Gustavo Santana
March 7, 2012
English 114B
Sean, Pessin
Battle
for Control
Battle for control has been fought
for and died for generations upon generations. Control differs depending on the
situation. In the books ender’s game and speaker for the dead by Orson ScottCard,
Ender a young boy was controlled all his life till he grows up and shows the
world that he is their controller. Ender is a tactical genius his abilities
progress as he ages. The people around him begin to lose his grasp on Ender as
he ages and his words start to mean something. When people are young they are
ignored and closed off from having an opinion. When age kicks in people starts
to listen because once voice rises. The power to speak is one of the many
contributors to maintain power. Ender went from being controlled to being in
control all due to his abilities to think critically observe and solve
different situations.
When a human is young his authority
is taken for granted and there for is forced to follow the rules of “higher”
authority. In Ender’s Game; Ender, was being controlled and watched over since
he was born. Proving the point that even when your born the authority comes
from the older people. By putting a monitor on Ender the government is saying
that Ender is their property. Being the “government’s property” Ender is forced
to face life’s situations by himself while being monitored by Colonel Graff. As
Enders life progresses in the book he is thrown into more and more situations
that he has to deal with by himself. On the way to Battle School Ender meets
knew people; Colonel Graff makes Ender an enemy by arguing that he is the
smartest one of the bunch. Even after Ender is trying not to put himself in a
critical position to be hated by his school mates, Graff wants to make him
solitary and that makes Ender sort of dangerous. Enders childhood was taken
away when he entered battle school by force and is being controlled by the
older authority all because Colonel Graff thinks he will be the one to end the
bugger wars.
After humanity had overcame the first
bugger war due to their past commander Mazer Rackham. All duty falls to Ender
and therefore takes his childhood by force. Ender lives the life of a kid
soldier not that of a normal child. When all duty falls to Ender this makes his
life controlled by those who want to mend what is to become of him. Ender is a
tactical genius which causes more pressure on him because he is constantly
being reminded that he needs no help to solve his own problems. In one of the
many events in the book Ender is being bullied by Bernard, whose arm he broke
in the shuttle, Ender intelligently and tactically defeats him by hacking
Bernard’s desk and mocking him with messages. Once Bernard’s pride and power
was broken the rest of his launch mates see and recognize Ender’s power. This
point made reestablishes the thesis by mentioning that the one who has the
power has the authority over others. Even though Ender is controlled by the
higher authorities he still has and fights for his authority against people his
age. With Respect comes power which is authority once that respect is shattered
the authority is gone. While Ender rest for his matches he goes into a virtual
video game world that also pressures him by throwing random thing his way the
computer also has a sort of control of him until he stops playing; that being
said as he progresses through the videogame world and beats it, it becomes
significant. It says that he is no longer going to be controlled, that he is
escaping the grasp that power has over him by other and using it for his own
motives. Moved to a new platoon after defeating a simulation video game, Ender
gains experience which also gives him authority because being moved to a new
army at such a young age gives him power. When he reaches his army he is
bullied by the captain. Bonzo; the captain of salamander army, being older
commands and bullies Ender because he was mad that he traded off a good platoon
captain in exchange for Ender. Viewing this Bonzo has power over Ender such as
the government over Ender because he is older and holds a position of power.
Being a luanchy (trainee) he practices to learn how to move around in null
gravity and his way of thinking gives him power over everyone else his way of
thought is abstract while others think in one way. Taking the upper hand by
taking everything he learns and using it for his own way and movements gives
him power and authority because he prevails at everything he does.
Moving up ranks and keeping the leader
board makes Bonzo angry with Ender and plans to murder him. At this point Ender
is already in Rat Army because he was traded off their he meets Dink Meeker
which teaches him more about the game battles. Enders power increases as his
experience and tactic skills increase along the line he is also making an
impact as the best player in the whole battle school. Colonel Graff finally
decides that Ender is now ready to have his own army by giving him the army
that has been abolished after having the reputation of having a losing streak.
Changing the losing streak into a winning streak, Colonel Graff starts to lose
his power over Ender because Ender is getting older and is defeating the game.
By Ender defeating every challenge thrown at him, Colonel Graff changes the
game around in order to try to beat Ender but is aware that if Ender beats the
game he is the one to save humanity. Dragon Army consists of nothing but
launchies given to Ender from Graff as a sort of challenge to train them and
beat the game. By being given launchies and an army it’s a way of Graff
shifting some of the power over to Ender, Graff views that he is almost ready
for command school. Pressured from all the battle Ender is over worked by Graff
because he is now throwing more battles at him constantly each day, the number
increased from one to two games a day. This still says that Graff is in control
and will keep being in control because Ender has not yet earned the right to
the full power. Approaching command school Ender has stepped into a newer level
of experience and solitude. Moving into a new environment can be related to
when he first stepped into battle school not knowing anyone and it deprives him
of his power. Once again life throws at him situation to which cannot escape
from. Training from Mazer Rackham intensifies the pressure to the point where
all he can think and dream is about battle. Ender is exposed to a new kind of
authority which haunts him a takes him away from his old self. This kind of
pressure and at this point in his life takes him away from his childhood and
deeper and deeper into maturity. Once with power in his grasp once again, Ender
is trusted by the people he’s met and trained with so far, his friends.
Being in command school for a while he
is given an opportunity to work with his friends from battle school which he
thought have been left behind. Reuniting with his friends and being able to
work with them in rigorous training. His friends no longer respect Ender as his
friend they respect him as a higher level of authority between themselves as a
team he is now their commander. His friends let him know that he has power and
him being commander they follow everything he says. Having trained for months
Enders squad is ready for their final test or as Ender knows it by simulation.
Mazer makes his power silent all in a goal to make Ender the higher authority
over the Buggers. Ender grasping his power kills the buggers without knowing by
blowing up their home planet in one shot along with his squad. After being
revealed that he has killed the Buggers he is blown away by the fact that he
also killed Bonzo and Stilson. That all along Ender had reversed the power
against him to his aggressors and defeated them permanently. Ender throughout
the book has killed numerous times without him knowing and has thought himself
as different from his brother Peter; thus being said Ender has never been like
Peter, He was always himself and had always had authority over others due to
his intelligence. The Battle school itself has power over everyone including
Ender because being trapped in space with no communication with the outside
world it makes people crazy, And the student in battle school are forced to be
placed in armies and segregate each other by being put in different groups.
There is a hierarchy placed in the school by the reputation each army has by winning
battles against each other. The battle school itself is a main milestone to
Enders rise in power willingly. Ender chose to be powerful but unwillingly
claimed some of the power by defeating his enemies permanently. Defeating the bugger’s
transitions into place that he knows has more authority over himself than
anyone else. Throughout the book he is given chances to take back what is his
but refuses and continues to the path of defeating life’s challenges.
Looking at the many events throughout
battle school starting with his first encounter with the simulation, are key
subject to the point of how he tries to escape what his holding him back from
his full potential. Moving along those lines as he continues to defeat the
obstacles the feeling that he is earning his freedom back gets stronger all the
way till he defeats his final challenge. After being trained to defeat the
buggers he then travels to the distant planet that the buggers have lived in
and there he finds an egg of the hive queen. This opens up to the next book
Speaker for the Dead and also traces back to his first encounter with the video
game realm that the computer generates for him at random. This creates some
sort of web to Enders next phase in life. Ultimately the true ruler and most
powerful authority is the universe itself and how it changes Enders life as if
it was destiny. Ender being able to mend life to suit his way manages to
balance the power of the universe inside Ender’s Game to almost the same
height. Above all what let to Enders rise in authority was because throughout
his life’s events he was being helped to gain what he know has. Every character
played a vital role in his dominance over the other subjects making him the
main character. In Ender’s eyes he wasn’t and didn’t want power he was just
fighting for survival to every obstacle. Ender treated life as a game and what
any other character would do with a game, beat it.
In comparison to Speaker for the Dead,
Ender’s Game is overall about Ender shaping his life to be in control of the
people around him. His way of speaking and thinking suppresses others without
them knowing it. He reads people like things to be conquered. After the Bugger
wars Ender writes a book called The Hive Queen and the Hegemon, in this book he
opens people’s eyes on how to think not only for themselves. An example was
when the buggers were killing the humans the humans saw it as a treat and
sought revenge. On the bugger side they did not know that they were killing
they simply thought they were protecting themselves. As time goes, Ender
travels to space to another world the world were the buggers used to live. When
he travels and travels he doesn’t age as much as he would of stayed in one
place because he is traveling at the speed of light. This is a perfect example
that he is now in control even of his age. The significance that in the novel
Ender can control his own age by traveling at the speed of light says that he
has power over others because he doesn’t age as fast as a person living in a
planet. After many years people forget of Ender and as times goes by Ender
becomes the Speaker for the Dead a sort of priest. Based on the book Hive Queen
and the Hegemon, Ender has made a new religion that focuses on telling the true
story of the dead. Using His unique abilities Ender is able to guess what the
person was like before they died and speaks for them as they were and not lie
that they were just good people. He gathers information by mending the people
around him by making friends with them and ends up using their information for
the speaking of the deceased. There is one scene in the book where Ender says
rhetorically that he is in control and will maintain in control. The son of the
person he was to speak for was following in the footsteps of his father. The
son is about 6 yrs old and tries to stab Ender not knowing what would happen.
The kid’s father was aggressive and hit his family mostly his wife Novinha.
Ender grabs the child and maintains him in his lap detaining him so he can stop
hurting Ender. As the child throws tantrums and hit Ender in the shins with his
feet he is trying to get away. Ender knowing that letting the kid go will cause
the child to win and continue being disrespectful to him, he doesn’t let go. As
the child becomes exhausted knowing that Ender won’t give up the child pees on
Ender’s lap as a last result to get away. Ender maintains the child in his lap,
the child becomes broken and bursts into tears and hugs Ender. Analyzing the
child’s behavior Ender came to the conclusion that he was the only one that was
hurt the most and looked up to his father. This is an example of how Ender gets
his information for the speaking ceremony and also says that he is the one in control
and will keep in control due to his way of thinking. In the story many people
that live in Lusitania called for a speaker for a number of deaths that have
occurred due to a new species of aliens. Enders real mission in Lusitania is
speaking for the new species of aliens. He is trying to figure out if they are
ramen or varelse or Djur. Ramen being strangers from another species. Varelse
being strangers from another species who aren’t able to communicate with Homo sapiens.
Djur, being monsters with no soul and no intelligent motive. The reason why
Ender is speaking for this new species is because he has a primary mission
apart from the second one. He is put in charge of taking care of resurrecting
the species of buggers. He has the power over this resurrection because at any
given time he can choose not to resurrect them and end them permanently. On the
other hand he sees this as the only way of forgiveness for killing off the
buggers and his guilt is overpowering him. He wants to figure out if this new
species is killing humans because they are forced to or is it part of their
culture to do it and mean not to do it in violence but as a blessing. Enders
power is once more challenged and due to the fact that he is battling an
unknown enemy and has to guess what their motives are. When Ender first stepped
onto Lusitania, that was the first battle that challenged his power because he
is now in a planet, were catholic religion rules and looks down upon the
speaker for the dead. In Lusitania no one trusts him so he has to figure out a
way for the people to learn to trust him. Throughout the book ender is
constantly challenged as if life is trying to defeat him. Analyzing the book
correctly Ender is never really in power over life just over most of the people
due to his genius and experience and age. As he travels he lives longer than
most people managing to stay at a young age. As he travels he is gaining experiences
and becomes more powerful. He has an advantage over other people because he is
constantly viewing the universe differently and his experience boosts him above
and beyond all others. One thing that Ender loses because of his quest to
resurrect the hive queen is he lost his sister valentine. Valentine, left in
another planet will age when Ender travels at the speed of light and she will
have aged and have her kids. This is significant because this is where his
power over people is questioned its whether u make the sacrifice and lose your
sister to resurrect the Hive Queen or stay with your sister. This sacrifice
makes the point that Ender doesn’t have control over everything and that he is
human and loses once in a while. Throughout the two books the balance of power
switches over from person to person but the one it really reflects on is Ender.
Power differs between people the
stronger one maintains his power the more voice he has over people. Experience
plays a part when power comes in to the scene. All throughout a life time
people are constantly fighting for that dominance over others making people
competitive and dangerous. Ender’s life is a perfect example of how his life
was shaped by the adults when he was young to actually shaping his own life
when situations were thrown at him. Ender manages to be in control using the
power to his advantage in order to get the answers he needs to win at the game
of life. There are many aspects of power, whether experience, age or simply authority
one thing is is certain in order to have power you must be able to execute it
perfectly.
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