Comments for the second novel are located @

Yae Chan L.
David K.
Young C.
Sumin K.
Daniel C.
Dan K.

Book 2 Entry #6

Q. Are there any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? what are they, and how do they relate? does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

As I was reading this novel, I was easily, obviously relate this situation to a real world situation. It was Korea. Although some minor factors are different, there are many similarities with Korean education and the Battle School in Ender's game. Both gives hard time to students and soldiers.

As many students in TCIS know, Korean schools literally “impose” a lot of work on students and basically inundate the students with knowledge. The similar thing is done in the Battle School. They take the children when they are young, treat them like soldiers in armies, and make them do tough training. Moreover, the Battle School and Korean schools both show ranks of soldiers/students about how well they perform. As the students and soldiers grow older, their lives become more harder. They have to think more and work more. Therefore, students who perform well tend to live an easier life in both places.

Still, there are some differences. One is that the Battle School doesn’t force students to enter it, and it only has geniuses in the school. However, after the boys enter the school, more things are similar. They are swamped with hard work by harsh, given from not so magnanimous teachers.

Because the novel isn’t focused on criticizing Korea’s education system, it doesn’t talk a lot about how the battle school could be resolved or “fixed.” As a matter of fact, in the novel, the Battle School seems to be an efficient system, which can train soldiers and commanders at the best conditions. Yet, it doesn’t mean that Korean education system is always efficient. There are always problems in education systems. If we are to find solutions for such problems, it would be better to look at other non-fictions are other genres of fiction, because Science Fiction has a distance from real life. Personally, I think this book relates a lot with the 21st century Korea’s education system, though it isn’t intended by the author.

Book 2 Entry #5

Q. What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in any way? why?

The whole novel’s mood, as a matter of fact, is quite depressing. We all have these scenes and numerous pages where Ender goes under suffering from his launchmates, fellow soldiers, upper commanders, and even his brother, Peter. Then, in the last climax, Ender gains victory. However, this part is too short to change the mood of this story. Though it has a strong emotion, ten pages can’t beat the rest of the book. Moreover, I think this book is more depressing because there is no nature in the book. Throughout the whole novel, Ender stays in the Battle School, and because it is located in space, no sense of nature comes out. The author almost never seems to mention about nature such as sunlight, forests, flowers, fresh air, rain, or snow. It is just life in the cubed rooms, full with tension.

Frankly, this novel saddens me because of how other characters treat Ender. This is similar to real life in Korea. I think the people in this novel treat geniuses in a wrong way. At least, I can’t blame Graff for giving Ender such a hard time because he actually became the war hero, but I think Graff’s method was wrong. I think a real way to grow geniuses is using the carrot-and-whip method. The people who train the genius shouldn’t just give loads of work and hardships, but also fruits and show accomplishments of the genius so that they can understand that they are developing. This worked because this was fiction. I am quite sure that if this was real life, Ender would have had a very, very high chance of giving up in the middle of the Battle School. Furthermore, geniuses are also people and they need rest. As I mentioned in the last paragraph, no nature comes out in this novel. I think we could change the mood of this novel by portraying the scene where Ender comes back to Earth, feels the warm sunshine and enjoys the scent of flowers.

Book 2 Entry #4

Q. Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

Peter: Being the oldest of the Wiggins, Peter comes out as the villain of this novel. Though the Wiggins in this story are all portrayed as geniuses, their characteristics are all different. Peter represents the evil side of the Wiggins. Throughout this novel, Peter threats Ender a lot of times, and later, he becomes the greedy man who just peruses power. It is not precisely known why Peter didn’t enter the Battle School, but the two biggest reasons seem to be not being genius enough and his malevolent character.

Valentine: Valentine is Peter’s younger sister and Ender’s older brother. Valentine is basically the opposite of Peter. Unlike Peter, Valentine really cares about Ender, encourages him, and supports him mentally. If we see Valentine, we can see unconditional love like one a parent should give. Later, Valentine becomes an anonymous author with Peter, writes articles, and tries to change the government.

Ender: Ender, the youngest of the Wiggins appear to be the most intelligent boy in his family. He also has the character right between Peter and Valentine. He loves his family and friends, but he often hurts them, for example during the launch, he breaks Bernard’s arm. As we could see in the title, Ender is the protagonist of this story, and the whole plot is focused on Ender. Starting as a genius in a normal home, Ender enters a Battle School, becomes the youngest soldier, shows superior qualities of a commander, gets promoted to command at the Third Bugger war, and finally becomes the war hero.

Like most people would, my favorite character from this book is Ender. However, I also Valentine too. I think these three characters are significant about human truth because they each represent types of people. There are many types of people in this world, and I think this author described it well with this three characters. I think this book also has a focus on relationship between people. This shows how people react to others and kind of shows how we should act to others by showing the good aspects of Valentine.

Book 2 Entry #3

Q. What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

“Ender took off his headphones, filled with the cheers of his squadron leaders, and only then realized that there was just as much noise in the room with him."

I think this passage is the climax of this novel. This is where Ender wins in the simulation and it is found out that actually the simulation wzas a real war.

This scene was the catharsis of the novel for me. Though this novel was exciting and fun to read, it wasn’t short, and I was starting to feel pain from reading the book. Then, this climax came out and at last Ender won! Ender’s victory was the fruit of all the hardships Ender had to go over. Until the simulation ends, Ender doesn’t know that his simulation was a real war. The basic plot is that Graff, which is one of the main characters, plans everything and makes up lies to make Ender do the simulation. After getting trained by Mazer Rackham, the war hero from the Second Bugger War, Ender finally starts the simulation. After many hardships in the simulation, Ender finally defeats the enemy’s planet and achieves victory. Later, Ender is told that the simulation was actually the Third Bugger War, and Ender became the war hero.

This part made me feel catharsis. It felt like I have beaten the final boss of a game, or got an A for a grade. Actually, I knew the basic plot of this story beforehand, because I was the only on in our family who has never read Ender’s Game before. My parents and my brother read it when my brother was doing his project back in Minnesota. So, I was somewhat worried about reading this book, but it was okay. I liked the climax and it felt different from what I heard. Just listening to the story and reading the book was different. Because of this climax, I felt like recommending this book to others. I heard that Ender’s Game is coming out as a movie next year, and I am looking forward to see it and watch how the movie conducts the climax of this novel.

Book 2 Entry #2

Q. Are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? Or disturbing? Or memorable? Describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

My memorable place from this novel is “Earth” before Ender left for the Battle School. Some might think I am just being silly. However, after reading this novel, I have started to appreciate my real life. Although I am living under enough suffering, Ender’s life in Battle School looked quite harsh for me to adapt in.

Before, I have always complained about given situations. In school, Mandarin tests were hard, I could never get an A on my writing assignment, I was the section leaders of clarinets in Band, but many people challenged me and I have lost every single challenge. Besides that, there was too much English homework. At home, my parents were giving me pressure to get the headmaster honor roll for this semester, and my private tutoring teacher was scolding me everyday for not being able to solve the “easy” questions. However, in the story Ender’s Game, Ender goes over a much harder situation. Being about ten years younger than me, he decides to go into a Battle School, which everyone lives in a dormitory, can’t see their family for more than ten years, and can’t even talk about home. To me, Battle School is a kind of frightening place, because I can’t see the clouds in the sky.

Most evaluations in life are done relatively, which means that we compare. When I compared my life to other friends, it was hard. However, when I compared to Ender Wiggin, I have to say no. Comparing to Ender, I was living in paradise, and I recognized that fact when I was reading the book. My hardships and complaints were nothing when I saw Ender. Thus, I have found Ender’s life before Battle School and my Earth, my school, and my home all memorable. I think this novel itself was a meaningful and fruitful experience to me.

Book 2 Entry #1

Q. What is the main theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2008?

In this novel, Ender Wiggin, who is a extraordinary genius, uses his outstanding abilities to become a war hero, in spite the fact that he is young. I think this is the theme of this novel, and I think this is closely related to our lives as a teenager living in the 21st century.
From the beginning of the story, Ender gets chosen as the child to be sent at the Battle School. In the story, we know that Ender is the youngest of his siblings. Peter is his older brother, following Valentine, Ender’s older sister. After he goes into the Battle School, Ender becomes the first to get promoted to an army, which is Salamander, among his “launchies.” The novel clearly states that the earliest boys usually get promoted at the age of eight, but Ender becomes a soldier before he becomes seven. And at the end, Ender being still young becomes a war hero. As we can see, Ender does everything though he is young.
Then, what is the theme of this story? All the four steps of finding the theme, which is title, characters/conflict, climax, and resolution, all at least imply that Ender is young, but did all the great things. Furthermore, we can obviously see that the whole novel emphasizes that Ender is special because he is young. Thus, I think the theme is that “Although teenagers are young, they can accomplish many things. Therefore, don’t use being young as an excuse.”
This seems significant to a teenager living in the 21st century. Nowadays, at least in Korea, there are many crimes done by teenagers, starting from bullying to raping. The problem is that these teenagers get less punishment because of the fact that they are “young.” I don’t think the society should permit this and teenagers should use this as an excuse. As one of the teenagers in 2008, I am somewhat proud of Ender, being so superb and young, and I think we shouldn’t use being young as an excuse. We can still do anything regardless of the fact that we are young.