Ender’s Game

Ender’s Shadow

Before Battle School

• Ender Wiggin goes to school for the first time after his monitor is removed. When bullies threaten him, he decides that if he doesn’t take care of himself now he will be forced to endure this forever. He beats the main bully and returns home to find his brother Peter ready to give Ender his daily share of harassment. The night is different however, as Ender is laying in bed awake, Peter comes to the head of his bed and whispers words of love for his brother. The next day Ender accepts an offer to attend Battle School in space.

• Story opens with a tiny child sitting on a dumpster. The leader of a group of children, poke, finds this child and offers him some food, seeing as he is barely alive. The child accepts this food and becomes part of pokes’ crew. The young boy, give the name “bean” by poke, suggests to poke that in order to survive they must find a bully to get them food. Poke returns with a young man named Achilles, and instantly brings him to the ground. Bean sees the evil glare in his eyes and suggest she kills him, but she does not and thus seals her doom. The boy Achilles plays “papa” to the children but eventually kills poke. Bean has no choice but to run away since it was his idea to kill Achilles.

On the way to battle school.

• On the initial launch, Ender finds himself in another bully situation. He decides to solve this situation in the fastest way possible. This solution, while being fast, ends with the bully’s arm dislocated and blood all around the shuttle. The teacher, Graff, who is onboard the shuttle handles this situation by not punishing Ender, but rather praising him and thus ostracizing him from the other children. His reasoning for this: “Ender doesn’t need friends, he needs subordinates” p. 38

• Bean runs to the only person he believes will be his escape from the streets where Achilles is king, Sister Carlotta. This nun is a recruiter for Battle School. She tests bean and finds his level of intelligence almost inconceivable. The boy is instantly recommended for battle school and finds his way on a shuttle. On the shuttle another teacher attempts the same method Graff used with Ender. Trying to Ostracize Bean from the other boys. This doesn’t work however, for the other children already knew bean was different than them. Not better than them, but surely more pitiful.

Salamander Army• Ender Wiggin joins Salamander Army!

• Instantly clashes with Salamanders leader, Bonzo Madrid. Luckily for Ender he finds the relief of having one friend, Petra Arkanian. With this one friend, Ender learns how to play in the Battle Room: a giant null-gravity room where the battles between armies take place. In Enders first battle, he is told by Bonzo to act invisible and not make anything harder on the reast of the army. Ender does this and by making himself invisible he is forgotten by the opposing army. Bonzo’s poor leadership leads him to a defeat but before the opposing army has a chance to accept victory, Ender springs to action and fires his laser gun at the team, immobilizing dozens of that army’s players before finally being frozen himself. This infuriates Bonzo to the point of violence. He punches Ender in the face and kicks him out of Salamander Army forever.

Rat Army

• In this army, Ender finally has a chance to show what he can do. Also, Ender has been playing Battle School’s most famous game, the Giants Drink. This psychological game evaluates those who play on a deep level. Ender meets Dink Meeker in this army and the two become close friends. At once Ender realizes that Dink would be a far better commander of Rat army than “Rose the Nose.” When Ender questions Dink on why he isn’t a commander Dink replies “I’ve been offered command of an army several times, I just don’t see myself as the commander type.” Confused, Ender doesn’t question dink any further. Things are going well for Ender when a surprise completely disrupts his world.

Ender’s Army• Ender gains his own army. At

first he looks at his army and notices that all buy a few are fresh launchies, completely new to Battle School. After he sees this he realizes that the ones who aren’t launchies are known rejects from other armies. Ender practices hard with these boys, however and discovers that they are all amazingly brilliant!

• With his new army, Ender climbs to the top of Battle School rankings. His new 5 platoon army makes the standard 4 platoon armies obsolete. No matter what challenges the teachers at Battle School throw at Ender, he wins every battle. This is no understatement, seeing as Enders army has faced multiple battles in one day and even 2 armies at once. The other armies at Battle School all acknowledge as the finest commander the school has ever seen.

Bean in battle school• Bean arrives in battle school. The first thing he

does is venture off and break the rules. He feels that this might be the only chance he has for roaming around battle school unrestricted. Bean finds his way into the schools ventilation system and analyses the space inside. He finds that if he wants to further explore the school he has to do it before he grows too much. Bean quickly shows he is the smartest child the known world has ever seen, but in order to be a commander, you need more than brains alone.

Bean decides to explore the ventilation system one night. He travels throughout the school making a mental picture of where everything is until he comes to the area where the teachers live. One of the teachers is just sitting down and bean is able to memorize his login ID and password. From here bean starts reading the files on other students at battle school and accessing files hidden to students. Once the other teachers learn of beans mission he is assigned a special task: Complete a roster of rejects and launchies for ender wiggin to command. Once bean places his name on this list, he ensures that two geniuses will finally meet.

Mission: Face your fears

Ender wiggin is promoted to battle school.Bean is given control of his own army.As soon as bean walks into his barracks he sees the last thing he ever

wants to see- Achilles. Bean is smart, though. He doesn’t allow even a moment of hesitation.

As soon as possible he devises a plan to get Achilles alone. Bean asks Achilles to help him with another mission into the

ventilation system. Playing on Achilles pride that he is the “Only one bean can trust” ensures that Achilles will fall nicely into this trap

Right as Achilles is deciding to kill bean and say he fell, bean springs his trap, and suspends Achilles in midair, leaving him there until he admits too all the killings, including poke.

Bean is finally at peace with himself and is ready to move on. Shortly afterward bean gets news. He is going to command school.

Day 1• Ender-

“I’ve been training with Mazer a lot now. He seems so persistent... Doesn’t he know this is only a game? I wish they would let me explore.”

• Bean: “They are being too

secretive here. My calculations show that this simulator is more than what they tell us. There are too many un answered questions. Why are we using such outdated models? Why must we be limited to so many ships? Why are we always fighting the computer and never each other? I don understand this...”

Day 2• Ender-

“I went into the simulator today. All my friends from battle school were there. I feel so much better now that I don’t have to do this alone! Mazer is still suspiciously persistent but I’m not longer miserable!”

• Bean: “They must have found

some way to make communications faster than lightspeed. I know these ships aren’t just part of a game. There are real people on here. Real soldiers! But why can’t they tell us this?”

Day Seven• Ender-

“Petra passed out from exhaustion today. We were all very worried about her. I had to shut off her mic when she started screaming. I don’t think she is going to be playing again for a few days. I wish I could just fall asleep for a few days too. I wonder what would happen if I just refused to play the game anymore.”

• Bean:“Everybody is falling apart. It’s just as graff said. I suspect in a few more days I might have to be the one commanding this platoon. I know I’m not as good as ender. I know I wont have the respect that ender has from everyone. This is ender’s war. He has to be the one who finishes it”

Day 11• Ender-

“I don’t know why, but I’ve been having terrible dreams. When I wake up I feel like I haven’t slept at all. I just feel horrible all the time, and Mazer isn’t making anything easier on me. I just wish so badly that this would all go away. I want to be back with Valentine. I miss Valentine.

• Bean:“Graff talked to me today. He said he doesn’t know how much ender has left. He thinks I’ll have to be taking leadership soon. I know the final battle is soon. I just don’t know what's going to happen if we lose. Or win...

Day... 15

• Ender-“I’m... tired.”

• Bean:“Tensions around here are getting higher. Everywhere I look I see russian soldiers are antsy. I think something big is going to happen after this war is over...”

Day Twenty-Five.........There is no diary entry for this day, because on this day, there is nobody to write a diary.

We won. We detonated the Dr. Device on the bugger home world. The Earth is safe and the Human race will live to breathe another day.

At command school the children are all hiding while the Russian and IF soldiers fight for

supremacy. Only time will tell what will happen next.

The End

• Ender and Bean have saved the world, but it is only Ender that cannot return to Earth. In the end, the best choice the IF could have made was having Ender be the one who is singled out. Ender: The Hero. Ender: The boy who will never see Earth again. It is just too dangerous... Every government on the planet wants control of Ender. Everybody wants a piece of the “Boy Who Saved the World.”

There will be other stories, for both Ender and Bean, but here at the end, the two greatest heroes will part ways forever.

Ender will never be complete again... Without his shadow.