Stacy
Abby
Eunice
Susie
Danielle
Joanne
Thursday, April 3, 2008
a Special Setting
There was this one setting that I personally truly liked. It was finally away from all the scientific, boring, technological areas. It was on Earth, in a place called Greensboro. This setting was the place where Ender had a quick visit on Earth before he went to Command School. The setting was a natural, tranquil place that had a white mansion that sprawled on a hill. This mansion looked over Lake Brandt on one side and a five-acre private lake on the other. The water was clean, filled with living things, and the sunlight laid upon the whole setting. There were trees, fresh air, and you could probably hear the birds chirping beautifully. I loved this setting; it would be my dream to go and live there. One of the reasons why this setting is so meaningful is because it's so pretty, relaxing, AND AWAY from the complicated machines, artificial air, and recycled water. It's finally real and not to tense and depressing like the setting in Battle and Command Schools. I actually always wanted to stay in these kind of areas all my life; it would feel like heaven :) I guess it was the perfect place for Ender and Valentine to have a sincere conversation
an Important Passage
pg. 241-242 bottom of pg. 241 to the middle of pg. 242
"I could never beat Peter. No matter what I said or did. I never could."
So it came back to Peter. "He was years older than you. And stronger."
"So are the buggers."
She could see his reasoning. Or rather his unreasoning. He could win all he wanted, but he knew in his heart that there was always someone who could destroy him. He always knew that he had not really won, becasue there was Peter, undefeated champion.
"You really want to beat Peter?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
"Beat the buggers. Then come home and see who notices Peter Wiggin anymore. Look him in the eye when all the world loves and reveres you. That'll be defeat in his eyes, Ender. That's how you win."
"You don't understand," he said.
"Yes I do."
"No you don't. I don't want to beat Peter."
"Then what do you want?"
"I want him to love me."
When I read this passage, I suddenly got flicked on. It was such a short statement, but the quick shock I received totally changed my view of the whole story. The last sentence, "I want him to love me" was the special one. I couldn't believe what I read so I read that area over and over again until it got stuck in my head. Ender wanted to make a truce between Peter. He actually wanted to have Peter love him. All this time I thought Ender abohorred and also was frightened of Peter. I thought there was a serious hate between them that Ender wanted to win. What Valentine thought up there was what I thought too. Reading this almost made me cry; it was so touching. All Ender wanted from Peter was love, but it was clearly shown and written that Peter never loved anyone but himself. Ender had and wanted affection, not only to Valentine, but to the antagonist of the book: Peter. I realized that Ender was not just a cold, boring guy who is just a genius; he was a child, an innocent boy who's reaching out for love. This passage was quite meaningful; so touching and finally not about the subject of futuristic battles/war.
This scene reminds me of little children who just want love from their parent so much, but the parent doesn't give them that love because of work, apathy, or other personal reasons. I have always felt sorry for those children; they would always have a hard time growing up. For example, in the movie Nanny Diaries, the boy was so cute and was so reaching out to his dad, but his self-centered, selfish father was so careless and annoyed for his own family.
"I could never beat Peter. No matter what I said or did. I never could."
So it came back to Peter. "He was years older than you. And stronger."
"So are the buggers."
She could see his reasoning. Or rather his unreasoning. He could win all he wanted, but he knew in his heart that there was always someone who could destroy him. He always knew that he had not really won, becasue there was Peter, undefeated champion.
"You really want to beat Peter?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
"Beat the buggers. Then come home and see who notices Peter Wiggin anymore. Look him in the eye when all the world loves and reveres you. That'll be defeat in his eyes, Ender. That's how you win."
"You don't understand," he said.
"Yes I do."
"No you don't. I don't want to beat Peter."
"Then what do you want?"
"I want him to love me."
When I read this passage, I suddenly got flicked on. It was such a short statement, but the quick shock I received totally changed my view of the whole story. The last sentence, "I want him to love me" was the special one. I couldn't believe what I read so I read that area over and over again until it got stuck in my head. Ender wanted to make a truce between Peter. He actually wanted to have Peter love him. All this time I thought Ender abohorred and also was frightened of Peter. I thought there was a serious hate between them that Ender wanted to win. What Valentine thought up there was what I thought too. Reading this almost made me cry; it was so touching. All Ender wanted from Peter was love, but it was clearly shown and written that Peter never loved anyone but himself. Ender had and wanted affection, not only to Valentine, but to the antagonist of the book: Peter. I realized that Ender was not just a cold, boring guy who is just a genius; he was a child, an innocent boy who's reaching out for love. This passage was quite meaningful; so touching and finally not about the subject of futuristic battles/war.
This scene reminds me of little children who just want love from their parent so much, but the parent doesn't give them that love because of work, apathy, or other personal reasons. I have always felt sorry for those children; they would always have a hard time growing up. For example, in the movie Nanny Diaries, the boy was so cute and was so reaching out to his dad, but his self-centered, selfish father was so careless and annoyed for his own family.
the Mood
The mood of the book Ender's Game is depressing, stressful, and desperate. The stress also made me extremely stressed while I was just reading. It mostly came from all the pressure and fatigue Ender felt when he was manipulated and pushed by the teachers. The burdensome and extremely challanging battles and games just never seemed to end. It kept coming and coming with more difficulty as time progressed. The rules were broken and going crazy while everything was so complex. Ender had to go through all this, as a commander and soldier, plus the isolation he had to face. Graff planned Ender to be isolated continuously; adding on to that, there was an "anti-Ender" group who seriously wanted to kill him. Bonzo and his cronies and friends all loathed Ender so that made Ender's isolation much more deeper. All of these obstacles made the mood stressful for Ender and the reader; they also describe how the atmosphere was also depressing. But how the Battle School and Command School felt so cold contributed to the depression. It seemed like there were no warm feelings anywhere Ender went. There was no affection at all. It was just all battles, battles, games, games. As for the desperate mood, it's because the book gradually gets more and more tense. The games get more and more stressful and difficult. The world needs Ender more and more. Everything was and went in a hurry. During the last battle, the mood was especially urgent.
However, I never found the novel saddening. Just because the atmosphere was depressing, anxious, and urgent, it doesn't mean that the atmosphere was sad. Sad, to me, means tears or death. This novel was just tense and full of pressure.
However, I never found the novel saddening. Just because the atmosphere was depressing, anxious, and urgent, it doesn't mean that the atmosphere was sad. Sad, to me, means tears or death. This novel was just tense and full of pressure.
the Main Characters
Ender
Ender is the main character in the book that is the third born child of a family. He has a violent, strong brother named Peter and a mild, sweet sister named Valentine. The only true person that Ender loved was Valentine whilePeter was mainly one of the people who bullied Ender and possibly the only one who Ender is scared of. During the days Ender lived in, couples could not have more than two children so Ender had to experience constant bullying from others. Ender is the type of boy who does not want others to look down on him so he knows exactly what to do. Sometimes he can be the kind, gentle boy while in other occasions, he automatically turns ruthless and violent to protect himself. He is both alike in Valentine's and Peter's personality; however, whenever he knows he instinctively becomes like Peter, he becomes stressed and hates himself for being like that. For example, after he beat up Stilson and Bonzo, he felt guilty and depressed for quite a while and the memories kept returning to haunt him.
Ender is the genius that can understand people's minds which leads him to win in fights, whether it is a conversation or battle. At such a young age, he started to direct his own Dragon Army and wherever he goes, there always is something. He thinks immensely carefully and profoundly compared to what a six year old can be; he talks, speaks, and thinks almost like an adult. As his life progresses in Battle School, he knows that he is constantly manipulated and pressured by the teachers. However, he realizes that the manipulation is necessary and that he has to play the games. Ender is extremely intelligent in many ways which leads him to be the hero of the world . Even though he is supposed to be elated and proud of himself, he is not and keeps stressing over his murderous mind. When Ender finds a queen cacoon and his compassion leads him to repay his destruction and faults to the buggers, I think he finds his true happiness with Valentine.
Even though Ender is a nice, smart guy, I don't really like him because he's too perfect and seems to barely have affection towards others except Valentine. In my opinion, Ender reveals to us that there are times when we are forced to do something important and we feel depressed over what we are doing and just want to give up. However, this experience can be a lesson for us and that it will truly help us earning our true bliss of the world.
Valentine
Valentine is the sweetest and mildest of all the 3 siblings. She truly loves Ender with all her heart and is the only one that actually feels that way. She knows that Peter owns a ridiculous, violent mind that threatens to kill her and Ender which leads her to be always protective her younger brother with all her heart. Even when Ender was gone to Battle School, she secretly celebrated his birthday and helped save Ender a couple times from a mental breakdown. She only thinks good of him and always is compassionate towards most things.
As Valentine lived in Earth with Peter, she decides to plan with him to change the political world of the earth. Having an incognito Demosthenes, she turns out to write better than Peter and influence many people. As time passed, she gradually earned more and more power as she also worked under Peter's orders. She actually liked the control and saw no reason why she would want to stop her job as Demosthenes and a writer. However, she eventually did not fall for the total power Peter wanted but worked with Ender to colonize the bugger worlds to make a free, real land.
Valentine is one of my favorite characters in the novel. She is so sweet, compassionate, and especially towards the end she was so confident, sure, and righteous. In my opinion, she reveals to me that loyalty, love, and faith will always last till the end, no matter what changes you are going through.
Peter
Peter is the oldest sibling among the three and without doubt, the most violent and and brutal. He has absolutely no morality but is fascinatingly good at manipulation; he even influenced Valentine to work with him. Killing Ender and Valentine was probably a choice that he could have done. His self-centered mind only acts to benefit himself and use other people to satisfy him. He never thinks about others and always has this dark, deep, corruption inside of him that works together with his intelligence. While he acted as Locke, his greediness for immense world power eventually leads him to becoming the Hegemon. However, he does that through the Locke proposal which is barely like him at all.
Obviously, I don't like Peter. He's way to greedy and self-centered. How can he think of killing his own siblings? I wonder how if he even felt a tinge of compassion or guilt right before he died. Oppositely from Ender and Valentine, Peter reveals to me a dark, evil side of the world. He represents how people's greeds have no limitations.
Colonel Graff
Colonel Graff was the head of Battle School who mostly expected something from Ender. He was the one who constantly manipulated Ender and stressed him to the top that even I felt stressed reading. However, regardless of the depressing jobs he assigns to Ender, he still loves him very much. He was with Ender from the beginning of Battle School to the end of battles. I think Graff was a serious workaholic; he never seemed to rest. Plus, he got fatter every time and he never cared about his appearances.
Graff was an okay guy. To me, he just seemed so hostile whenever he said he will pressure Ender more and more. He should have thought more about Ender's feelings and not only about his concerns. Nevertheless, he became better towards the end when I saw the deep, affectionate feelings he actually had. Graff reveals that the diligent, passionate workers of the world that eventually earn what they worked for.
Ender is the main character in the book that is the third born child of a family. He has a violent, strong brother named Peter and a mild, sweet sister named Valentine. The only true person that Ender loved was Valentine whilePeter was mainly one of the people who bullied Ender and possibly the only one who Ender is scared of. During the days Ender lived in, couples could not have more than two children so Ender had to experience constant bullying from others. Ender is the type of boy who does not want others to look down on him so he knows exactly what to do. Sometimes he can be the kind, gentle boy while in other occasions, he automatically turns ruthless and violent to protect himself. He is both alike in Valentine's and Peter's personality; however, whenever he knows he instinctively becomes like Peter, he becomes stressed and hates himself for being like that. For example, after he beat up Stilson and Bonzo, he felt guilty and depressed for quite a while and the memories kept returning to haunt him.
Ender is the genius that can understand people's minds which leads him to win in fights, whether it is a conversation or battle. At such a young age, he started to direct his own Dragon Army and wherever he goes, there always is something. He thinks immensely carefully and profoundly compared to what a six year old can be; he talks, speaks, and thinks almost like an adult. As his life progresses in Battle School, he knows that he is constantly manipulated and pressured by the teachers. However, he realizes that the manipulation is necessary and that he has to play the games. Ender is extremely intelligent in many ways which leads him to be the hero of the world . Even though he is supposed to be elated and proud of himself, he is not and keeps stressing over his murderous mind. When Ender finds a queen cacoon and his compassion leads him to repay his destruction and faults to the buggers, I think he finds his true happiness with Valentine.
Even though Ender is a nice, smart guy, I don't really like him because he's too perfect and seems to barely have affection towards others except Valentine. In my opinion, Ender reveals to us that there are times when we are forced to do something important and we feel depressed over what we are doing and just want to give up. However, this experience can be a lesson for us and that it will truly help us earning our true bliss of the world.
Valentine
Valentine is the sweetest and mildest of all the 3 siblings. She truly loves Ender with all her heart and is the only one that actually feels that way. She knows that Peter owns a ridiculous, violent mind that threatens to kill her and Ender which leads her to be always protective her younger brother with all her heart. Even when Ender was gone to Battle School, she secretly celebrated his birthday and helped save Ender a couple times from a mental breakdown. She only thinks good of him and always is compassionate towards most things.
As Valentine lived in Earth with Peter, she decides to plan with him to change the political world of the earth. Having an incognito Demosthenes, she turns out to write better than Peter and influence many people. As time passed, she gradually earned more and more power as she also worked under Peter's orders. She actually liked the control and saw no reason why she would want to stop her job as Demosthenes and a writer. However, she eventually did not fall for the total power Peter wanted but worked with Ender to colonize the bugger worlds to make a free, real land.
Valentine is one of my favorite characters in the novel. She is so sweet, compassionate, and especially towards the end she was so confident, sure, and righteous. In my opinion, she reveals to me that loyalty, love, and faith will always last till the end, no matter what changes you are going through.
Peter
Peter is the oldest sibling among the three and without doubt, the most violent and and brutal. He has absolutely no morality but is fascinatingly good at manipulation; he even influenced Valentine to work with him. Killing Ender and Valentine was probably a choice that he could have done. His self-centered mind only acts to benefit himself and use other people to satisfy him. He never thinks about others and always has this dark, deep, corruption inside of him that works together with his intelligence. While he acted as Locke, his greediness for immense world power eventually leads him to becoming the Hegemon. However, he does that through the Locke proposal which is barely like him at all.
Obviously, I don't like Peter. He's way to greedy and self-centered. How can he think of killing his own siblings? I wonder how if he even felt a tinge of compassion or guilt right before he died. Oppositely from Ender and Valentine, Peter reveals to me a dark, evil side of the world. He represents how people's greeds have no limitations.
Colonel Graff
Colonel Graff was the head of Battle School who mostly expected something from Ender. He was the one who constantly manipulated Ender and stressed him to the top that even I felt stressed reading. However, regardless of the depressing jobs he assigns to Ender, he still loves him very much. He was with Ender from the beginning of Battle School to the end of battles. I think Graff was a serious workaholic; he never seemed to rest. Plus, he got fatter every time and he never cared about his appearances.
Graff was an okay guy. To me, he just seemed so hostile whenever he said he will pressure Ender more and more. He should have thought more about Ender's feelings and not only about his concerns. Nevertheless, he became better towards the end when I saw the deep, affectionate feelings he actually had. Graff reveals that the diligent, passionate workers of the world that eventually earn what they worked for.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
the Entry of My Choice
For the entry of my choice, I was want to talk about some thoughts I had in mind as I was reading the book.
When Ender was in a room after the major battle, that destroyed the buggers completely, he slept and rested. Later, his close friends Alai, Bean, Petra, and Dink all came in to see him but when Petra and Dink entered, it was written that they were holding hands. Did they have a relationship? If they were, I think it would have been really cute because their "kind of" different personalities would have made a cute match. I think this book could have been better if there was a bit of a love plot because all the scientific battles and boring plots were truly never-ending and just time consuming. The book was a bit too long; overall, I did not like this novel at all. The story seemed so fake and "staged" with Ender being a genius who could do EVERYTHING. He was too smart and too mature; there were no cute childish scenes. I also found the book somewhat repetitive. Ender had the same battles (obviously winning all the time) and played that fairy game over and over again. I don't think I felt any ups and tensions until the climax.
About love plots, I thought there was a love story between Ender and Valentine. They definitely did not seem like siblings and they way they shared a conversation was so truthful, deep, mature, and full of intense love that I truly thought that there would be some drama between them. Whenever they were together, it felt like they were seriously a young couple.
When Ender was in a room after the major battle, that destroyed the buggers completely, he slept and rested. Later, his close friends Alai, Bean, Petra, and Dink all came in to see him but when Petra and Dink entered, it was written that they were holding hands. Did they have a relationship? If they were, I think it would have been really cute because their "kind of" different personalities would have made a cute match. I think this book could have been better if there was a bit of a love plot because all the scientific battles and boring plots were truly never-ending and just time consuming. The book was a bit too long; overall, I did not like this novel at all. The story seemed so fake and "staged" with Ender being a genius who could do EVERYTHING. He was too smart and too mature; there were no cute childish scenes. I also found the book somewhat repetitive. Ender had the same battles (obviously winning all the time) and played that fairy game over and over again. I don't think I felt any ups and tensions until the climax.
About love plots, I thought there was a love story between Ender and Valentine. They definitely did not seem like siblings and they way they shared a conversation was so truthful, deep, mature, and full of intense love that I truly thought that there would be some drama between them. Whenever they were together, it felt like they were seriously a young couple.
the Climax
The climax of the book is when Ender is fighting the major game in the Command School, which he is tricked into thinking that it is his final examination. The major turning point is when he defeats the buggers and is told that the games he was playing in Command School were actual real battles of the Third Invasion; so that game was the final battle of the Third Invasion.
To defeat the buggers, Ender commanded to blow up the main land/world of the buggers (where the queens are) and destroyed every one of them completely. Finally, all the conflicts were over.
This is the climax because it is when Ender makes his most significant decision. Even though he is sick of all the games and on the verge of giving up to go home he rather wanted to win unfairly than to be defeated unfairly. So he made that important decision of blowing up that bugger home planet with his special tactics. This decision solved the major conflicts of the book: the war between buggers and humans which Ender has to win to save the humans as well as the problems with Ender and games. It is another reason for why the part was a climax.
Also, this scene was tensest part of the whole book (another characteristic of a climax) and it made me curious to keep reading. The enemies seemed so powerful compared to Ender's tiny army, which built up the suspense. Plus, the suspicious response and atmosphere of the officers made things much more tense. Also, it included the major turning point; it turned 180. The problems of Ender and his constant, stressful games were at the highest point because it was his last game regarding buggers, battles, and commanding.
To defeat the buggers, Ender commanded to blow up the main land/world of the buggers (where the queens are) and destroyed every one of them completely. Finally, all the conflicts were over.
This is the climax because it is when Ender makes his most significant decision. Even though he is sick of all the games and on the verge of giving up to go home he rather wanted to win unfairly than to be defeated unfairly. So he made that important decision of blowing up that bugger home planet with his special tactics. This decision solved the major conflicts of the book: the war between buggers and humans which Ender has to win to save the humans as well as the problems with Ender and games. It is another reason for why the part was a climax.
Also, this scene was tensest part of the whole book (another characteristic of a climax) and it made me curious to keep reading. The enemies seemed so powerful compared to Ender's tiny army, which built up the suspense. Plus, the suspicious response and atmosphere of the officers made things much more tense. Also, it included the major turning point; it turned 180. The problems of Ender and his constant, stressful games were at the highest point because it was his last game regarding buggers, battles, and commanding.
the Second Book
posts above are regarding my second blogging book
ENDER'S GAME
ENDER'S GAME
ENDER'S GAME
ENDER'S GAME
ENDER'S GAME
ENDER'S GAME
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