Synopsis, New Technology, and Reasons for Writing: Ender's Game
...Bonzo’s hatred toward him, Ender is soon traded to Rat Army. Ender is now under Dink Meeker's platoon. Under Dink’s training, Ender improves dramatically in battles. Meanwhile, Peter has convinced Valentine that the time has come for them to declare themselves. Peter has unlimited ambition and is intelligent enough to manipulate world events. Reluctantly, Valentine agrees to work with him. Disguised as “Locke” and “Demosthenes” on the “the nets,” they soon begin to exert an influence. By this time, Ender is nine years old and a platoon leader in Phoenix Army under Petra's command. Everyone respects his brilliance and fresh, new strategies. Although he has earned the admiration of his peers, he is depressed due to the mind game. Colonel Graff comes to Earth to visit Valentine and manipulates her to write Ender a letter. Even though Ender sees through the falseness of the letter, the simple memory of Valentine helps him to ground himself, and he is able to continue on in the mind game, which is a great relief to his teachers. Next, Ender is made commander of Dragon Army and given a group of soldiers, most of them Launchies. The smallest one, Bean, is very bright and precocious, much like Ender was, and proves himself worthy in practice sessions. Ender's army is given an outrageous number of battles to face with advantages given to the enemies and defeats every opponent. After the defeat of Bonzo’s army, Bonzo attacks Ender in the shower room and, unbeknownst to Ender, he kills Bonzo. Impressed by his ability to defend himself, staff promotes Ender out of Battle School to Command School. Back on Earth, the authorities figured out Valentine and Peter's actions to influence public society but have decided to leave them alone. Valentine visits Ender while he is given a brief vacation, and it is clear that things have changed between them. Graff takes Ender to Eros, the planet that holds the International Fleet command, where Ender is introduced to Mazer Rackham, the hero of the second bugger invasion, who saved mankind. Rackham runs Ender through a series of simulated battles, in which he commands an entire fleet. One day, Mazer tells him that the next battle will be his final examination in Command School. Ender is elated to hear that, because he is simply tired of all of the training and violence. Then he sees the battle, and despairs, for he is vastly outnumbered. He does not even want to play but decides that he will win an unfair battle rather than be beaten unfairly. Ender wins the battle by destroying the planet that the enemy lived on, and the room explodes in cheers. Rackham proceeds to tell him that he has actually been the fleet commander of the Third Invasion and that he just destroyed the buggers completely. Ender is furious with Rackham and Graff for using him. He did not want to hurt anyone and now has destroyed an entire race without any prior knowledge the he was doing so. In conclusion, Peter has taken control over Earth, and Valentine convinces Ender to set off with her on a colonization mission to populate the worlds left behind by the buggers. Before he goes, Ender learns that he killed Bonzo as well as the bully back in school. On the new planet, Ender finds an area that he realizes exactly like the mind game. The buggers had prepared for his coming—they had looked into his mind and knew he would defeat them. Behind the mirror, he finds a queen pupa, left behind for him to find a place for the buggers to live again. Ender can read the queen’s thoughts and sees that the buggers did not truly wish to fight the humans and feels their sorrow for all that happens. With a newfound sense of optimism and hope, Ender decides to make it his mission to find a place for the buggers to live. II. New Technology Unlike many science fiction novels, Ender’s Game focuses on the possibilities and expansions of present-day technologies rather than technologies surrounding the future of space adventure. For example, the great majority of the new technology in Ender’s Game includes those that deal with communication. This novel includes technologies such as, "the nets," an international network communication system of the future which resembles the Internet. “The nets” are a government-mediated technology in which users are allowed to participate on varying levels depending on their age and status in the world. Students, for instance, can access various debates, but they cannot participate in the debates as writers. Adult citizens can gain access as writers for a fee. Prominent citizens who have gained audiences for their writings on “the nets” earn the right ...