succeeding.

Dragon immediately is sent to fight Bonzo's Salamander Army. It is their second battle of the day, and Salamander was told about the battle far ahead of time and already was in ambush position. Ender sets up his soliders in pairs, freezing one in a kneeling L as a shield for the other. The pairs achieve vast amounts of damage, and Ender's army still wins. Ender has Bean openly tell Bonzo what he should have done. Ender also tells Anderson that next time, he should be given a good enemy. Ender thaws both armies and storms out without waiting for Bonzo's "dignified surrender." Bonzo takes this act as an insult to his Spanish pride, and he hates Ender even more.

That night, Ender asks Bean why the two of them were promoted while they were so young, and Bean reluctantly replies, "Because they need us, that's why. Because they need somebody to beat the buggers. That's the only thing they care about." Ender emphasizes the importance of this understanding--too many people think that the game is important for itself, not because it shows the teachers who might make good commanders of the fleet. Both boys are getting tired, and though Bean tells him, "They can't break you," Ender says, "You'd be surprised." Bean realizes that Ender is confiding in him. Bean is given his own toon and a high degree of independence.

Chapter 12

The opening conversation is between Colonel Graff and a head of the I.F. military police, General Pace. Pace is worried about how Graff is dealing with the situation between Ender and some of his antagonists led by Bonzo Madrid. Ender cannot be hurt so badly that he cannot command. But Graff emphasizes that Ender can never believe that the teachers will help him out.

At practice, Bean tries out a thin wire that allows him to change direction in midair in a surprising way. On their way back to the barracks after the long practice, Ender notices a large number of older boys, mainly from hostile armies, hanging out in the corridors. Petra warns him that Bonzo and others are planning on trying to kill him, but Ender is already aware of the danger. Dink also warns him never to be alone. Thus both of his old friends show their concern. Ender's toon leaders guard him that day, and at night, Ender dreams that Stilson and his buddies tie him up and beat him badly.

The next morning's battle is one of the hardest yet. Pol Slattery's Badger soldiers actually thaw after being frozen for about five minutes. Dragon wins, and Pol complains that Dragon should not have been disadvantaged unfairly.

Afterwards, Ender is alone in the shower, and his absence from the Commanders' Mess is noticed. Seven older boys, led by Bonzo and including Bernard, enter. Ender calls on Bonzo's honor to trick Bonzo into telling the other boys to let him fight Ender alone--who would need six friends against a naked boy? Bonzo protects his honor and strips naked to even the playing field. Ender turns on the shower, letting the soap make him too slippery to hold. Ender pretends to ask Bonzo to stop, and then when Bonzo attacks him, he twists in Bonzo's grasp and shoves his head into Bonzo's nose. At that point, Ender realizes that he could have escaped, but again it was more important to win decisively. Thus, he continues beating Bonzo, kicking him in the chest and then kneeing him in the crotch. Bonzo shows no reaction and simply collapses. Bonzo's friends leap to help him. Ender leaves and tells Dink, crying, "I didn't want to hurt him! Why didn't he just leave me alone!"

Ender sleeps and wakes that evening to notice that his army is to battle Griffin and Tiger Armies simultaneously. Ender is physically and mentally exhausted, and does not want to fight, but when Ender tells his army, they are excited. In the battleroom, there is a cube of four "stars" directly in front of Ender's gate, so he cannot see the enemy. For reconnaisance, he sends Bean around with the thin wire. After the report, Ender decides to throw them off by using a formation instead of their normal fluid attack. The formation distracts the armies, leaving open a path to victory at the enemy gate. Dragon soldiers perform the closing "victory" maneuver and win on that technicality. Anderson then changes the rules to prevent such a "win" from happening again. Ender and many of the soldiers complain to Anderson about the recent unfairness of the battles. That night, when Crazy Tom asks about practicing, Ender replies that they will never practice again, because he does not "care about the game anymore! ... The game is over."

Later that night, Bean visits Ender in his room, noting that he has been promoted to commander of Rabbit Army. Bean insists that the teachers can never break Ender down, but Ender replies that they already have. Graff and Anderson enter, and Graff says that Ender's "display of temper" in the battleroom was "insubordinate," but Bean responds that it is about time somebody told the teachers how everyone has been feeling. The officers give Ender notice that he is being promoted, beyond several levels of training, straight to Command School. Bean is left to say goodbye to Ender's army, and Bean cries from the pain of never being able to see Ender again.

On the shuttle home, Ender is accompanied by Graff and Pace. Anderson is now in charge of Battle School, and Colonel Graff has been assigned to go back to Earth with Ender for a "short landside leave." In Florida, Earth's gravity and all of his surroundings disorient Ender. "He wanted to go back home, back to the Battle School, the only place in the universe where he belonged."

Chapter 12, unlike the others, ends with another conversation between two adults, probably Imbu and Anderson. They are discussing Ender's situation and reveal that Bonzo was actually killed during the fight.

Analysis

The chapters get longer toward the end of the book, and much of the excitement in the chapters comes from the battle scenes, which are provided in detail. The important thing about the battles is that despite extremely difficult conditions, Ender's army continues to win and to improve. Still, readers can enjoy the smart maneuvers that Ender develops, expressing an increasing ability that we already know very well.

When Colonel Graff and Major Anderson talk, they are concerned not only about the war of buggers and humans. They also worry about the fact that Russia is angry that some of the "active citizens on the nets" are talking about how the United States should use the International Fleet to break up the Warsaw Pact after the bugger war is over. The most prominent "active citizen" is Demosthenes, and Locke might also be a concern to the Russians, although he is more moderate. The world can be united for a time when there is a common enemy, but the underlying tensions remain, and they will resurface after the enemy is no longer a threat (if not before). After the war, it will matter which nations control the International Fleet.

It is dramatic irony when Graff calls Demosthenes and Locke, and therefore Valentine and Peter, "short-sighted, suicidal people," and that he implies that pushing Ender "to the edge of human endurance" is too much of a sacrifice in order to save the lives of such people. If Graff knew who the writers actually were, of course, he would know that Ender would want to save Valentine, at least. Valentine is, in fact, the only person who can help Graff, who comes to her more than once in order to convince Ender to keep pushing himself. Valentine is Ender's one real connection with Earth.

After their first battle as an army, Ender knows that he has trained his soldiers well. He tells his boys to be at practice fifteen minutes after leaving the battleroom, after a quick breakfast--but he then immediately has his toon leaders tell the rest that they can have extra time. In this scenario, Ender is thinking strategically about the morale of his soldiers. He wants the discipline to come from him, the commander, and the leniency come from the toon leaders. He thinks that this will make their toons, and thus the entire army, more united and better able to work together.

Ender admires Bean's good qualities. He wants to make sure that Bean knows that the game, the battles, and the rankings are not important in themselves. The games are only important because they help the teachers and officers decide who might make good commanders for the Fleet later on. Ender notes that most of the students do not understand this point; they think that the game is important, as though the standings are primarily what will determine who will be promoted. Like many people, most of the boys forget the purpose of competition in a game, focusing too narrowly on the immediate objective of winning. The games are an important part of Battle School and this book, but in actuality, most of the individual skills have nothing to do with the kinds of skills that will be needed for fleet commanders or for Ender as their leader. The leadership and tactical skills that Ender is developing are what the other leaders will need as well.

The real battles are fought by ships, with ships' weapons, not with battleroom guns and flash suits. In terms of education, the winner of any particular game does not matter.

The video from the Second Invasion is curious. What made it so easy to board the enemy vessels, and why are the aliens all dead in the ships? Somehow, a defeat elsewhere seems to have incapacitated the aliens on the other ships. In a later chapter we will discover why.

In Chapter 12, Ender's fight with Bonzo is very similar to that with Stilson. He does not want to hurt either one, but they both pushed him to act decisively, as he sees it, in order to avoid future attacks. In both cases, he kills his antagonist. This time, however, Ender does not wonder if he is like Peter. He realizes that there really was no choice in the fight with Bonzo, that he either had to hurt Bonzo enough to stop him or be killed by Bonzo. Even so, afterward, Ender is sad again that he has needed to act so violently. Ender might have tried to hurt Bonzo less in order to teach him a lesson without injuring him so severely, but the risks there were great. Perhaps it was more moral for Ender to try a lesser response anyway, and readers may be tempted to think that Ender chose the easier, more decisive path. But we have seen in the fantasy game that Ender's usual motivation is to try to move peacefully before choosing violence as a last resort. The one exception is the snake in the tower, although with Valentine's influence, he returns to his pattern of peaceful interaction wherever possible.

Major Imbu says to Colonel Anderson in their conversation at the end of the chapter, "That kid is scary." Really, Bonzo is the one who is practically insane with hate and pride. Still, Imbu is right that nobody should want to be Ender's enemy.

By Chapter 12, Ender has been worn down. When he wakes up after his fight with Bonzo and finds out that he has been assigned another battle, he says out loud, "I can't do this anymore." In his strategy to have Bean's soldiers perform the victory ritual before the game normally would be over, it seems that Ender is looking for a quick end to the game, not through some brilliant strategy but through a manipulation of the rules. Ender expresses his position that his choice was a sign that Ender had given up on the games, since they were unfair. The adults know that they are making the games unfair in order to improve Ender's skills, but Ender is so worn down that he no longer sees a way to improve himself through the games in any skill that he might want. Throughout the novel, Graff and the other officers of the International Fleet are running a delicate balance between pushing Ender to the edge and pushing him over it, and atthis point, Ender's reaction to his final battle at the school shows that he has finally been pushed over the edge. He has no need or desire to go on in the battles, or games, or anything. He is through. Thus, it makes sense that Ender needs some down time in order to be refreshed.

It is interesting, therefore, that he wants to go back to Battle School when he gets down to Earth. He realizes that it is the only place that he feels truly at home, despite its being the place where he was ruined. His complete surrender at the end of his days at Battle School leads to his three-month landside leave, but it is not clear that Ender has anything back on Earth to return to.

When Ender gets on the shuttle back to Earth, he notices that Graff has no luggage. This observation comforts Ender: "Graff also came up empty." To Ender, Graff's lack of luggage suggests that Graff is in some way like him, a tool of society rather than his own man. There are to be no possessions, no sympathetic tokens, holding either one of them. If they have anything of substance, it will have to be internal. But Ender feels empty and destroyed inside. He is frequently being torn apart in order to be rebuilt as a stronger man, and at this stage it is unclear what materials are left with which to rebuild him.

When Major Imbu tells Anderson that he thinks Ender is scary, Anderson replies, "Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. He just wins-thoroughly. If anyone's going to be scared, let it be the buggers." This statement is important because it sums up almost everything that the teachers have wanted Ender to be. Anderson sees that Ender hates hurting people but is willing to act decisively in order to protect himself. This outlook will be vital if he is going to win decisively against the buggers. What kind of destruction will he need to achieve in order to finish off the buggers once and for all? Will he need to exterminate them altogether? That seems to be the point of the Third Invasion. But if Ender hates killing one person, how is he ever going to accept the idea of killing billions, most of whom are innocent?

Chapter 13

Two adults discuss Valentine and Peter. The International Fleet has finally tracked them down as the writers behind the personas Demosthenes and Locke. They decide to let the children remain anonymous, since their influence has not reached the level of government, and besides, Demosthenes might have a point about Russia. The adults are not sure why Peter and Valentine seem to have exchanged roles in choosing their characters. Meanwhile, Valentine and Peter are increasing in influence on world politics. Demosthenes is invited to take part in the "President's Council on Education for the Future." They pick up extra information through correspondence with other politically active citizens as well as with an increasing number of military and government contacts around the world. The evidence does seem to show that Russia and the Second Warsaw Pact are planning for a war on Earth. Peter has stopped contributing to Valentine's work, but Valentine has had no problem writing in the perspective of Demosthenes, which she finds a bit disturbing.

One day, Graff is waiting for Valentine after school. He takes her to see Ender at a lake house outside Greensboro, and he promises her that her conversation with her brother will not be recorded, although he will ask her questions about it later. She is skeptical until Graff replies that "at some point there must be trust" and tells her that he knows she is Demosthenes. Ender has been there for two months, and he "doesn't seem interested in going on with his education." She and Ender go out on the lake on a raft that he built himself.

Ender's eyes never leave her face, which consoles her. He says he does not want to talk about Peter, so they talk a little about Battle School. When she asks, "So we're strangers now?" Ender replies with, "Aren't we?" She demurs, but when she tries to tickle him, he grabs her wrist roughly as though she is an attacker before realizing, "you used to tickle me." They swim and sunbathe. Ender kills a wasp as a "preemptive strategy." Valentine also tells Ender about Locke and Demosthenes, and Ender perceives that Peter is planning to take over the world. Valentine now wonders whether she and her brothers are actually all the same.

Ender says that every time he almost escapes from his training, they suck him back in, and Valentine admits that she probably has been called upon to do just that. Ender admits that every time he beats an enemy, he wins because he can understand how they think, a sad condition of sympathy and love just before the kill. With the buggers, however, he is worried because he understands nothing about them or their strengths and weaknesses. Valentine points out that knowing how to get inside someone's head is a trait of the Wiggin children. And while Peter has mellowed into something more of a "builder," Ender and Valentine have become somewhat more like Peter was. Moreover, Valentine knows that Ender has too much ambition to really want to spend the rest of his life in obscure peace. She reminds him of Mazer Rackham's fame. But Ender is content to leave the fame to Peter. At this point Valentine changes the argument: "I'm talking about my life, you self-centered little bastard." And she had helped to save Ender from Peter when she had the chance, suffering Peter's wrath when she thwarted him. Valentine realizes that she has found Ender's "weakest place and stabbed him there ... just like Peter" would have, so she stops.

Ender finally says that his fear is that he "can't beat him," that Ender will not actually be able to save everyone. Valentine declares that if Ender cannot do it, nobody can. "If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault. You killed us all." But Ender still thinks of the buggers as a stand-in for Peter, too big and strong to defeat. When Valentine notes that a victory will also be a victory over Peter, he tells her, "I don't want to beat Peter ... I want him to love me." When they leave the raft, Valentine has persuaded Ender to go back to school.

Graff tells Ender that they isolate their commanders so that they think in certain ways, but the soldiers often forget why Earth is important enough to save. This is why Ender has had three months of landside leave. Graff adds that he will be staying with Ender, and Ender realizes that Graff's sole purpose now is to see Ender through his command. When their ship arrives at the Inter-Planetary Launch, Graff commandeers another ship to take them to Command School on the planet Eros, a previously bugger-inhabited planet that is now a secret base.

During the three-month flight to Eros, Graff and Ender talk about everything from Command School to Earth, to astronomy, physics, and most importantly the buggers, although Graff does not know much about them. They speak mind to mind, instantaneously. This ability taught the humans that it was possible, and they thus built a machine called an ansible which, according to Graff, means that "ships could talk to each other even when they're across the galaxy." Graff tells Ender explicitly that the humans are the Third Invasion, with ships that were sent out as soon as they had a working ansible. En route to attack the buggers' homeworlds, they all will be at their targets within the next five years and within a couple of months of each other. Ender is to be the battle commander who will know "what the hell to do with those ships when they get there." Ender insists that he will not be ready, but Graff tells him to do the best he can to prepare.

On Eros, Ender asks Graff why he thinks that they are fighting the buggers. Graff says that he thinks that since the buggers have no need for language due to their communication style, the humans and the buggers could never understand each other or communicate. Graff adds that no one knows for sure if the buggers might attack again, but if somebody has to be destroyed, they want it to be the buggers, not humankind.

Analysis

When Ender and Valentine are lying together on the raft, Ender tells Valentine that he did not want to see her because he was afraid that he would still love her. Valentine says that she hoped for it, and Ender replies, "My fear, your wish-both granted." Ender's love for Valentine is the trump card; if there is anything on Earth worth saving, in his mind, it is Valentine. She seems to be the only reason that he decides to continue with his training to become commander, and it was also the major reason for his going to Battle School in the first place. "Earth was ... the voice of one girl, who spoke to him out of his far-off childhood. The same voice that had once protected him from terror. The same voice that he would do anything to keep alive, even return to school, even leave Earth behind again for another four or forty or four thousand years." In Chapter 3, the voices in the conversation at the beginning of the chapter say that they think Valentine is the "weak link," the only person who can ruin their plan for making Ender into the commander that they want. It is ironic, therefore, that Valentine ends up being the only reason that he goes back to his training after every "mental breakdown" when he despairs and hates himself. The only reason that Ender is willing to go through hell to become the commander that the I.F. needs is because he might save Valentine. Even so, on his good days, he does seem to enjoy some aspects of the training.

Ender tells Valentine that he hates himself, and when Valentine says, "No, Ender," he insists that he does. He says that "In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him." According to Ender, it is impossible to truly know and understand somebody, "what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves." But, in the very moment that he loves them, Ender "destroys" them. "I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don't exist." This statement is tragic. It also makes Valentine become even more fearful of Ender, since his knowledge and love for her would make him especially able to destroy her. She thinks that while Peter has mellowed, Ender has been made into a killer. She is right, but she really has nothing to fear from Ender, because he cannot see her as an enemy, even when she seems to be acting on behalf of the adults he has declared the enemy.

A second aspect of the tragedy is that Ender hates himself in his ability, while so many others respect him. Ender hates himself for the very quality that made the I.F. choose him as the future commander: his need to win thoroughly. Also, while these characteristics have always been a part of Ender, the teachers have been the ones who have hurt Ender's social character. Their refusal to help him in difficult situations, indeed their placing of additional obstacles, nurtures his ruthless side, because they keep putting him in positions where he seems to have no option but to go for the win. It is easy to understand why Ender would want to leave such games behind entirely.

It also is depressing to hear Ender tell Valentine that he does not want to defeat Peter, but he wants Peter to love him. Sadly, so far as Valentine can tell, Peter does not love anybody. But there was a glimmer of hope that only Ender perceived, on the night after the monitor was taken from Ender and before he went to Battle School, when Peter came to him when he thought Ender was sleeping and told him that he loved him. It may have only been the one time, but it was also the most truthful of times, since he thought Ender was sleeping. Ender, in a sense, already has Peter's love, or at least as much love as Peter has to give. They are siblings after all, and they are similar after all. Ender's need for his brother's love also shows how much of a child he still is, despite having become a soldier, commander, and killer.

When Ender and Graff are stuck on a three-month flight to Command School, they seem to become friends or at least good companions. They talk to each other (the captain is too angry to talk with them, since he will be stuck on Eros for good), and they mostly discuss the buggers. (Eros, by the way, is a symbol of love for Earth even while it is the place for learning how to kill the enemy.) Ender wants to talk about the buggers in order to be able to beat them, not out of an urge to understand the exotic. At the same time, he would prefer that the buggers are actually planning to attack the humans again, that they have not decided to leave the humans alone. Ender does not want to kill if he does not have to. Ender tells Graff, "Maybe they gave up and they're planning to leave us alone." But Graff points out that this would be leaving the survival of the human race to a guess, and in this response he draws on Ender's pattern of choosing to win decisively. Even so, Ender's concern that they have no idea if the buggers are still planning to attack continues coming up. When Graff tells him that he thinks the reason for their war is because "If the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you," Ender insists that if they just left the buggers alone, they could live in harmony. "Maybe they didn't know we were intelligent life." Ender here seems to be too soft to be an effective commander, and it does not seem enough when Graff replies that since no one knows for sure, they better make sure that it is the buggers, not humankind, that are destroyed. Graff even suggests that the plan is part of the evolutionary survival imperative of the human species--and at least, Ender admits, "I'm in favor of surviving." Ender's intense desire to survive is one of the reasons the I.F. was attracted to him as a commander in the first place. He is willing to do whatever it takes to survive, and along with his survival will come the survival of the human race.

Chapter 14

The opening conversation is almost a battle of words between Colonel Graff and Admiral Chamrajnagar, the head of Command School. They discuss what Ender still needs to be told.

Ender hates Eros from the moment they land. Everything feels odd, and he is surrounded by strangers. He is isolated as he gets individual tutoring from teachers. Because of this isolation, Ender throws himself into his studies, learning quickly and well. His favorite activity is to play on the simulator, essentially "the most perfect videogame he had ever played." Ender starts in control of just one fighter ship, but he is soon allowed to "command" a four-fighter squadron. The computer starts giving him specific objectives. Ender notices that after he uses a tactic against it, the computer uses it back against him in a matter of minutes, learning like an enemy would. Ender learns to spread his focus over the entire group of ships, as a real commander would.

Finally, after a year of Command School, Ender seems to have exhausted the simulator's abilities. Also, he wants something like toon leaders who can think for themselves.

After making this request, the next day there is an old man sitting cross-legged on his floor. Ender waits for him to speak, but he does not speak even when addressed. His door is locked, so he does his morning exercises. One time the man grabs him but then retreats, so Ender ignores him. When Ender's guard is down, the old man grabs him violently and tells him that he should never turn his back on the enemy. This man will be his teacher and his enemy, because "there is no teacher but the enemy." As the man lets him go, Ender kicks him, and they fight. They hurt each other, and when Ender finally asks the old man his name, his new teacher says: "Mazer Rackham."

Mazer is now too old to command (he was kept alive via a relativity maneuver, aging eight years while the Earth passed fifty years), but he can teach. They watch videos from the First and Second Invasions and discuss them. Mazer points out tactics and strategies that Ender never noticed before, and "for the first time, Ender had found a living mind he could admire."

Ender is curious about how Mazer won against the buggers by targeting just one ship. Mazer is not sure, but he thinks that the buggers' instantaneous mind-speak is not really a conversation at all. It seems that one bugger, the Queen, controls all of the others. When Mazer destroyed the Queen ship, all of the other buggers were destroyed along with her. "Every ship acts like part of a single organism."

Mazer also guesses that the First Invasion was exploratory, but the Second was a colonizing trip, and this is why they brought a queen. They closely examine the video, and Ender eventually can discern which ship is the Queen's. They are the only two people who ever could.

Mazer also notes that since Eros was originally a bugger colony, which is why Ender feels so uncomfortable in his surroundings there. Much of the technology that the Fleet uses now comes from things that they found on Eros, such as gravity manipulation and the use of stellar energy to black out planets. Mazer also guesses that the buggers killed the first humans they saw without realizing that they were killing intelligent life, thinking that the outlying humans were worthless because none was a "queen." In this respect, human ships have an advantage in that each one is commanded by intelligent life.

Moreover, the humans' weapons have an enormous range, except for old versions of their newest weapon, called Little Doctor (or Dr. Device, which came about because of its scientific name, "Molecular Detachment Device," or M.D. Device). The Little Doctor splits apart molecules and causes a chain reaction in a spherical area, though it gets weaker as the radius increases and picks up strength when it hits new molecules. The M.D. Device can penetrate the buggers' shields.

In the simulator room, Ender starts training as a commander of squadron leaders, much like with his old toon leaders. He puts on the headphones and hears "Salaam," indicating Alai's presence. Bean, Petra, Dink, Fly Molo, Crazy Tom, Hot Soup, Carn Carby, Shen, and "all the best students that Ender had fought with or fought against, everyone that Ender had trusted in Battle School" are all there to work with him. They practiced together for three weeks before the "battles" began, and Ender grew to know and understand them, their strengths and weaknesses, perfectly. They learned to trust each other completely. They had the almost instantaneous reactions of a bugger fleet, but they also clearly had the advantage because his subordinates could still make their own decisions. Mazer says that from now on, he will be controlling the simulation of the enemy ships--he warns Ender that he will grind him down to the breaking point to make sure that Ender will not fail later.

In the first battle, the enemy outnumbers Ender's group two to one, but they are grouped together tightly, so the Dr. Device easily wins. The enemy quickly learns not to group the ships together again, while Ender learns from his own mistakes. Over several more battles, the squadron leaders' trust in Ender as their commander grows, though their friendship with him gradually disappears, and they grow closer to each other while growing apart from him. "Ender was their teacher and commander, as distant from them as Mazer was from him, and as demanding."

After more battles, usually twice a day, Ender starts having nightmares about the fantasy game. Mazer wakes him one day for a battle while Ender is calling out in his sleep, to tell him that they have another battle. Ender is sleeping less and less. He and his squadron leaders begin to make more and more mistakes, and then one day, Petra becomes numb at the controls. She loses all but two of her fighters by the time Crazy Tom takes over, and they almost lose the battle. Petra is broken, no longer as reliable, and Ender relies on her less. The stress on Ender increases as well, and his nightmares get worse. One night he wakes up with a bloody hand from gnawing on it during his sleep. He tells Mazer that he thinks he is going insane

One day during practice, everything goes black, and Ender wakes up next to the simulator with a bloody face where it hit the controls. He is very sick for three days, and when he eventually wakes up, he has an immediate battle. During the night after that battle, he "dreams" he heard voices saying that he was almost finished, and that both voices (they sound like Graff and Mazer) said that they cared about him. Ender grew into a cycle for the next several days by which he woke up, won a battle, went straight back to sleep, and then repeated the pattern.

Finally, Ender's last day of Command School comes, though he does not know it. In the simulator room there is a large audience. Mazer says that it is Ender's final test in Command School. This battle will be situated around a planet, unlike all his other battles, and when Ender asks if the Little Doctor would work against a planet, Mazer replies, "Ender, the buggers never deliberately attacked a civilian population in either invasion. You decide whether it would be wise to adopt a strategy that would invite reprisals."

When the screen shows the battle area, Ender realizes that the enemy outnumbers his ships "a thousand to one." They are situated in a shifting pattern around the planet, with no obvious lanes for Ender's 80 fighters to go through. Ender realizes that this battle is hopeless. He believes that after all that he has been through, the teachers want him to fail, maybe expect him to fail.

Bean refers to the hopelessness of the battle by saying, "Remember, the enemy's gate is down," an allusion to Dragon Army's seemingly hopeless battle against the combined Griffin and Tiger Armies. This comment may be a signal to Ender to again bend or break the rules in some way or to use a similar strategy as before, and it at least inspires Ender's strategy. He quickly assigns his squadron leaders to take control of their few ships and shape them into a cylinder, pointing toward the planet. As the enemy formation closes in on them, Ender's fleet melts "into chaos," with his ships firing at any and all of the enemy ships and getting cut up themselves. After a few minutes of this feint, Ender organizes twelve remaining ships into a formation about halfway to the planet. At Ender's command, the ships drop straight toward the enemy's planet to use the M.D. Devices. At least one Little Doctor reaches the planet with its effects, because the planet suddenly begins to bubble, and within three seconds "the entire planet burst apart, becoming a sphere of bright dust, hurtling outward." Only the starships on the outer edge of the battle survive, including just two or three of the enemy ships. Gravity starts pulling the debris from the explosion back together.

As Ender removes his headphones, the room is filled with noise of people laughing, shouting, weeping, and so on. Graff thanks him, and Ender is confused, since "it was his victory, not theirs, and a hollow one at that, a cheat; why did they act as if he had won with honor?" Mazer tells Ender that he made a hard choice, "End them or end us...Congratulations. You beat them, and it's all over." Mazer reveals that the battles were real, with buggers, the whole time. Ender battled the buggers at their home world, where all of their queens were, and he destroyed them all.

While others see Ender as a hero, he worries that "I killed them all ... All their queens. So I killed all their children, all of everything." Ender weeps again, saying that he never wanted to kill anyone and that he has been tricked into being Peter. Graff responds that only Ender could win the love of his underlings, understand and anticipate the buggers, yet go into a battle "willing to win at all costs."

Back on Earth, the League War is initiated by the Warsaw Pact. It lasts a short while before there is a truce according to the "Locke Proposal." The war reaches Eros, but the Russians love Ender and he remains safe. Russia, meanwhile, has its own problems with a rebellion of the Islamic States.

Ender talks with some of his leaders. When Alai asks what they will do when they get back to Earth, Petra points out that they are kids, so they might have to go to school, and the friends all laugh.

Analysis

When Mazer tells Ender, "There is no teacher but the enemy," the idea is a variation on Ender's perception that the teachers are the enemy. Ender also has let the buggers teach him, somewhat, having studied videos of the bugger invasions for hours a day in Battle School. Throughout the novel, Ender's way of defeating his enemy is to understand him. Ender saved himself in fighting Bonzo, for instance, by appealing to his honor. If Mazer understands that Ender already knows that the enemy is his teacher, he must be attacking Ender when they meet for another reason. For one thing, the lesson is never to turn his back on his enemy--because if he does, even for a second, his opponent will take advantage of it and destroy him. This actually happens during a battle, when Petra loses almost all her ships after becoming numb at the controls. For another thing, Mazer must prove that he is worthy of being Ender's teacher, partly through a macho fight (though it is an old man against a young boy), and partly through superior patience and speed.

Ender and Mazer have one very important thing in common: they both try to understand the enemy, not just defeat him. When they discuss Mazer's battle during the Second Invasion, they try to figure out why the buggers did not stop him from shooting the queen's ship. Ender points out that they "could have blown [Mazer] out of the sky," but did not. Mazer comments that he thinks that it may not have occurred to any of the buggers that he would kill their queen. "Maybe in their world, queens are never killed, only captured, only checkmated. I did something they didn't think an enemy would ever do." Mazer also has had many years to contemplate what the buggers might have thought about their intentions and about the humans. Their attempt at understanding the buggers is what makes Ender and Mazer great commanders.

Since they are the only characters who attempt to understand the buggers, they begin to feel sorry for them. Ender's compassion is his most redeeming characteristic for all of the pain he has caused (to Stilson, Bonzo, and then the buggers). Ender's compassion for the buggers makes him able to destroy them, but later it will enable him to give them the chance to start over by saving their last queen. Compassion is extremely important throughout the novel--Valentine's compassion for Ender encourages him when he is ready to give up, for example.

When Ender first arrives on Eros, he feels uncomfortable, and eventually Mazer tells him that Eros was originally a bugger colony. Humans killed them all, and Mazer notes, "This was the treasure trove." The buggers left technology and information on Eros, including gravity manipulation machines and machines that used stellar energy to black out the planet, making it darker than a black hole. Therefore, the humans had the buggers to thank for much of their advanced technology, including the ansible and the ability to manipulate rooms such as the battleroom at Battle School. In other circumstances, the humans and buggers could have traded technology peacefully.

Indeed, there are many times during Ender's training that he questions whether they should be fighting the buggers at all. He has many such conversations with Graff on the way to Command School, but he brings it up just once with Mazer. Mazer tells him that when the I.F. sent a ship to figure out why Eros had suddenly been blacked out, the buggers had boarded their tug and systematically killed all of the crew, and only after that, the buggers began to examine the entire ship and dismantle their technology, including their transmission machinery. Ender asks Mazer why the buggers killed that first crew, and Mazer hypothesizes, "To them, losing a few crew members would be like clipping your nails. Nothing to get upset about. They probably thought they were routinely shutting down our communications by turning off the workers running the tug. Not murdering living, sentient beings with an independent genetic future." That is, in the bugger understanding of life, only the queens really matter. Ender's reaction to this is to point out that if they were truly innocent, they should not be punished by a third invasion. Mazer, however, replies that killing life, especially human life, is an evil in itself. They were acting like Peter, who would kill a squirrel without remorse but who only draws the line (apparently) at killing other people. Yet, if the humans were not really considered life but merely part of a communication system (which would be hard to believe), then the bugger intentions would be excusable from a perspective of relativism, still not excusable from a persepctive of the inherent value of human life.

The issue here is that humans can all think individually, and the buggers have no such experience of that. Mazer tells Ender that one of their major advantages against the buggers is that "every single one of our ships contains an intelligent human being who's thinking on his own," unlike the buggers, who are all controlled by one central queen. This advantage finally brings into play one of Ender's important strategies when he became a Commander in Battle School. He kept his toons completely fluid, including giving his toon leaders much more power than they would have had under any other commander, because he realized that it gave them an advantage to be able to make up their own decisions instead of having to continuously report back to him for orders. Ender's form of commanding, therefore, is almost completely opposite to the buggers'. He has the strong advantage of being able to trust his subordinates to make good decisions when he might not be around. More generally, this preference of individualism versus central planning reflects the American versus Soviet style of governance during the author's experience of the Cold War. (This conflict remains present down to Ender's day, with the League War between Russia and America.)

Even though the squadron leaders believe they are playing simulations, the stress on them, and on Ender, is extreme. Petra is the first of Ender's squadron leaders to "break," and Ender becomes worried because he knows that she has been far from the weakest of his subordinates. Petra's fall teaches him to be wary of the stress on himself, and it teaches him to consider the stamina of his leaders as well as their other characteristics. Ender is no superhero; he says, "Part of what I am is her ... what she made me." Ender knows to beware of his own limitations; his teachers have not been perfect, not even the computer that ran the fantasy game.

Ender is never told that he killed Bonzo during the bathroom fight, and though he suspects it from the beginning, he never seems to fully understand that he did so until his dreams at Command School. While he was still in Battle School, Ender told Dink that it seemed like Bonzo was dead standing up, though it seemed that Bonzo was merely unconscious. During his dreams at Command School, however, as Ender replays his memory of the fight over and over again, he decides that Bonzo must have been killed when Ender head-butted his nose up into his brain. Mazer never refutes this idea, but he does try to calm Ender down by saying, "It was just a dream." Ender's life is pretty much a never-ending cycle of killing people and not knowing it at this point-nobody tells him he is killing the buggers.

Ender's "dreams" during Command School seem to be an outlet for truth in his life. In his dreams, Ender realizes that he killed Bonzo. Also, he dreams of the buggers "vivisecting" his memories, and we later find out that they were studying him and his memories in order to rebuild part of the Fantasy Game in real life. Finally, he "dreams" about conversations between Graff and Mazer while he is half-awake, but he does not believe that they are true, because in the conversation, they seem unusually affectionate toward him. One of them says, "I can't bear to see what this is doing to him," and the other replies, "I know. I love him, too." Graff is still his friend, though Ender has not known it. And Mazer has been his friend all along, despite acting as Ender's enemy.

In his last battle at Command School, Ender has completely given up. He does not even want to win, because he thinks that if he wins, he will have to go through another several years of training, and then will have to command the International Fleet's ships against the buggers, which might take several more years. And once again, the test seems to be against impossible odds. Therefore, Ender enters the battle wanting to lose, because he thinks, almost subconsciously, that if he were to lose this battle, they would send him home, to Greensboro, North Carolina, and he could do nothing substantial for a very long time. When Ender sees the simulation and the hopelessness of the situation, he decides that they want him to lose. Since Mazer is going to beat him unfairly, Ender might as well beat him unfairly first.

When Bean says, "Remember, the enemy's gate is down," it gives Ender his strategy for the battle. Interestingly, Ender does not expect to win with the strategy-rather, it is another one of Ender's attempts to "go out in style," like he did during his last battle against the combined Griffin and Tiger Armies at Battle School. Ender thinks to himself, before he commands his squad leaders, "Forget it, Mazer. I don't care if I pass your test, I don't care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I ... If I break this rule, they'll never let me be a commander. It would be too dangerous. I'll never have to play a game again. And that is victory." This is the reason that Ender decides to use the Little Doctor against the planet, not part of a grand, last-ditch effort at victory, as his audience believes. It is not even a rational decision that it is the only way to destroy the buggers, which certainly is the case. His attack against the planet itself is a last-ditch effort to free himself from their game, and to do so with style. Ender is not even sure the computer would know how to handle the effects of the Little Doctor on a planet.

Ender's final game, in terms of war, is his last battle against the buggers. He looks at it like a game, and he cheats in it, and the cheating is what allows him to win the war. Even though there could be major risks of repercussions for killing off the bugger civilian population, that is not really part of the simulation, so it is not something Ender needs to consider very carefully. The horizon of each training battles is hours, not even days (although the computer supposedly learns his strategies from one battle to the next).

By the end of the novel, the line between games and reality has become completely blurred--the games have been reality after all. Games often seem like reality, and reality seems like a game--and the games can express or even be reality. If reality has the character of a game, its rules can be stretched and broken, just as advancing technology enables people to do what they never "could" before. Of course, breaking the rules has consequences, and if someone does whatever is necessary in order to win, there is a risk of alienating oneself from those who follow the rules. If, for example, another alien civilization sees what the humans did to the buggers, breaking the universal moral imperative of not killing innocents, the humans may be in for trouble in the intergalactic community.

But Ender has never thought of himself as th