Kira April 1, 2011 TRUST For themes, there have been a few but we aren't that far into the book. I think one theme that has definitely been portrayed is trust. Trust appears in the beginning when Ender is trusting Graff and is taken from home. Trust is portrayed when Edward is still with the launches and he trusts them to help him. Trust is in the section due this week where Ender has to trust himself. He has to trust that he can do this, that he can stay strong and know that he will be alright even if no one believes in him but himself.
One theme i have seen through the whole book so far is Ender using people to complete his goals. One example of when he is using someone is when he is friends with Shen just so he can hurt Bernard's group. Ender doesn't seem to try to use people in a mean way but you can't lable what he does as mean either so its hard to figure out if he is doing the right thing or the wrong thing? I think Ender use's the people so he can gain respect and become a leader. Respect would be another theme that you will see play out through the rest of the book. Be on the look out for Ender to try to use someone in the next chapters, because i can almost say for 100% that he will.
John April 1, 2011 Jealousy I think that jealousy is a very important theme in the book, as well as the most easy to see. At the start, Peter is jealous of Ender because Ender had his monitor on longer than Peter, and even more so because Ender gets to go to battle school. That is said outright by the author in the book. You can make an argument about Stilson being jealous of Ender, that being why Stilson bullies him so much. Also, when Ender is on the spaceship with everyone else, Graff says that Ender is the only smart one. Sure, that makes people not like Ender out of resentment, but also just because they are so jealous that Grafff has acknowledged him. I find it hard to believe that Graff would be jealous of Ender. It would make sense, because Ender is more powerful than Graff is and Ender is a kid. But Graff is so devoted to the I.F. that he knows it is for the best.
One of the themes I've noticed in this book is the idea of people having multiple sides. Ender is a good example of this: he has the sweet, Valentine side, as well as the darker, more violent, Peter side. The author tosses you until you accept that Ender can't be defined by one adjective; just when you decide he is an quiet, peaceful, little boy, he hurts someone and you're back to wondering who he really is. When he rips the eye out of the giant, I felt myself go "Whoa!! What happened to the sweet little Ender I liked?" I think the truth is that no one can be just kind or mean or daring. There are multiple sides of everyone.
This also happens with Peter. The author sets us up to believe he is simply a cruel bully, but then, in the darkness of the night, we see a soft, sad, vulnerable part of him that makes you realize that people can be many things at once.
Evan: Post 3,April 3 One theme I have seen so far in the book is perseverence. That game with the giant is a good example of this. Ender dies a lot of times and gets very frusturated, but does not give up. He doesn't quit and finds a way to beat the giant. Another example would be when even when things look very tough, and when bonzo tells him that he won't be able to participate in the games, he Thinks on the bright side of things and thinks "He'd be a good soldier too... not in Salamander army, maybe, but soon enough." I think both these examples show Ender's perseverence.
The lines of what is true and what is not often blur together, but in Ender’s Game the confusion is especially potent. As Ender finds his way to overcome the varies “impossibilities” that Graff sets up for him, not only is Ender trying to figure out what is fact and what is fiction, we, as the readers, struggle through with him. One can never quite tell is what the children in the Battle school believe false. I keeps us aware of what is being thought and said, trying to figure it out what to believe. Orson Scott Card makes empathize with Ender because we are all trying to sort things into black and white, hard and soft, nice and mean, true or false, but when we are fed all of these half truths it is nearly impossible to paint the whole picture. We are lift in a shadowy place where you can’t tell what is what, and we are forced to stumble along with Ender. It is hard to imagine how hard it would be if one never knew for sure where the straight arrow of truth met the winding path of fiction.
One theme that has appeared is people covering up loneliness. Ender is obviously lonely when he figures out that it is his birthday and he starts remembering all of the things that Valentine did for him. However he pushes down those feelings and gets over them. That also ties into the theme of kids growing up to fast. He is only seven! I think that everyone at the battle school is secretly lonely, even if they don’t admit it. They act very sad but they turn it into anger at the other armies. It is like the school is using their loneliness to fuel them. Ender had always been lonely but this is the first time he really showed it. Despite the fact that it is not obvious, loneliness is one of the most widely felt emotions at battle school.
Gabe Post #4 April 14th An important theme that becomes apparent in this section is to look outside of the box. Meeker has this all worked out. He views all situation from angles no one knew to exsist. Even brilliant, world saving Ender has not even come close to thinking of some of Meeker's theories. For example, none of the children ever questioned the existence of buggers, but once Ender does, a seed is planted and begins to grow with questions and ideas. It is as if there is a whole other world out there, that one only has to stumble upon to open new windows of possibility. The children don't think for a moment about how they are being used by the adults and how Battle School is all a silly and possibly unnecessary game. If someone only brought this to the kids' attention, so many things might happen. Maybe an uprising, or at least an awareness, the seed. Hence is the power of thinking beyond. Most of the children and most people in life think strictly about what is before them but not what is around it or as Orson Scott Card writes, "It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instad of what they said."
Rylee Hafitz Blog Post # 6 April 27, 2011 Isolation
The theme, ‘isolation’ has shown up a lot in this book and even several times in this section. The definition of isolate is to set or place apart; detach or separate so as to be alone. As we obviously know, Colonel Graff has wanted to isolate Ender from the beginning. He believes that isolation from Earth and his family is what is best for Ender. I believe that without isolation, Ender would be much more in touch with Valentine, which would make him weaker. I think that Ender would not be commander of Dragon army, and I also would assume, that Ender would not be on Anderson and Colonel Graff’s radar if isolation was not in the picture. I have come to a conclusion, that without isolation, Ender would not be the character that he is. An example of isolation in this book is that on page 206, right after we learn about Ender beating Badger army, Ender tells us about the disadvantage that was given to the other team. Ender is isolated and not told about the new twist to the game. Another example of this in the section was on page 202, when Colonel Graff was having a conversation with General Pace. Graff said, “Obviously. But the connection is there. Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe, to the core of his soul, that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves. If he does not believe that, then he will never reach the peak of his abilities.” I think that once again, Graff is isolating Ender, putting this enormous pressure on him to do the right thing. Graff is also taking a huge risk by deciding to make this decision about Ender. I do have a prediction though, that the theme of isolation will be used throughout the rest of this book.
One theme I saw come up a lot in the book is the question what is love. I think there is a lot of confusion for Ender about who truly loves him and who is pretending to as part of the game. The first person who I wondered loved Ender is Peter. He says to Ender on page 12, “You can make yourselves sound like pathetic, cute little children so we’ll love you and be nice to you. But it doesn’t work. I can see you for what you really are. They meant you to be human, little third, but you’re really a bugger, and now it shows.” Especially since this is in the very beginning of the book, it makes you feel like Peter really hates Ender. Another time, though, on page 15, Peter says, “Ender, I’m sorry, I know how it feels, I’m sorry, I’m your brother, I love you.” This really makes you think the opposite of what you felt before, plus it’s only three pages afterwards. I think, deep down, Peter has to love Ender, but given how violent he is, I have to wonder.
Another person who yanks on the reader’s chain is Graff. Does he really love Ender? At the beginning, Graff was extremely sweet and acted as a guardian to young Ender, so the reader was forced to love him. Later, however, Graff says to Anderson about Ender on page 155, “So I’m a low kind of guy…We’re both the scum of the earth…After all, our lives depend on him doing real well.” To me, this is the part of Graff that gets frustrated with Ender and wants to quit. There will be hardships with every child adult relationship, but this makes me think Graff is just putting on a show for the kid who’s going to save the world, hopefully. Ender, then, hates Graff and doesn’t go along with his tricks and notices all the bad things in him. Now, though, in this section, he likes him more and more. This is very confusing to me, so I can’t imagine how this would feel to Ender.
I think the author does a really good job of making us wonder what love means and how you know someone truly loves you. Ender has to decide for himself who is his friend and who is his enemy.
A huge theme I've seen throughout the book is characters dehumanizing others so they can feel better about their own actions. At first, Graff dehumanizes Ender. He puts Ender in complete isolation, cheats him, and makes Ender feel like Peter-a killer. The only way Graff seemed to be able to dehumanize Ender was to think of Ender like a future commander, not a young boy. He had to imagine Ender as almost a robot, just strong and a fighter, not a human being. It seems like the humans, mostly the top people in the battle school, such as Graff, Major Imbu, and Mazer Rackham even, are dehumanizing the Buggers. On page 270, Ender tried to further understand the Buggers with Mazer Rackham by saying, " So they didn't know what they were doing." And Mazer responds, "Don't start apologizing to them, Ender. Just because they didn't know they were killing human beings doesn't mean they weren't killing human beings." It's almost like Mazer Rackham doesn't want to admit to himself that the Buggers have feelings. He's trying to imagine them as killers, not accidental murderers. He is also trying to convince himself that killing the queen ant was right. After Mazer Rackham described what the buggers looked like and how they are ancestors of bugs, I began to dehumanize them myself. I saw them as evil creatures and I no longer had any sympathy for them. Orson Scott Card really allows the reader to feel what it's like in each of the characters shoes. I couldn't believe myself when I began to want Ender to kill the Buggers. After hearing that they didn't even look like humans, and they were insects, I immediately thought they had no feelings.
Kira April 1, 2011 TRUST
ReplyDeleteFor themes, there have been a few but we aren't that far into the book. I think one theme that has definitely been portrayed is trust. Trust appears in the beginning when Ender is trusting Graff and is taken from home. Trust is portrayed when Edward is still with the launches and he trusts them to help him. Trust is in the section due this week where Ender has to trust himself. He has to trust that he can do this, that he can stay strong and know that he will be alright even if no one believes in him but himself.
Robz April 1 post 3
ReplyDeleteOne theme i have seen through the whole book so far is Ender using people to complete his goals. One example of when he is using someone is when he is friends with Shen just so he can hurt Bernard's group. Ender doesn't seem to try to use people in a mean way but you can't lable what he does as mean either so its hard to figure out if he is doing the right thing or the wrong thing? I think Ender use's the people so he can gain respect and become a leader. Respect would be another theme that you will see play out through the rest of the book. Be on the look out for Ender to try to use someone in the next chapters, because i can almost say for 100% that he will.
John April 1, 2011
ReplyDeleteJealousy
I think that jealousy is a very important theme in the book, as well as the most easy to see. At the start, Peter is jealous of Ender because Ender had his monitor on longer than Peter, and even more so because Ender gets to go to battle school. That is said outright by the author in the book.
You can make an argument about Stilson being jealous of Ender, that being why Stilson bullies him so much. Also, when Ender is on the spaceship with everyone else, Graff says that Ender is the only smart one. Sure, that makes people not like Ender out of resentment, but also just because they are so jealous that Grafff has acknowledged him. I find it hard to believe that Graff would be jealous of Ender. It would make sense, because Ender is more powerful than Graff is and Ender is a kid. But Graff is so devoted to the I.F. that he knows it is for the best.
Rose: Post #3, April 1st
ReplyDeleteOne of the themes I've noticed in this book is the idea of people having multiple sides. Ender is a good example of this: he has the sweet, Valentine side, as well as the darker, more violent, Peter side. The author tosses you until you accept that Ender can't be defined by one adjective; just when you decide he is an quiet, peaceful, little boy, he hurts someone and you're back to wondering who he really is. When he rips the eye out of the giant, I felt myself go "Whoa!! What happened to the sweet little Ender I liked?" I think the truth is that no one can be just kind or mean or daring. There are multiple sides of everyone.
This also happens with Peter. The author sets us up to believe he is simply a cruel bully, but then, in the darkness of the night, we see a soft, sad, vulnerable part of him that makes you realize that people can be many things at once.
Evan: Post 3,April 3
ReplyDeleteOne theme I have seen so far in the book is perseverence. That game with the giant is a good example of this. Ender dies a lot of times and gets very frusturated, but does not give up. He doesn't quit and finds a way to beat the giant. Another example would be when even when things look very tough, and when bonzo tells him that he won't be able to participate in the games, he Thinks on the bright side of things and thinks "He'd be a good soldier too... not in Salamander army, maybe, but soon enough." I think both these examples show Ender's perseverence.
Becca
ReplyDeleteBlog Post: 4
April 14, 2011
The lines of what is true and what is not often blur together, but in Ender’s Game the confusion is especially potent. As Ender finds his way to overcome the varies “impossibilities” that Graff sets up for him, not only is Ender trying to figure out what is fact and what is fiction, we, as the readers, struggle through with him. One can never quite tell is what the children in the Battle school believe false. I keeps us aware of what is being thought and said, trying to figure it out what to believe. Orson Scott Card makes empathize with Ender because we are all trying to sort things into black and white, hard and soft, nice and mean, true or false, but when we are fed all of these half truths it is nearly impossible to paint the whole picture. We are lift in a shadowy place where you can’t tell what is what, and we are forced to stumble along with Ender. It is hard to imagine how hard it would be if one never knew for sure where the straight arrow of truth met the winding path of fiction.
Alexander
ReplyDeleteBlog post 4, April 14
One theme that has appeared is people covering up loneliness. Ender is obviously lonely when he figures out that it is his birthday and he starts remembering all of the things that Valentine did for him. However he pushes down those feelings and gets over them. That also ties into the theme of kids growing up to fast. He is only seven! I think that everyone at the battle school is secretly lonely, even if they don’t admit it. They act very sad but they turn it into anger at the other armies. It is like the school is using their loneliness to fuel them. Ender had always been lonely but this is the first time he really showed it. Despite the fact that it is not obvious, loneliness is one of the most widely felt emotions at battle school.
Gabe Post #4 April 14th
ReplyDeleteAn important theme that becomes apparent in this section is to look outside of the box. Meeker has this all worked out. He views all situation from angles no one knew to exsist. Even brilliant, world saving Ender has not even come close to thinking of some of Meeker's theories. For example, none of the children ever questioned the existence of buggers, but once Ender does, a seed is planted and begins to grow with questions and ideas. It is as if there is a whole other world out there, that one only has to stumble upon to open new windows of possibility. The children don't think for a moment about how they are being used by the adults and how Battle School is all a silly and possibly unnecessary game. If someone only brought this to the kids' attention, so many things might happen. Maybe an uprising, or at least an awareness, the seed. Hence is the power of thinking beyond. Most of the children and most people in life think strictly about what is before them but not what is around it or as Orson Scott Card writes, "It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instad of what they said."
Rylee Hafitz
ReplyDeleteBlog Post # 6
April 27, 2011
Isolation
The theme, ‘isolation’ has shown up a lot in this book and even several times in this section. The definition of isolate is to set or place apart; detach or separate so as to be alone. As we obviously know, Colonel Graff has wanted to isolate Ender from the beginning. He believes that isolation from Earth and his family is what is best for Ender. I believe that without isolation, Ender would be much more in touch with Valentine, which would make him weaker. I think that Ender would not be commander of Dragon army, and I also would assume, that Ender would not be on Anderson and Colonel Graff’s radar if isolation was not in the picture. I have come to a conclusion, that without isolation, Ender would not be the character that he is.
An example of isolation in this book is that on page 206, right after we learn about Ender beating Badger army, Ender tells us about the disadvantage that was given to the other team. Ender is isolated and not told about the new twist to the game. Another example of this in the section was on page 202, when Colonel Graff was having a conversation with General Pace. Graff said, “Obviously. But the connection is there. Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe, to the core of his soul, that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves. If he does not believe that, then he will never reach the peak of his abilities.” I think that once again, Graff is isolating Ender, putting this enormous pressure on him to do the right thing. Graff is also taking a huge risk by deciding to make this decision about Ender.
I do have a prediction though, that the theme of isolation will be used throughout the rest of this book.
Post #7, May 5th
ReplyDeleteSarah
One theme I saw come up a lot in the book is the question what is love. I think there is a lot of confusion for Ender about who truly loves him and who is pretending to as part of the game. The first person who I wondered loved Ender is Peter. He says to Ender on page 12, “You can make yourselves sound like pathetic, cute little children so we’ll love you and be nice to you. But it doesn’t work. I can see you for what you really are. They meant you to be human, little third, but you’re really a bugger, and now it shows.” Especially since this is in the very beginning of the book, it makes you feel like Peter really hates Ender. Another time, though, on page 15, Peter says, “Ender, I’m sorry, I know how it feels, I’m sorry, I’m your brother, I love you.” This really makes you think the opposite of what you felt before, plus it’s only three pages afterwards. I think, deep down, Peter has to love Ender, but given how violent he is, I have to wonder.
Another person who yanks on the reader’s chain is Graff. Does he really love Ender? At the beginning, Graff was extremely sweet and acted as a guardian to young Ender, so the reader was forced to love him. Later, however, Graff says to Anderson about Ender on page 155, “So I’m a low kind of guy…We’re both the scum of the earth…After all, our lives depend on him doing real well.” To me, this is the part of Graff that gets frustrated with Ender and wants to quit. There will be hardships with every child adult relationship, but this makes me think Graff is just putting on a show for the kid who’s going to save the world, hopefully. Ender, then, hates Graff and doesn’t go along with his tricks and notices all the bad things in him. Now, though, in this section, he likes him more and more. This is very confusing to me, so I can’t imagine how this would feel to Ender.
I think the author does a really good job of making us wonder what love means and how you know someone truly loves you. Ender has to decide for himself who is his friend and who is his enemy.
Post #7
ReplyDeleteJulia Kirsch
May 5th, 2011
A huge theme I've seen throughout the book is characters dehumanizing others so they can feel better about their own actions. At first, Graff dehumanizes Ender. He puts Ender in complete isolation, cheats him, and makes Ender feel like Peter-a killer. The only way Graff seemed to be able to dehumanize Ender was to think of Ender like a future commander, not a young boy. He had to imagine Ender as almost a robot, just strong and a fighter, not a human being.
It seems like the humans, mostly the top people in the battle school, such as Graff, Major Imbu, and Mazer Rackham even, are dehumanizing the Buggers. On page 270, Ender tried to further understand the Buggers with Mazer Rackham by saying, " So they didn't know what they were doing." And Mazer responds, "Don't start apologizing to them, Ender. Just because they didn't know they were killing human beings doesn't mean they weren't killing human beings." It's almost like Mazer Rackham doesn't want to admit to himself that the Buggers have feelings. He's trying to imagine them as killers, not accidental murderers. He is also trying to convince himself that killing the queen ant was right.
After Mazer Rackham described what the buggers looked like and how they are ancestors of bugs, I began to dehumanize them myself. I saw them as evil creatures and I no longer had any sympathy for them. Orson Scott Card really allows the reader to feel what it's like in each of the characters shoes. I couldn't believe myself when I began to want Ender to kill the Buggers. After hearing that they didn't even look like humans, and they were insects, I immediately thought they had no feelings.