Ender's Game (Part 1)

Hey! We’re finally at Ender’s Game! (NOTE: I’ve already read the book… this is just so I don’t give away anything)

     The first chapter of this book is very vague, but intriguing. The chapter stars off with a dialogue from two people whose names we do not find out. They’re discussing a boy who they think they can use. For what exactly is also a mystery at this point. Then the font changes and the scene seemingly cuts to a boy named Andrew (or Ender, as he is called throughout the book) who is sitting on a steel table at the doctor’s office or hospital or whatever it is, about to have something called a ‘monitor’ removed.

     We do not know what the monitor is at this time, we only know that it is getting removed by the doctor who ‘messed up’ the operation and twists the monitor out, but not. He calls in for backup and they save Ender. From what, exactly, is unclear. The doctor sighs in relief and lets him know a few small changes; he’ll be slightly disoriented for a while and he’ll feel like something is missing.

     Ender went back to his class, where the kids look at him and notice that his monitor is missing, gone, from the back of his neck. There we learn that Ender is something called a ‘Third’. We don’t know what it is, only that it is something degrading. We also learn that Ender is exceedingly intelligent. He says that he learned how to do arithmetic when he was three… at this point in time Ender is six years old. At the end of class some other, bigger kids bully Ender. They call him a ‘Third’ and they push him around. Ender strikes out and knocks the lead kid down, kicking him and making his nose bleed and obviously causing serious injury.

     Ender walks away, and says to himself that when they take away his monitor, he’s just like Peter.

     This chapter is confusing, since it has the quality that you’re being shoved into the middle of a novel. You feel like you should know who Peter is, what a monitor is, who the people who were talking in the dialogue were, and etcetera. But you don’t know, and it makes you want to read more. That’s an interesting quality for a book to have.

     From what I read, Peter is a violent, mean person. Ender obviously does not like Peter, and compares himself to this Peter constantly.  “I am just like Peter. Take my monitor away, and I’m just like Peter.” (page 8) I really want to find out who Peter is, but there will be more on that in the next post. The most intriguing thing in this chapter, though, is the dialogue. The people talk about ‘buggers’ and ‘saving the world’ and how ‘the boy’ (obviously Ender) could help them when in the correct circumstances. But what circumstances? Ender seems to be in the middle of a large, elaborate plan that he is unaware of and that we, as readers, are unaware of.