Reading Response Essay: Theme

A theme that kept coming up in the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, is games versus reality. In this sci-fi book, the game is the reality and the reality is a game. These games, throughout the book, show us what type of person Ender is and how he has changed.

The first game that Ender ever plays, also ironically the only game he looses, is the game Bugger v.s. Astronauts. Ender plays this game with his sadistic and abusive brother, Peter. Ender's world is portrayed like our world, only with a sci-fi twist. Earth has already survived through the first and second invasion of the Buggers, aliens that are named after their ant-like appearance. In Ender's world, because of over population, a family can have no more than 2 children. Ender is a Third. Another thing about Ender's world is that children need to wear a machine called the monitor which observes the child's actions. The monitor is issued by the government and is used to figure out which children will be sent to battle school to fight the aliens. Ender also still has his monitor, which makes Peter hate him because Peter's was taken out earlier. In the game between Peter and Ender, Peter makes Ender be the bugger and wear a mask in which he cannot see in, then Peter and Ender fight, but Peter always wins. This is Peter's way of proving to himself that he is better and stronger. But when Ender is taken into Battle School, Peter's punching bag and power are also taken away, leaving Peter to resent Ender even more.

The second game that we are introduced to is the Battle School game.This is not just a game, it is everything in Battle School. The game sorts out the finest commanders which then proceed to go to command or pre-command school. It is at this point in his life that Ender comes out to be a fantastical commander. The school puts him to a test and gives Ender, the youngest commander in the school, an untrained army of kids that are completely new to battle school. But Ender trains his army and soon they are better than any of the more experienced armies in battle school. The pressure builds and soon Ender's army is going against 2 armies a day, when battles are usually scheduled at one battle every two weeks. Eventually Ender faces 2 armies at once, as well as unfare advantages that help his opponents. But Ender wins and then realizes how much he doesn't care about succeeding in battle school. But as soon as he wins that final game, he is taken into command school.

Yet another game is played in command school. This time, instead of participating in the battle itself, Ender plays the game on a screen and control set. This game is all about manuevering ships like the sqaudrons that Ender used to break his army into. During this time period Ender is coached by Mazer Rackham, the fleet commander that won the previous invasion. From Mazer he learns everything he needs to defeat the buggers. However, without knowing it, Ender is actually commanding the real fleets of the Earth's army instead of tiny computer generated fleets. And unknowingly, Ender wins the war, thinking that it was just a game.

These games, throughout the book, represent how Ender has changed. In the beginning Ender was a trusting, inexperienced little boy, but by the end of the book he is cunning enough to defeat the Buggers and save humanity.