Ender's Game by Luka Dragoljic #3

 Ender's Game #3

I am reading a science-fiction book called “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card and so far I read 313/396 pages.

As I am reading this book, I am noticing that whenever Ender overcomes an obstacle, he always gets a new one which is even bigger than the previous one.

Ender plays this war simulation game in a zero gravity closed space which is called the “Battle Room”. The game is a competition between two teams where players have to shoot at each other. If one team eliminates everyone on the opposing team, that team wins. Ender’s team is called Salamander. His commander, Bonzo, starts to bully him because he is jealous that Ender is better than him at everything.

Ender manages in just a few weeks to get promoted to commander in the Dragon army. The Dragon army was for a very long time the worst army in the school. Ender planned to make his army the best. The problem was that he didn’t have good soldiers. He overcame that obstacle by training his soldiers

every day. After days of training, his army started to have battles in the “Battle Room” and they always won.

One day Ender and his army had to fight Salamander army and Ender’s army fortunately won. Bonzo was so furious that he lost against Ender that after the battle Bonzo attacked Ender. Ender, in self-defense, accidentally killed Bonzo by pushing him and making him trip. Bonzo fell on his head and broke his skull.

Bellow you can see the quote of how Ender killed Bonzo:

“It was as if Ender had kicked a piece of furniture. Bonzo collapsed, fell to the side, and sprawled directly under the spray of steaming water from a shower. He made no movement what-ever to escape the murderous heat” (Orson Scott Card page 245)

Ender’s army became so good that the school instructors had to change the rules. He had to fight two armies at once! He won even though his army suffered great losses.

As you may have noticed, there were man  obstacles that Ender had faced and probably many more obstacles he will face until the end of the book.

If I was in Ender’s position, and had a weak army, I would train them so that they would become the best soldiers in the school. In other words, I would have done exactly as Ender did. But I realize that this would not have been easy. I think that what Ender was going through with the Dragon army was similar to what I have been going through with some of the basketball teams I have played with. I have been playing basketball since I was five. Most of the time I play the point guard position. The point guard is almost like the coach on the floor. He usually decides how the team is going to play. For example, he decides to increase the tempo or slow down. But unless he has authority this does not happen. If his teammates don't trust him they don't even pass him the ball. It takes a lot of skill and tact to earn the trust and respect of your team. Then it takes a lot of team practice to make sure that each player knows what to do and for everyone to do it right together. If only one of the five players on the floor goes off and does things on his own this can completely destroy the team concept