Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Main Characters

So long...

MAIN CHARACTERS

There are a lot more characters in this book than there were in my first book, Fahrenheit. But I think Ender’s Game needed a lot of characters to bring the story line across.
As you can probably guess from the title the main character is Ender.
Ender is at the beginning of the book 6 years old but over time matures into a 11??? Year old. At the age of six he was considered a Third and was often the target for bullying. However, at the age of six Ender is sent off to Battle school, where he faced isolation, sadness, regret, and anger. The root of all these dark feelings mostly grew because the instructors were pushing Ender hard they thought he may be the chosen one who would defeat the buggers once and for all. All this time and work at the battle school molded Ender into two people; the good Ender and the bad Ender. From the very beginning of the book, I knew Ender was a good person. He cared about people, hated it when someone was bullied, and didn’t judge others by their size. Ender saw people for who they really were. But then there was the dark side of Ender. Ender killed 2 boys in this book (Bonzo and Stilson). Part of the reason he killed Bonzo and Stilson was out of self defense but the other reason was this ‘killer instinct’ deep inside of him. I think that this dark side grew because of the harsh conditions Ender was forced into when he came to the Battle School. But overall I like Ender because at the end of the day Ender always tries to do the best for everyone. Ender is also very smart and talented. Extremely talented. He defeated the whole race of buggers not with strength but with pure brains. Ender reveals to me, about the human experience, is that there is more to people than what meets the eye. If I met Ender when he was 6 years old I would have never guessed that he would be the one to defeat the buggers. Ender could also see hidden qualities in people. Bean was small and lots of people thought he was useless yet Ender knew that he was a very smart guy.
Valentine and Peter, Ender’s older brother and sister, are also main characters. Valentine was a great sister to Ender. She stood up to Peter for him, and loving received Peter’s punishment that was meant for Ender. Valentine also never stopped loving Ender and near the end of the book decided to live her life away from earth so that she could be with Ender. Valentine was also a very smart girl. She had the brains to keep Peter in check and convince a whole nation that she was Demosthenes. I like Valentine because she showed unconditional love towards Ender. She revealed to/showed me, about the universal human experience, that love can keep someone (Ender in her case) going/living on. Sometimes people just need a bit of love to overcome the once impossible obstacle. However, I didn’t like Peter. Peter was a mean, cold hearted boy who took joy in torturing people and things. Even though he does turn ‘good’ near the end of the book, I still believe that the old Peter is living deep down inside of him. Peter revealed to be that there are some people in this world who love to hurt people, and sadly they take joy in doing that. But there is hope that they might change a little bit.
Mazer and Graff were Ender’s main teachers during his time at the battle schools. I think they are very similar characters. Both wanted badly to be friends with Ender and to show him kindness, but if they did there would be a chance that Ender wouldn’t become the best fighter he could be. So they didn’t, instead they treated him roughly and pushed him to his limits. I couldn’t say they were kind teachers but rather influential teachers. In a way I do like Mazer and Graff because they put a lot of effort into helping Ender. They really cared about his success. But then I don’t like Mazer and Graff because of the way they treated Ender. However, through all this Mazer and Graff showed me that there are people in this earth that do care about you even through they are pushing you so hard to achieve great things.
Ender didn’t have many friends, but his friends were close friends. Bean, Alai, Dink, and Petra were Ender’s closest friends. I also think these 4 people are very close. When Ender was a part of their group they loved him and showed it. However, when Ender moved army or moved up in rank, they still loved him they just didn’t show it. Bean, Alai, Dink and Petra revealed to me that friendships will have up and downs, but they will always pull through. Just like how Dink, Bean, Petra, and Alai became great friends at the end of the book.
Ender did have friends, but he also had bullies like Bonzo and Stilson. I didn’t like these two guys because they tortured and ridiculed Ender. These two boys revealed to me that there are mean hearted people on this earth who find joy in torturing others.

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