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week 3:3

Salamander army has a battle against Condor.  Ender waits patiently for 4 minutes ou tin the corridor after the battle has started, watching Salamander getting ripped to shreads due to their lack of strategy.  Ender goes in, and sees the enemy's gate as down.  He is shot at, but pulls his legs up under him as he is shot, so only his legs are hit, and he can still function.  He drifts, pretending to be completely frozen, and just watches Condor army win, following Bonzo's order not to do anything.

On the scoreboard in the mess hall, Salamander is the only losing tema that still had a soldier that wasn't disabled.  when asked why this was, Ender just says that he follows orders.  Ironically, Ender comes out on top of the soldier-efficiencey standings.  Since he didn't fired any shots, he was 100% accurate, and since he wasn't disabled, he has stayed active for 100% of his battles.

Salamander fights 2 more battles and wins, surprisingly to Ender.  He keeps practicing with petra and his old Launchies, and is getting better.  He turns 7, and painfully remebers when his sister Valentine tried to bake him a cake.  It talks about how at Battle school, no one cares about stuff like that, but Ender decides that those little things back on Earth are the only reason he's up there, so the buggers won't blow Valentine's brains out, etc.

They have a battle with Leopard army.  Leopard tries moving around alot, with new, daring tactics that confuse and discourage Salamnder, even though throughout most of the battle they were losing about the same number of men.  As Leopard prepares to go through the gate and win the game with the 5 required men, Ender opens fire, disabling enough so it ends up being a draw.  Bonzo is angry at him, and overjoyed because he was able to trade Ender into Rat army.  Ender tells Petra he'll have to stop practicing with her in the mornings, but he is glad to be leaving.  He learned all he could from Bonzo a while ago.

week 3:2

Ender does not recieve a warm welcome once he finds the Salamander barracks.  He meets a girl, Petra, and is seen as an outcast of the army, as she is.  He is tiny compared to them.  He is only 6 when even the youngest members of the army are at least 8.  The commander, Bonzo Madrid, tells him that he is totally useless and he will not allow Ender to participate in practices or battles, and that he intends to trade him as soon as possible.  Upon hearing this, Ender hopes that the trade comes soon.

That night, Petra comes to tell him that she'll help him learn some stuff in the battle room during their free hours.  He is overjoyed, but doesn't know how it will work out.  He goes to the bathroom, where some guys form other armies see his uniform and laugh at Salamander, saying their giving them babies now.  Ender smiles as they realize that he is "that launchie" from the game room that beat everybody.  He may be small, but people know who he is.

The next morning Petra starts teaching Ender how to shoot accurately after breakfast.  He then goes to the army's practice, where he is not allowed to participate, but learns alot just by watching them.  He asks Petra if he can practice with her in their evening break, but she can't so he goes back to his old launch group and gets a bunch of them to practice with him.

Bonzo hears about his practicing with his old launch group, and tells Ender that he can't anymore.  Ender tells him that he won't be able to trade him unless he has a few skills, and that Bonzo can't tell him what to do during his free time, anyway.  Ender gives him the opportunity to still look strong in front of his men, and Bonzo hates him for it.

Bonzo is retarded.  He is too proud to accept defeat, and hates Ender for giving him a way out of defeat.  It just doesn't make sense.  I guess he just may hate not being able to do things himself, but still...

week 3:1

At the beginning of this chapter, Graff and whoever it is are talking about how Ender beat the giant in the game, and how they were unsure whether they should be amazed or disgusted.

Alai and Ender are really good friends now, Alai is finally starting to figure out how ender did all the stuff with the computers earlier, sending messages as "God" and Berndard and stuff.  Ender is planning on showing Alai how to set up a security system when he is transferred to Salamander army.  It comes as a surprise to all, not only is he too young, but he's no better than Alai or anyone in the battle room.

Ender can't find the way to his new barracks, so he goes to the game room and plays the "free play" game.  The giant is gone, and his corpse has turned into a playground. Ender tries to play on it, but for some reason can't.  Wolves show up, chase him, he defeats them and goes down a well, where at the bottom there is a door that says "The end of the world."  Ender goes through, and finds himself in a beautiful room, where the rug turns into a snake and is about to kill him when the game shuts down, and he is sent a message that he is late.  He goes.

I like how it tells about the game here, how it seems like a dream, and the whole time Ender is just looking for a safe place to go, but he keeps getting attacked by everything.

week 2:3

Ender starts entertaining himself by playing a game that is on his desk computer called “Free Play.”  Basically you just wander around and do stuff, but eventually there becomes something to do and places to go.  He climbs up a landslide and then finds that the hill is really a giant loaf of bread, he is on a table at which a giant with one eye is eating.  The giant asks him if he wants to play a guessing game, and offers Ender two glasses.  One has poison, and it seems that no matter how many times Ender plays and tries to guess the right one, he never does, and dies a different gruesome death each time.  The Giant always laughed.  After almost infinite deaths by different poisons, Ender gets sick of the giant and his taunting game.  He eventually refuses to drink one time, and jumps on to the giant’s face and claws its eye out.  The giant dies, a bat flys down from nowhere and says, “Welcome to Fairyland.”

            Ender hates himself.  He feels that he has become just like his cruel brother Peter, and has turned this simple game into another way to murder someone, to destroy.  He Says that Peter would be proud of him.

week 2:2

In the prologue to this chapter, Graff’s commander is voicing his concern about Ender splitting the launch group like he has.  Graff tells him to calm down and see how Ender handles it; they can’t intervene and help Ender.

            The Launchies go to the battle room for the first time today.  It is a big room in the center of the school, where there is no gravity.  This is where the real games are fought, where the older boys and their armies combated.  Ender plays around for a while, figuring out how to maneuver without gravity and not get stuck drifting it the middle of the room with nothing to push off of.  He meets up with Bernard’s friend, Alai, and together they not only figure out how to get around fairly well, but they also figure out the purpose of the little pistols they were given.  When fired at somebody, the pistols emit a light that makes the suit freeze solid, thus immobilizing the one that was shot.  Ender and Alai tell Shen and Bernard and the four of them freeze the rest of the launch group.  Alai soon becomes the leader of the group after that, and the launch group is no longer divided.

week 2:1

Ender’s launch group quickly divides into different groups, due to Bernard (the boy whose arm Ender broke) figure of a fallen hero, and the other boy’s view of Ender as a teacher’ pet who thought that he was better than everyone else.  Bernard has his “tough guys” that pick on Ender, just little things like bumping his bunk as they walk by and things like that.  They start picking on a small, skinny boy named Shen (they dub him “Worm” because apparently he wriggles his butt when he walks).  Ender retaliates by getting into the school’s system creating a new student whom he names “God.”  He does this so he can send messages to other people without having his name attached to them.  He sends a message to everybody as God that says “Cover your butt, Bernard is watching.”  Bernard correctly assumes that it was Ender who did it (even though Ender gives him no reason to assume such) and is even more aggravated when one day, everyone finds a message on their desks (computers) that says,

 

            I love your butt.  Let me kiss it.”

                        -Bernard

 

It doesn’t actually tell you that Ender was the one who did it, but you know it was.  While this has created an even greater rift in the launch group now, Bernard is no longer the leader; Ender has succeeded.

 

week 1:3

As Ender eats, he thinks of how he isn’t gong to be able to see Valentine and his family for another 6 years.  He feels tears coming on, but thanks to his brother Peter’s constant tormenting back on Earth, he has been able to hide tears.  He is now thinking that facing Peter every day of the rest of his life and having Valentine with him would be better than being at the school without Peter.  He allows himself some inaudible weeping that night in bed, when the funny teacher from earlier is going around the bunks comforting people.

            Over the following days, they go to classes and school, but the launchies soon realize that life at the school center around the games.  Ender goes to the game room and sets himself up as a genius by beating one of the older boys his first time ever playing one of the simulators.  The boys tell him to get out, but are amazed.  Ender is pleased with himself; he finally feels that he is actually going to be competent at this school.

week 1:2

            At the beginnings of the chapters in this book, it has the dialogue between Graff and his commanding officer (usually it’s them) as a sort of prologue to the chapter.  It kind of makes you see the chapter in a different way, because it lets you see how Graff’s cruelty is needed to shape Ender in to the commander he needs to be.  Graff tells his commander that in order for Ender to be what they need, he can’t ever believe that there is someone there to help him.  Graff says that Ender can have friends; he just can’t have parents.

            Ender and the other “Launchies” are taken to their dormitory, where there are rows of bunks lined along the walls.  Ender was last there, so he pretends to be happy that the other kids have left him the lower bunk near the door.  A young teacher comes in and explains procedures to them, making everyone laugh at his jokes except Ender.  Nervous children are easy to make friends with, the book says.  They are led to the mess hall, where Ender sits by himself.  An older boy approaches Ender and tells him to kiss butts until everyone likes him, or else he’ll never be happy at the school.  Ender decides that he’ll never be like that boy, degrading himself just to be happy.

            I don’t agree with what the boy told Ender to do, but I feel bad for ender, inside he has already resigned himself to loneliness and misery at the school.

week 1:1

Ender is now on the Shuttle that will take him to the battle school.  He goes on to the plane knowing that he is different from the other boys, because they laugh and joke about things that aren’t even funny, and he is fearful going up to the space station that houses the school.  He is feeling very adolescent emotions (even though he’s only 6) such as fear of being accepted, the fear of leaving family, etc.

            As he is entering the shuttle, he sees things such as a ladder along what they now saw as the floor, carpeted walls and ceilings, etc.  He realizes that even though they see the floor as something now, once they are in null gravity, it changes everything.  Ender sees Graff (a source of comfort in a strange world), and laughs once they get into space, because he is able to reorient himself in null gravity and see Graff however he wanted.  Graff uses this as an opportunity to single out Ender and make everyone hate him for being the best.  Ender feels as though he has lost the one friend he had in battle school.  Some of the other boys in the seat behind them start to hit Ender on top of the head, so Ender grabs the boy’s arm and pulls down as hard as he can.  The force sends the boy flying without the presence of gravity.  The boy’s arm breaks, and Graff once again singles out Ender by commending him.

            Once they arrive at the school, Ender goes to Graff and asks him why he was being so mean to him, that he had thought Graff was hi friend.  Graff said that he wonders why Ender ever thought that he was his friend, that it was not his job to baby children, he was the principal of the school.  As Ender walks away, Graff tells another officer that Ender was wrong; Graff is his friend.