#29. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Sep. 2024)

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Introduction:
Ender’s Game is a science-fiction series by Orson Scott Card. It was published in 1985 and was made into a film in 2013. The story is about Ender who gets chosen by the military to help save Earth from the buggers. He gets trained in a special training center just for the military. The book became one of the most famous science-fiction novels in the world and won many awards for its exceptional story plotline.

Plot:
Ender Wiggin is a gifted boy chosen by the military to help save Earth from an alien species called the buggers. He has a monitor that lets the military observe him, unlike his siblings, Peter and Valentine. Peter resents Ender for being selected. Ender goes to Battle School, a space training center, where he excels in strategy but faces bullying. He makes friends like Alai and Petra but also makes enemies through several promotions. After several intense and brutal battles, Ender becomes a leader and wins several times, but he struggles with the pressure and isolation. Meanwhile, Peter has desirable ambitions and proposes his idea of manipulation of the world to Valentine who agrees with Peter and wants to make the world positive. Peter and Valentine manipulate world events from Earth, gaining influence online. As Ender trains, he becomes a brilliant commander and ultimately faces the buggers in a final battle, believing it’s a simulation. He wins the final battle but later discovers he destroyed the buggers. Being felt used by the military, Ender decides to leave Earth with Valentine to help colonize new planets when Peter takes control over the world. He finds a queen pupa of the buggers and realizes they didn’t want to fight. Ender vows to find a new home for the buggers, hoping to make peace with them.

Analysis:
The novel shares two themes through Ender’s journey, patriotism and identity. Ender is committed to the military and to destroy all the buggers. However, he realized he was being used by the military to kill all of the buggers. The difference between the need to be committed to the task he was assigned and his real identity is mixed well in the novel as Ender presents these themes through his actions and thoughts. He gets his assigned task done while he also finds his identity through the consequence of the battle between the buggers and the military. Also, the story shows how Ender finds his true identity through the conflicts between his brother, Peter. Peter is shown as an ambitious and cruel boy, while Ender is shown as a committed and caring boy. The difference between Peter and Ender helps Ender find his identity by establishing a distance between Peter and himself. The first conflict Ender faces is bullying. He was bullied by his peers in the military training center because he was the chosen one. They bullied him because they were jealous of how he was hand-picked by the military to carry out the mission of destroying the buggers. However, the biggest conflict plotted in the novel is when Ender finds out that he was used to kill all the buggers. He was brought to a state of mental collapse due to the realization. The ending of the book shows Ender finding his true self and morality through doing what he thought was right.

Conclusion:
Ender’s Game is a science fiction series by Orson Scott Card. It was published in 1985 and was made into a film in 2013. The book is about Ender who gets selected as the gifted boy who will save the Earth from the buggers but his brother, Peter, and other peers are jealous of him. He started his special military training in the Battle School, along with other peers. He gets bullied and goes through promotions. He fights in many battles and wins every single one. He finally faces the buggers in the final battle, which he thought was a simulation, but he realizes that he wiped out every one of the buggers. He became mentally unstable, realizing he had killed all of them. He goes to find the queen pupa and decides to find the buggers a new home. The novel shows the theme of patriotism and identity. At first, Ender is committed to the military but later on, he shows his true self by doing what he thinks is right. This book emphasizes the importance of one’s identity through Ender’s journey.

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