Ender's Game

The novel’s first pages firmly establish its futuristic, highly technological, and drastically altered political setting characteristic of the science fiction genre. The first chapter begins the story’s worldbuilding with a singular monitor inserted in Ender’s neck. An unnamed military official—presumably, Graff—mentions how he has “watched through his eyes” and “listened through his ears” (1), which he could have only achieved through the monitor tracking Ender for three years. In this society, everyone relinquishes their privacy—and, as in Ender’s parents’ case, their religion and beliefs—for humanity’s survival. Such action requires an incredible amount of trust in the military, which Graff and other personnel acknowledge could have massive repercussions. Authorities advertise the monitors as harmless, bearing minimal side effects, and global compliance as heroic sacrifices for the common good, but such extreme measures walk a thin line between necessary and dangerously invasive. Hints of skepticism slip through the doctor’s dialogue after he removes Ender’s monitor and Ender has an extreme reaction: “They leave these things in the kids for three years, what do they expect? We could have switched him off, do you realize that?” (3). Due to overpopulation, the government also regulates the number of children a family can have. The government granted Ender’s parents special permission to have a third child, which others disdain and which results in repressed familial shame. These concerns about government intervention open the door to a larger conversation about the ethics of making sacrifices for the greater good as the story progresses.

The first chapters also introduce Ender’s character and worldview, which hold major thematic implications for the narrative. Though he is extremely talented and intelligent, he mostly wants people to leave him alone. He doesn’t care about popularity among his classmates, though he does take pride in their imitation of his tactics when a classmate sends him a mocking electronic message: “Even as his secret enemy called him names, the method of delivery praised him” (3). Ender hates bullies, but his circumstances attract them. With the monitor off, Stilson and his friends surround Ender, who now has no choice but to fight. However, Ender first fights intelligently and—using a similar tactic in a later important scene—convinces Stilson his best interest lies in fighting Ender one-on-one. Ender hates violence, but once he commits, he goes further than anyone else dares: “I have to win this now, and for all time, or I’ll fight every day and it’ll get worse and worse” (5). He’s willing to break unspoken honor codes to finish the enemy, which demonstrates how quickly his personality and philosophy can rapidly flip from good-natured and gentle to dark and deadly. However, he despises his dark side, weeping and wishing that bullies wouldn’t make him take that first step toward violence.

The second chapter explores dynamics between the three Wiggin siblings: They are all highly intelligent, but Peter relishes in using his genius to secure his own power. Valentine uses her intellect to keep Peter at bay: “Ender and I aren’t stupid. We scored as well as you did on everything. Better on some things. […] You’re not the smartest, Peter, just the biggest” (10). Though Peter expertly deflects, he also can’t completely deny that Valentine wouldn’t let him get away with their murder. Still, Valentine’s security measures don’t stop Peter from grotesquely detailing a plot to kill his siblings. He covers his assets by laughing off his morbid taunts as a game: “I can make you guys believe anything. I can make you dance around like puppets. […] Biggest suckers in the solar system” (10). However, later that night, while Peter assumes Ender is sleeping, Peter cries with apparently genuine regret, apologizing and saying he loves his brother. Throughout the book, both characters and readers struggle to determine when Peter is playing a game and when he is genuine: when he bullies his siblings, escalates to death threats, or suddenly betrays an emotional reliance on his siblings. Peter’s trickery establishes Ender’s experience with—and distaste of—games, setting him up to hate the mind games awaiting him at Battle School.