Independent Reading Assignment: Ender's Game

Chapter 1. Third

The beginning of the chapter begins with a conversation between two unknown characters. They have come to a decision to take a boy named Andrew, who can apparently save the world from the aliens known as buggers. After the conversation, the story flashes back to when Andrew was six. At this point in time, he is getting some sort of monitor removed from the back of his neck. The story moves to another scene where it seems as though Andrew's brother, Peter, is jealous that Andrew has had the monitor for such a long time.  The story then flashes forward to where Andrew is getting his monitor removed.  Something goes wrong, but he is quickly fixed by muscle relaxer. The doctor reveals that the monitors are only on the kids for three years and then rambles on about how they could have switched his brain off. It then flash forwards shortly after to where Andrew is in school. At school he revealed to be something known as a third. Andrew seems to be a lot smarter than the rest of the kids. He seems to be insecure without his monitor on his neck and the other kids seemed to be more wary of him before it was removed. In the book he says ( They could say what they liked. They might even hit him now - no one could see them anymore, and so no one would come to Ender's rescue. There were advantages to the monitor, and he would miss them), this imply's that the monitor was used simply for monitoring. Towards the end of the chapter Ender comes in conflict with a bully named Stilson and his group.  Surprisingly, even though Stilson is bigger than Ender,  Ender beats him up bad. He does this  so that the other kids wouldn't mess with him. At the end, Ender cry's and says that without his monitor, he is just like Peter.

Chapter 2. Peter

At the beginning of the chapter, the two unkown characters are discussing how Ender beat up Stilson and compare him to somebody named Mazer Rackham. They also discuss how Ender is going to react with Peter, seeing that he doesn't have his monitor any more.  During this chapter you begin to realize how dangerous Peter really is. Peter hurts Ender in a game of astronauts and buggers and remarks that he could kill him. Valentine steps in and convinces Peter to stop, Peter says that it will look like a accident and she will not blame him. Peter says he will kill Ender eventually, later Peter claims he was messing around. Later at night Peter go's into Ender's room while he is sleeping, Ender is scared for his life, but Peter was only there to apologize.

Chapter 3. Graff

At the beginning of the chapter the two unknown characters are discussing how Ender may not want to leave Valentine behind and that she could ruine everything. They also say that they have to convince Ender that he wants to come with them more than he wants to stay with Valentine. One of the characters remarks that they may have to lie or even tell the truth. A man from the I.F.  visits Ender in the morning during breakfast. The man asked Ender about the fight with Stilson, Ender explains why he had to fight Stilson. The man introduces himself as Colonel Hyrum Graff and invites Ender to come to battle school. Graff explains that removing his monitor was the last step in a test and he was satisified with the reason why he beat up stilson. Graff convinces Ender to go, Ender go's seeing that he has nothing to lose. Later in the chapter Graff explains why neither Peter or Valentine were accepted. Peter wasn't accepted because he was to cruel and Valentine was too gentle. They wanted something in between and that was Ender.

Chapter 4. Launch

Last chapter we figured out  one of the unknown characters turns out to be Graff. Graff and the other unknown character are discussing how they are going to isolate Ender from the rest of the school and that they are going to try and break him.  At the beginning of this chapter Ender is boarding the space shuttle that will take him to battle school. Ender believes that Graff is his friend, but realizes that he is not after he deliberately points Ender out several times making him despised by the other children. One of the children hit Ender in the head numerous times until finally, he grabs his arm and throws him into a wall, the boy's arm broke. Ender claims that he is just like Peter. Ender has a conversation with Graff about him being his friend, Graff claims that he is only here to make soldiers to save mankind. Another teacher asks Graff if he is the one, he claims if he is not then we are in trouble.

Chapter 5. Games

At the beginning of the chapter Graff and the unknown character are discussing further into Ender's isolation and him breaking the boys arm. The unknown character claims that he can friends, just not parents. Once they get to battle school everybody settles into their bunks. A man named Dap introduces himself and claims he is there to watch out for them, he also remarks that he is the only person at battle school that gets payed to be their friend. The next day Ender go's to the game room. After about an hour he understands the simple games and challenges an older boy to play against him best two out of three. Ender lost the first round but won the second and third and he shocked everybody in the game room. We later figure out that Bernard is the boy who's arm was broken by Ender. Bernard is making a sort of gang. Ender realizes this and try's to break up his gang by breaking into the computer system and sending a couple messages poking fun at Bernard. Bernard loses power over the launch group and Ender gets a few friends.

Chapter 6. The Giant's Drink

At the beginning of the chapter Graff and the unknown character are discussing Ender being stuck on the giant on his fantasy game and how a boy named Pinual may have commit suicide over it. They also discuss Ender breaking apart the launch group, but give him more time to see if he will fix it. Ender and the other launchies go to the battle room for their first time. Ender starts to experiment with gravity and soon after one of the Boy's from Bernards group named Alai jumps in as well. All of the other boys were slower to experiment. Soon after Ender and Alai discover that the guns freeze the body parts that were targeted. Alai makes a suggestion that Ender, Alai, Shen, and Bernard should freeze the whole launch group. Ender and Alai become friends and Alai gains control over the whole launch group. Later Ender plays the fantasy game and discovers that he has to kill the giant in order to get past him. He is then welcomed to fairyland, but is sad because the only way he could live is by killing another person.

Chapter 7. Salamander

The other unkown character is revealed to be I.F. commander General Levy. Levy and Graff discuss how well Ender handled the problem with Bernard and how he is the first person to get past the Giant's drink. That night Ender is eating dinner with Alai, Alai claims to know that Ender is the one who sent the messages and would like a security system like Ender's. Ender agrees to set up the system, but when he gets back to the barracks he finds a notice that he has been transferred to Salamander Army. Alai whispered the word Salam in Ender's ear, Ender realizes that this was a gift of great personal importance. Ender keeps playing the game and getting over it's obstacles until he reaches a tower in the end of the world. The screen go's blank and a message appears telling him to report to Bonzo Madrid, Salamanders commander. In Salamander army he is hated by Bonzo, but he earns a new friend named Petra. Ender is told to stay out of the way in the battle room by Bonzo. Ender asks Petra if she could teach him how to fight in the battle room, she says yes and they began to practice. Ender takes the launchies to practice during free play. Bonzo does not like this and tells Ender to stop, but Ender convinces Bonzo that he cannot control free play. Ender just free floats during the battles and becomes number one in Salamander Army. After a few matches Ender decides to go against Bonzo and freezes enough players on the opposite to team to make a draw. Bonzo becomes angry and trades him to Rat Army, Bonzo punches Ender for going against his orders.

Chapter 8. Rat

Graff and Anderson are having an argument. Graff wants to make the games unfair to prepare Ender for war with the buggers, Anderson disagrees saying that the game should be fair. Graff replies saying that war is not fair. At rat army Nose the Rose is in charge, Ender is immediately assigned to Dink's toon. Dink's toon was like a whole other group, where most of Rat Army was sloppy, Dink's toon was somewhat civilized. Ender continues his practice sessions and continues to teach his students what he has learned. Ender begins to take personal defense lessons. In the battle against Centipede Army, Rose immediately sends out Ender. Ender had frozen three, disabled two, and damaged seven, he was on top of the leader board  Rose left him alone for now on. Commanders started to come to Ender's launchy practice and everyone had thought they were writing down names so they wouldn't accept them into their army. Fewer and fewer students came to Ender's practice. Then one day a fight broke out, the launchies used the gravity and their frozen flash suits to there advantage and won. Later that night Ender play's the fantasy game and becomes stuck on this part where he looks into a mirror and he sees Peter.

Chapter 9. Locke and Demosthenes

Graff becomes angry due to the fact that the computer game put in a picture of Peter. He then talks to Major Imbu about how and why it did this. Graff figures out that the game adapts to who is playing it for unknown purposes only to be understand by the player. This chapter go's back into the story of Peter and Valentine back on Earth. Peter discovers that Russia is preparing for war, he figures that something big must be happening and they are preparing for the aftermath. Peter plans to gain power in the world. Peter and Valentine begin to communicate their political ideas over the nets. Valentine is pretending to be someone named Demosthenes and Peter is pretending to be someone name Locke. Their ideas begin to spread over the nets. Back at battle school Ender is nine years old and a toon leader in Phoenix Army, with Petra as the leader. Ender still cannot get passed the part of the game with Peter in the mirror. Graff go's back down to earth and convinces Valentine to write a letter to Ender for inspiration. Ender went back into the game, but this time he caught the snake and kissed it. This must have to show that he was not like Peter. The snake turned into Valentine and they walked to the mirror. Behind the mirror was a great stair case in which they walked down, Ender notices all the cheering faces around him are Peter. Ender was relieved that he finally had beaten the room at the end of the world. General Levy, sent Valentine a message thanking her for helping Ender.

Chapter 10. Dragon

At the beginning of this chapter, Ender becomes the leader of a dormant army called dragon. This army is made up of mostly lauchies, but a few veterans. All are younger than Ender who is nine. Ender is not allowed to make any trades. Ender meets his soldiers and takes them to the battle room. Ender notices a boy named Bean who is younger than all of the other boys, but also smarter. Ender begins to pick on Bean, much like he was picked on himself when he first arrived at battle school. Bean comes to Ender and asks him if he can be a toon leader, Ender replies maybe in a month if you can prove yourself worthy. Bean sees that as fair and walks away satisfied. Anderson tells Ender that he can no longer hold practices when it is not his time to practice. Ender begins to get even more challenged by his real enemy's, the teachers.

Chapter 11. Veni Vidi Vici

Graff and Anderson are discussing the battle room schedule for dragon army, which foreshadows that it will be rough. The world is now shifting there attention to Locke and Demostenes. Ender's army is not like any other, he split his army into five toons instead of four, he also never loses. Ender's army was put through a gauntlet of battles, almost one every day. One day, right after Ender had won another battle, Dragon Army was given only a ten minute heads up for a battle about to begin on the same day. Despite the unfair odds Dragon Army still won. Bonzo became angered by their defeat despite them having the advantage and Bean calling them out on what they should have done. Later Ender called Bean into his room to ask him to pick a member from each toon to train them in his own special tactics unit.

Chapter 12. Bonzo

At the beginning of this chapter Graff and General Pace, head of the I.F. military police, are in an argument over the safety of Ender. Dap filed a report regarding a conspiracy about some students wanting to hurt Ender. Graff complains that Ender will not have help from anybody during a bugger war and that is the  only way he can reach his peek ability. Ender knows he is in trouble, Petra and Dink both warn him about the conspiracy. After a battle, Ender takes a nap and wakes up right before lunch. Everybody in the commanders mess hall realizes that Ender is missing. Ender heads to showers and is confronted by Bonzo, Bernard, and a few other boys. Ender tells Bonzo what honor is there in fighting a naked kid with a gang of guys. So Bonzo strips down and they began to fight. Ender kicked Bonzo in the crotch and he lay there motionless. Despite the fight, Ender is given another battle later that night against two armies. Ender comes up with a amazing plan and wins. Ender tells himself that he is not going to play any more of the games, but Graff and Anderson notify him later that he has graduated. Ender is taken back to Earth before his trip to command school. At the end of the chapter it is revealed that both Stilson and Bonzo were killed. Major Anderson is now Colonel and in charge of the battle school.

Chapter 13. Valentine

Graff picks up Valentine from school one day, telling her that he knows who Locke and Demosthenes are. Valentine is also there to convince Ender to go to Command school. Ender explains to her that he doesn't want to fight, he also wants Peter to love him. After a day on the raft Ender spent two months building and some convincing from Valentine, Ender decides to go to command school. Valentine is discussed at Graff for forcing her to convince Ender to do something he did not want to do. Ender asks Graff about the buggers on their three month trip to Eros, where the I.F. command is. We figure out that the buggers think almost instantaneously and that the humans learned how to do the same. Ender asks why we are fighting the buggers, Graff concludes that there is no way to communicate with them.

Chapter 14. Ender's Teacher

From the moment Ender and Graff arrived at Eros they hated it. Claiming that the walls were flat and the tunnels almost always sloped downwards, giving Ender vertigo, and worst of all the place was crowded. Ender was being isolated again. After a year at being at command school, one day Graff disappeared  Ender woke up and there was an old man in his room, after what seemed like hours they got into a conflict and the man introduced himself as Mazer Rackham. Mazer and Ender watched old bugger war videos that weren't censored. Mazer explained that the reason he won his battle is because he destroyed the queens ship, which in turn killed the other buggers because the queen thought for them. Mazer also reveals the Dr. Device, which is a weapon that basically turns an object and any other objects near that one, into dirt. Ender is put through a gauntlet of simulated battles with his nearest friends from battle school. Towards the end he begins to break down. On his final exam he is put up against unfair odds, he notices that there are alot of people in the room watching him. Ender uses an old maneuver from battle school and destroys the bugger world, winning the simulation. Everybody in the room is extremely happy, Rackham explains that he was the commander of the third invasion and all the simulated battles were actually real. Ender was mad at him for not telling him that would be destroying a entire race without his knowledge. Rackham claims that Ender would not destroy them if he knew. Ender sleeps through the next five days, in which there is war down on Earth. Ender wakes up on the fifth day next to friends, who explain everything that has happened while he was asleep. Something called the Locke proposal was put forth (by Peter) and that ended the war.

Chapter 15. Speaker for the Dead

In the last chapter, Ender finds himself little use now there is no war going on. Surprisingly  Valentine is on  Eros to be apart of the first colony on a bugger world, Mazer is supposed to be the pilot. Valentine tells Ender that he cannot return to Earth or Peter will use him, now that Peter is in control of the Earth. Seeing that Ender has little use, he decides to go with Valentine and be the governor of the first colony. The main reason Ender go's is because he wants to learn the buggers past. While searching for a place for the second colony to settle down, he uncovers the exact setting of the fantasy game. He figures the buggers left him that place for some sort of message, which meant they could read his mind. He climbs the tower like the one in the game and looks behind the mirror. Behind the mirror is an egg of a bugger queen. With that queen were the memories of the buggers. The buggers did not know that humans were thinking beings and did not attack again after they learned that. Ender writes a book about the buggers and it becomes a religion on all of the bugger planets and some what on Earth. Ender talks to Peter when he is in his seventies and Ender writes another book on his life. At the end, Ender convinces Valentine to fly with him to different planets in search of a place to start a new bugger civilization.