Why are we reading this?

Ender Wiggin, a child genius, is recruited by General Graff to join the Battle School and protect the world from insect-like aliens, called buggers. Ender leaves behind his loving sister, Valentine, and sociopathic brother, Peter. Once in Battle School, Ender excels at his training, which causes many of his peers to resent him. When Ender graduates to Command School, he engages in increasingly difficult games against the buggers, only to discover that the buggers and the supposedly simulated battles are not as they seemed.

Content Warning

Ender's Game contains some profanity and violence.

Objectives for Teaching Ender's Game

• Infer information about characters and events when the information is not explicitly stated.
• Discuss the significance of historical people and events, such as Demosthenes, John Locke, and the Warsaw Pact.
• Discuss the isolation of the gifted child as it pertains to Ender and his peers.
• Explain how Ender redeems himself.
• Recognize and explain the danger of governmental or military control over Ender's life.
• Comment on the relationships Ender has with his peers.
• Discuss the irony in Graff's behavior toward Ender.

Key Elements and Techniques

• Allusion
• Foreshadowing
• Imagery
• Irony
• Metaphor
• Symbol

Themes and Motifs

• Games — The novel continually uses the metaphor of war being a game, which Ender plays without realizing the consequences.
• Humanity — Ender's Game looks at the human condition and loss of innocence with growing up as Ender matures and learns how to fight and kill in battle.
• Friends and Enemies — In the novel, it is never completely clear which characters are friends and which are enemies.

Related Works

Theme of Games

• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
• Pick-Up Game, by Walter Dean Myers et al.

Theme of Humanity

• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen
• Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis

Theme of Friends and Enemies

• Red Kayak, by Priscilla Cummings
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne
• Parrot in the Oven, by Victor Martinez

Key Facts

• Length: 384 pages
• Lexile Measure: 780
• Publication Date: 1985
• Recommended Grade Band: 6 – 8

Awards

• Nebula Award (1985)
• Hugo Award (1986)

Movies

Ender's Game was adapted to the screen in 2013, directed by Gavin Hood and starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, and Ben Kingsley. The film remains fairly true to the original plot, but condenses the timeline and minimizes Valentine and Peter's roles.