| Monday, January 22, 2007 |
| Ender's Game (Log #2) |
Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful?
"And the character of Demosthenes gradually took on a life of his own. At times she found herself thinking like Demsthenes at the end of a writing session, agreeing with ideas that were supposed to be calculated poses. And sometimes she read Peter's Locke essays and found herself annoyed at his obvious blindness to what was really going on. Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be." -p.231, Ender's Game
This passage in the novel rings very true to me in a many ways. Whether it is Valentine, the genius child of twelve voicing her calculated opinions under the pseudonym of 'Demosthenes', or just any regular twelve-year-old lying about her life and her opinions to hide who she really is, the boldface phrase above applies to both of them. The truthful fact that as so many people at one point pretend to be someone, or something else, their false personalities might as well take over their true identities. Why? It may be done for a number of reasons, like hiding weaknesses or fears, trying to gain power(like Peter), concealing one's true nature (in Valentine's case, her age mainly), or try and push away something you don't want to accept about yourself, and this phrase shows that it may be impossible NOT to become what you so often pretend to be. Ultimately, someone can get so used to being who they pretend to be, they lose their original identity. The falseness of a fake character can get carried away, and like what it says in the passage, take a life of its own. I find this passage to be meaningful and significant because it really portrays the reality of being 'fake' in a straightforward, blunt way. Could a made-up identity grow and grow so it dominates your deeper, inner self until one starts to believe and convince oneself that it is who they really are? I think it may also hint at the importance of being true to yourself. Whatever the 'false identity' may be, you may fool everyone else, and nobody will ever know, but are you really fooling yourself? |
posted by Anonymous @ 4:14 PM  |
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| Ender's Game (Log #1) |
Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?
There are many significant characters in the novel, mainly the Wiggin siblings. The oldest is Peter, then Valentine, and lastly, the 'Third', Andrew. In the novel I think Peter reveals more viciousness about his character than anyone else in it. Peter is not so much a character to like in this book, because he just reeks unpleasantness and were he a real person, he would scare me to know that people can be like him. He has a killer mind, though he is far from insane. His morbid personality was shown when the book mentioned that he stabbed little squirrels and sickly killed them, though the poor creatures have never done anything to him. In other words, he did this for fun. Also, Peter is jealous of Andrew because he is the chosen one to go to battle school instead of him, so he threatens to kill him. Peter also has a rather megalomaniac and ambitious personality, evident in the fact that he wants to take over the world.
But Valentine, who loves Andrew very much, defends him as much as possible and suffers for Andrew. Valentine is unlike Peter, as she does not have the same violent streak in her. I prefer her next to Peter; she seems to radiate the kind of sisterly tenderness and love above her knowledge and what she has had to put up with. She is extremely knowledgeable and smart, smart enough to guess what Peter's motives are in advance, and secretly knowing that she can outwit him more than Peter thinks. She loves Andrew dearly, and gives him the nickname 'Ender', so Andrew is mostly known as Ender throughout the book. Valentine was the one that stayed by Ender's side while Peter was making vivid threats, and after Ender left for battle school, she wrote him letters often.
Towards the end of the book though, after having spent a long time without any contact with Ender or any replies to her letters, she actually started helping alongside Peter, who (unsurprisingly) planned to take over the world-at the age of 14. This involved her pretending to be 'Demosthenes'-Peter told her to, all as a plan for his rising power.
I think Ender, the child genius-commander is in some ways intimidating. There are things revealed about him that I like, but many others that just is not likeable. He is not ordinary, and possesses many characteristics that make up a hero. He seems to be someone who could only be real in a science-fiction book. I understand that under the hectic circumstances in the book, with Ender being the 'chosen one', it is hard to be normal, but he has no real childhood to speak of. He doesn't seem to be a child, but more of a full grown adult war-leader. As I have never encountered a child like him in real life, my opinion toward him remains indefinite.
Ender does not have happy memories of Peter, but loved Valentine very much, even when at one point she let herself be used to write a letter to console his emotions. That was when he was unsure of whether he could go on. He seems to struggle with his emotions constantly, often telling himself that he is not Peter, after he has done something physically violent that brought harm to a few people. He did these things in self-defense, not just to defend himself temporarily, but to make sure that they would never try to touch him again. This resulted in murdering Bonzo, his former commander in Salamander Army. Bonzo and a gang of people grouped up to plan on teaching Ender a lesson for being the youngest commander, training and leading the number one army in battle school, not losing a single battle. The gang thought they would just 'ice' Ender, but Bonzo intended to do much more harm than that. Ender, knowing that if he didn't finish the fight for good, it would go on and on until Bonzo succeeded in killing him. So after their fight in the bathroom Ender thought Bonzo just passed out, but he was actually dead;though he wasn't even aware of it, because nobody wanted Ender to be distracted from battles at the fact. After such fights like these, Ender thinks it over, saying to himself, I am not like Peter, I am not a killer. But at times he isn't so sure of himself, and goes too far before he realizes what he is doing. At heart, he does not want to be a killer, and knows he is not like that. But he has proven numerous times of the recklessness and violence he is capable of, similarly resembling Peter in those ways. At the end of the book though, I apprieciate his understanding and acceptance of buggers, the very creatures that he has fought a war against, and the new hope and resolution he holds of peace. |
| posted by Anonymous @ 4:09 PM |
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