Perhaps this is what Graff wanted—to “show his hand,” but in doing so to make Ender recognize the fact that he cannot avoid manipulation.

She’s so desperate to talk to her brother that she’s willing to cooperate with people she despises—or else she recognizes that any resistance would be useless. She celebrated his eigth birthday on her own, but what worries her is Peter.

Ender is now nine years old, and we see a growing distance between him and his friends.

Perhaps this is meant to suggest that Valentine prioritizes Ender above everything else in her life.

Peter notes that there were plenty of people in history who controlled politics using only their words, and so he and Valentine could do the same. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Evidently, Peter wants Valentine to be radical and angry-sounding because he wants to bill himself as the “voice of reason,” but the danger of this arrangement is that anger and vitriol are always more entertaining to read. When did the Yellow Fever epidemic end in Fever... What is Grandfather's name in Fever 1793? Ender still cannot get past the part of the mind game where he sees his brother's face, and he feels only despair. However, after some time, she begins to think too much like Demosthenes and wonders if she is becoming him. Anti-Russian sentiments are everywhere in Card’s futuristic America, just as they were in the 80s. Peter knew that this was counter to their opinions, but also made sure his identity would have power. Are you a teacher? If I write this like you say I should, Peter, I’m pretty much calling for war to breakup the Warsaw Pact.” (Pg. He treats Valentine as an intellectual equal. Thus they will have an equally great affect on the plot (and on global politics) as Ender.

Ender’s mastery of his own emotions is both impressive and heartbreaking to see—he doesn’t give himself the option of feeling a strong sense of love for Valentine, because he knows that he’s being manipulated by Graff. Although Valentine feels as much compassion as Ender, she enjoys the idea of control like Peter. Meanwhile, Valentine has not forgotten Ender, even though the family moved to Greensboro. Seven months after Peter and Valentine begin writing as Locke and Demosthenes, “Demosthenes” has received an invitation from a major publication to write full-time. Especially because he can’t control the fact that Ender possesses more talent than him, he derives his sense of power from controlling others. Even as a child, he tried to imagine the Bugger children playing a game of their own in which humans were the enemy. He can think like his opponents—to do so is a way of “loving” his opponents. This fits, however, with the idea that empathy and compassion may be the best weapons available against one’s enemies.

He goes back to the mind game and yet somehow, this time, the snake that has crushed under his feet in the past turns into his sister and they walk to the mirror together. Join.

In this sad scene, we’re reminded of how Ender doesn’t really feel at home on Earth anymore—this is why he spends his time in a pool, where he’s weightless, just like in the battleroom. Graff wants her to help Ender and convinces her to write him a letter. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. It’s only now that Ender is truly considered a “commander” that he is allowed to study the nature of his enemies. Back at Battle School nine year old Ender is the top ranked soldier and a platoon leader in Phoenix Army with Petra as commander, but he hates his life. He’s an empathetic person, and this very empathy makes him deadly in battle. The chapter then cuts back to the Battle School.

Ender is furious that they have taken from him his last true memory—that of his sister. LitCharts Teacher Editions. This is one of the central moral dilemmas of the novel, and an echo (on a much vaster scale) of many of Ender’s fights—when is excessive force or a preemptive attack justified?

This reminds us that Ender’s innate sense of violence is disturbingly close to his sense of compassion: Ender is a deadly warrior because he uses empathy to understand his opponents and get inside their heads—then he can destroy them. The earlier scene in which Peter told Ender he loved him suggests that Peter (on one level) really does want to be a good man. It’s entirely possible, then, that the humans are building a fleet to destroy an alien race that doesn’t want to fight anymore. They know that Valentine and Peter want the same things the IF wants: peace and stability.

He basically makes it clear that she can have some influence on helping Ender even as Graff manipulates her letter for his own use. Teachers and parents! She also knows that Peter is right, that things are changing, and that they can make a difference. Peter’s mention of Locke suggests the famous English Enlightenment thinker John Locke, while Valentine’s mention of Demosthenes suggests a link with the legendary opponent of Alexander the Great (see Background Info for more about these historical allusions). Ender is still uncomfortable with his role as a killer, though—he is afraid of what he’s done to Bonzo, and what he’s capable of doing in a war with the Buggers. Back on Earth, more than a year after beginning her career as an incognito journalist. Although we think of statesmen as being peaceful people and of warriors being violent, the truth is often the reverse: there’ s a kind of violence in maintaining constant order over a country. Ask Question + 100. It was only by taking away Ender's most precious posession that Graff could spur earth's savior onward to step outside of the rules again and figure out a way to do the impossible.

From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Despite all this (or perhaps because of it), Valentine agrees to help Graff by sending one more letter. Our, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in, The chapter begins with a conversation between two unnamed government officials. Create your account.

With her help he can rule over something worthwhile. She cannot help but recall to her memories of the skinned squirrel and fears Peter's sadistic, violent nature rises to the surface with his suggestion for Demosthenes to argue the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Sign up now, Latest answer posted August 30, 2009 at 8:07:24 AM. More to the point, the I.F.

He’s remarkably prophetic, then, in suggesting that electronic communications will one day allow people to publish their ideas anonymously. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, LitCharts uses cookies to personalize our services. Rather than stop writing, she uses this idea to write another work as Demosthenes. Sciences, Culinary Arts and Personal Peter has figured out that Russia is preparing for land war. He quickly dismisses the thought, admitting that Peter exemplifies nothing but pure evil. We’re also reminded of Peter’s dilemma—he wants to be the moderate, but it’s more fun to be the radical. Peter clearly displays sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies. In Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, Peter and Valentine Wiggin adopt the online pseudonyms Locke and Demosthenes, respectively, to influence the public's political opinions on the internet and sway political events. At the same time, however, he’s clearly “saving his weaknesses,” as Valentine suggests—knowing that his sudden burst of sincerity will be too powerful for Valentine to refuse. The Buggers might not all be dead as he claimed, but they have been emphasized as a common threat for seventy years, partly as a tool for government manipulation.

Although they have not yet started to exert real influence, it seems clear that Peter will get what he wants.

He is arguing with Major Imbu, who seems to be the computer expert. Ender, however, claims that what he really wants is for Peter to love him. Graff, for once, isn’t in control and doesn’t seem to know what’s going on. It’s not clear why the IF decides to keep Locke and Demosthenes’ identities hidden—just because they’re not immediate opponents of the IF right now doesn’t mean that they couldn’t one day be dangerous to them.