At 13, Caro already has voice and tone in her
writing, as well as an exceptional grasp on analysis. She wrote this
review for her gifted language arts class, and her teacher liked it so
much, he had it sent to the school paper for publishing as an example
for the other students. Every day she does or says something to be proud
of -- EVERY DAY -- but today can I be obnoxious and brag?
http://jeffersonianblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/book-report-enders-game/
Book Report: Ender’s Game
Editors’ Note
This is a exemplar book report written by Caroline H. in Mr. Key’s Humanities class and edited by Michelle G.
In a futuristic Earth bound society, only one person is capable of
stopping the alien “buggers.” Enter Ender Wiggin, the most cunning and
brilliant military strategist in the world, and also an 8-year-old
child.
Orson Scott Card weaves a story so intricately balanced that the
reader is swept away by even the slightest nuance in the plot. Instead
of overlooking minor details that might be skipped in many other books
the reader notices. The details make the reader feel tremendously
involved in the plot, making the imagery vivid and stunning in front of
the reader’s very eyes. Although the book is mostly devoid of color or
happiness, the overall mood retains a hopeful feel, and carries the
reader on a wave of crisp language and brilliant imagination.
Card’s masterpiece, Ender’s Game, caught the attention of the public quickly, and for good reason. Ender’s Game
was a new kind of science fiction back in 1979, one that beckoned to
readers. No famous science fiction writer of the time had even come
close the Card’s idea of an advanced society, which left the book
original and ahead of its time.
Published in the 1970’s at the close of the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, Ender’s Game
quite possibly represented the war itself. The book was written by an
American author from an American viewpoint. Card uses “the humans”
(suggesting that the Soviets were not humans like everybody else) in the
book, whom displayed reason, intelligence and a large amount of
willpower and compassion to represent the Americans in the Cold War. By
the same stroke of insight, one can see where he used the antagonists of
the book, the “buggers,” an alien species who, in Card’s brief
explanation were seemingly emotionless, painless, dangerous killing
machines, devoid of compassion or a basic sense of moral justice, to
represent the Soviet Union.
It would seem that the buggers/Soviets cared only about pride, honor
and conquering the humans/Americans, which was the view from an anti-
Soviet Union perspective. Another example of bias against the Soviet
Union should be more obvious to even the least perceptive of readers,
which is that of the actual references to the Soviet Union in the book
and their involvement with Ender’s Game’s “fictional” world
politics. The Soviets in the book had a tight fisted grip on trade and
technology, and a wish to destroy the main character because of reasons
not clearly stated in the book, as if implying yet again that the Soviet
Union was altogether a terrible country to be feared and who frequently
targeted and attacked people (especially our country’s young children)
without provocation. This book is actually an example of anti- Soviet
propaganda.
A book one might compare to Ender’s Game would be the timeless novel Animal Farm. In Animal Farm
there are political representations as well, and is written from
another anti- Soviet Union perspective. Using farmyard animals, Animal Farm relays the Soviet public’s view on current political issues and military figureheads and personnel.
Ender’s Game is really about the Cold War, but even from xenophobic literature comes both a moral and immoral undercurrent. In Ender’s Game,
besides the Soviet Union being very, very bad, the themes are of a
positive nature. The other themes are that of human resilience,
determination and leadership. These are expressed through the struggles
that are faced head on by the main character, Ender, and the people he
encounters on his struggle to greatness. This book is an A-List book for
the following reasons: Ender’s Game is the recipient of two awards, the Hugo Award, and the Nova Award. Ender’s Game
is also on nearly every A-List book list in the world because of its
imagery, imagination and fabulous writing style. It was also highly
progressive for its time in many ways, including that of women’s rights.
In the book women hold the same positions in government and other
non-knitting committee occupations as men, which was quite uncommon for
the time. In 1979 there was still a great deal of discrimination in the
workplace against women, and it was uncommon for a science fiction book
with an American male author to be a sponsor of women’s rights.
Ender’s Game is a fabulous book with great detail, but a lot
of xenophobic propaganda. Even though the internal messaging was not
great, the writing style was inspired and the scenes vivid. Ender’s Game will continue to amaze.
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