Ender's Game: obstacles

Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
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What are some of the obstacles that the protagonist is faced with? What do they do to overcome these obstacles? 

Ender faced many obstacles and most of them were set up by the adults (in high positions of battle school, command school and the government). Ender also had great inner conflict about Peter (older brother) and Valentine (older sister).

By adults & school

• He got singled out on purpose as soon as he entered the battle school. Colonel Graff pointed out Ender as the smartest kid and made other kids hate him. 
• He acted normally and helped out other kids from bullies. He also proved himself smart but kept being polite. So he made some good friends.
• As soon as he started to make friends and was having a good time, he was moved to another army where the older kids were. The leader of the army: Salamander called Bonzo disliked Ender very much and wouldn't let him do anything: wouldn't let him learn nor practice nor participate in a game.
  
• Ender showed some rebel in front of the whole army and got to talk with Bonzo privately. Ender offered Bonzo a very good deal that if Bonzo let him practice, he would be replaced into another army faster and would listen to Bonzo's commands and that Bonzo can go tell the army that he won the arguement so that he can keep his dignity as a commander. Bonzo agreed and Ender was able to learn from Petra (only girl in the Salamader army, nice, skilled shooter, smart).
• In the battle school, he was playing a simulation game where his character is exploring to find the fairyland. But he couldn't go pass the giant. He had to pick one of the two drinks in front of the giant and one would let it pass and the other would kill the character. He played many times but wasn't able to pass. The adults wanted to see how Ender deals with frustration and what he would do, because nobody was able to pass the giant's drink.
• This time, Ender didn't choose a drink. He knocked it over and started to dig through his eyes. He killed the giant instead of choosing a drink. Path opened and his character was able to enter the fairyland. The adults and Ender himself were very surprised.
• Ender is the commander of the Dragon army and they were doing outstandingly great in battles. The adults schedule games unrealistically and unfairly, to push Ender and his army to the edge and topple them.
• Ender comes up with brilliant strategies. He respects, embraces, and encourages his army. His army wins every single battles that are very unfair for him to prove the adults that he wouldn't give up and lose. And because of this behavior, Ender is moved to the command school.

Peter (this is more of a inner conflict of Ender rather than an obstacle in his way)

• Peter is Ender's older brother who is also an "indirect/internal" antagonist because they don't meet each other in the book except for just a little in the beginning for introducing Peter and Ender's relationship. Ender's antagonist is not Bonzo, not Colonel Graff, not Stilson, nor any other characters who bothers him. They can't be, because Ender has a very strong mind and also a strong body to defend himself. But Peter, just plays with his mind even though he is doing nothing to Ender. It is Ender, realizing what he is doing, and what he is doing is just like Peter: destructive. Ender is afraid that he is no different from Peter as he finds himself hurting others: breaking kid's arm, destroying Stilson and Bonzo (turns out that they both died). Peter, who would beat up little Ender, cut up squirrels, and kill innocent small living things has infected Ender with fear.
• Ender cannot overcome this inner conflict as he knows that he is like Peter and hates to accept it.
• In the end, Ender and his friends takes their last exam game in the International Fleet which is very hard. All of the moves they made were risky and they lost many planes. Ender finally wins the game but then they are told that it wasn't a game, that it was the actual and the last war against the buggers. Ender is shocked that he had killed all of the buggers, that he destroyed an entire species and that he had killed the soldiers on the planes he had lost. Ender feels horrible, he feels like he is worse than Peter. 
• In the bugger's planet he discovers an egg of the queen bugger in a cave which he decides to protect and carry around. This one bugger that survived messaged Ender that he is different from Peter.

Jihyun Park

February 23, 2014