The Story: The year is 2070. Forty years have passed since the devastating alien invasion of earth, and the world is desperately searching for soldiers to lead them to victory when the "Buggers" return. Because of this, they're now drafting young children, who pass a rigorous screening, and sending the best of them to a Battle School orbiting Earth, from which they are trained to be ready for war in the far reaches of space.
Into the unyielding pressure of military training comes six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who even as his adult teachers, rivals among fellow students, and the strange unseen influence of alien invaders, struggles to keep his humanity.
His genius raises him to the top of the intensely competitive games in the Battle Room, an immense null-gravity chamber where armies of children/soldiers engage in mock combat. Yet his real struggles are off the playing field with a dangerous older boy who is determined that both he and Ender cannot survive this place; with his teacher who won the last war on a fluke and now is trying to prepare Ender to win the next war by skill rather than luck; and with himself, as he wrestles with his on demons, desperate to remain a decent human being even as he sees himself being transformed into exactly the same kind of monster as the buggers themselves.
Questions: Answer as many or as few questions as you like. Discussion will revolve around how many people enter the discussion. Just come in and discuss whether you liked the book or didn’t. There are no wrong answers and everyone has their own opinion which we can respect. Now, just come in and talk!!!
Is childhood a right? Does a person robbed of a "normal" childhood have any possibility of stability as an adult? Does Ender have any chance of living "happily ever after"?
The Buggers communicate telepathically using no identifiable external means of communication. Was it inevitable that war would have to occur when two sentient species met but were unable to communicate?
Card has stated that "children are a perpetual, self-renewing underclass, helpless to escape from the decisions of adults until they become adults themselves." Does Ender's Game prove or disprove this opinion?
The government in Ender's world plays a huge role in reproductive decisions, imposing financial penalties and social stigma on families who have more than two children but exerting pressure on specific families who show great generic potential to have a "third" like Ender. Is government ever justified in involving itself in family planning decisions? Why or why not?
Is genocide, or in the case of Ender's Game where an entire alien race is annihilated, xenocide, ever justified? Was the xenocide of the buggers inevitable?
Ender's Game has often been cited as a good book to read by readers who are not fans of science fiction. Why does it appeal to both fans of science fiction and those who do not usually read science fiction?
Peter appears to be the personification of evil, but as Locke, acts as a good person. How does Card treat the concept of good versus evil in Ender's Game?
In their thoughts, speech, and actions Card describes children in terms not usually attributed to children. In the introduction to Ender's Game he states that he never felt like a child. "I felt like a person all along -- the same person that I am today. I never felt that my emotions and desires were somehow less real than an adult's emotions and desires." Do contemporary teens feel this same way? Do only gifted children feel this way or is it a universal feeling?
The year is 2070. Forty years have passed since the devastating alien invasion of earth, and the world is desperately searching for soldiers to lead them to victory when the "Buggers" return. Because of this, they're now drafting young children, who pass a rigorous screening, and sending the best of them to a Battle School orbiting Earth, from which they are trained to be ready for war in the far reaches of space.
Into the unyielding pressure of military training comes six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who even as his adult teachers, rivals among fellow students, and the strange unseen influence of alien invaders, struggles to keep his humanity.
His genius raises him to the top of the intensely competitive games in the Battle Room, an immense null-gravity chamber where armies of children/soldiers engage in mock combat. Yet his real struggles are off the playing field with a dangerous older boy who is determined that both he and Ender cannot survive this place; with his teacher who won the last war on a fluke and now is trying to prepare Ender to win the next war by skill rather than luck; and with himself, as he wrestles with his on demons, desperate to remain a decent human being even as he sees himself being transformed into exactly the same kind of monster as the buggers themselves.
Questions:
Answer as many or as few questions as you like. Discussion will revolve around how many people enter the discussion. Just come in and discuss whether you liked the book or didn’t. There are no wrong answers and everyone has their own opinion which we can respect. Now, just come in and talk!!!
Is childhood a right? Does a person robbed of a "normal" childhood have any possibility of stability as an adult? Does Ender have any chance of living "happily ever after"?
The Buggers communicate telepathically using no identifiable external means of communication. Was it inevitable that war would have to occur when two sentient species met but were unable to communicate?
Card has stated that "children are a perpetual, self-renewing underclass, helpless to escape from the decisions of adults until they become adults themselves." Does Ender's Game prove or disprove this opinion?
The government in Ender's world plays a huge role in reproductive decisions, imposing financial penalties and social stigma on families who have more than two children but exerting pressure on specific families who show great generic potential to have a "third" like Ender. Is government ever justified in involving itself in family planning decisions? Why or why not?
Is genocide, or in the case of Ender's Game where an entire alien race is annihilated, xenocide, ever justified? Was the xenocide of the buggers inevitable?
Ender's Game has often been cited as a good book to read by readers who are not fans of science fiction. Why does it appeal to both fans of science fiction and those who do not usually read science fiction?
Peter appears to be the personification of evil, but as Locke, acts as a good person. How does Card treat the concept of good versus evil in Ender's Game?
In their thoughts, speech, and actions Card describes children in terms not usually attributed to children. In the introduction to Ender's Game he states that he never felt like a child. "I felt like a person all along -- the same person that I am today. I never felt that my emotions and desires were somehow less real than an adult's emotions and desires." Do contemporary teens feel this same way? Do only gifted children feel this way or is it a universal feeling?