Ender's Game
By: Orson Scott Card
Post 3
DEFINITE SPOILER ALERT
As I approached the final quarter or so of the book, the plot grew ever more intense. Ender is advancing through the ranks quicker than anyone had ever done so previously. He is introduced to the Command School, in which he is taught how to command a fleet, as is expected of him. It also revealed that Ender will be commanding the Earth that is poised to attack, invade, and/or destroy the "Bugger" home worlds. There are also several plot twists that made the ending very surprising. Even though I've flagged this as a spoiler, I'm not evil enough to completely give away the ending.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the book! It was a great read, full of action and suspense, with mysterious and/or darker underlying themes of manipulation and war. If there is one more analysis-type statement I would want to make about the book, it is about the significance of the mind games used throughout the story, especially the ones played on Ender, whether by teachers or other elders of significance, or an AI computer. I talked earlier about the manipulation of Ender, and this is just part of the bigger picture. The full severity of the computer mind game Ender experiences, known as "Free Play," is revealed when disturbing scenes from the game are implied to have existed in actuality on a distant planet. Again, to preserve the ending as much as possible while still analyzing the story as a whole, I will not reveal what scenes nor what planet, but needless to say, it contributed to the overall surprise of the story. "Now Ender knew why it looked familiar... He had played here too many times as a child not to know this place. But it was not possible. The computer in the Battle School could not have possible seen this place. He looked through his binoculars in a direction he knew well, fearing and hoping that he would see what belonged in that place... Now overgrown, but their shapes still unmistakable," (Card 317). Now at this point in your reading of this post, you may be wondering what the significance of these mind games in the book are. It's because I believe the mind games are a reference to the (seemingly) odd title. Ender's Game, his game. All these mind games that toyed with him and manipulated him throughout the story, throughout his life, become so much more significant when he finds them represented in the real world, signifying that, in a way, his life has been controlled a "game," his game.
Well that brings me to the end of this brief post series on Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. It was a great read, and I now can look forward to seeing the movie as well! Thank you for taking the time to read my summaries and analyses, I hop you found them useful, interesting, or at least somewhat entertaining!
Until next time,
Josh C.
Coming up Next: The Tipping Point, by: Malcom Gladwell
Ender's Game is a very entertaining book, and I'm glad you enjoyed it too! As I read the book, I never really thought about the game that Ender played, but surprisingly realized the significance while I watched the movie. (By the way, don't look forward to the movie too much... Its probably one of the worst movie interpretations of a book I have ever seen. There, now hopefully it will be better than your expectations). I think the game really gave the reader, and Ender, a look inside his own mind. I think it really showed a running theme about Ender fearing that he was the same as his brother. The game really gave him the opportunity to act like both his brother and sister.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this book back when I was in seventh grade. I thought that it was great and I intended on reading the later books in the series. Havent gotten to it yet, though.
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