Title: Ender's Game Characters - eNotes.com
Headings: Ender's Game Characters
Ender's Game Characters
Characters
Ender Wiggin
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Peter Wiggin
Valentine...
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Content: A rare “third” child, Ender grows up socially isolated, with no close friends or relationships aside from his elder sister, Valentine, whom he dearly loves. Ender, who is only six at the start of the novel, exhibits a combination of the personality traits of his two older siblings: all three are intelligent, but in Ender, the kindness and sensitivity of Valentine are mixed with the ruthless brutality of his brother, Peter. Ender recognizes this streak of violence in himself and is greatly disturbed by it, though he is also intelligent enough to see that Colonel Graff and his other mentors deliberately exploit and encourage this aspect of his personality to increase his effectiveness as a warrior and a commander. Download Ender's Game Study Guide
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Despite his general alienation from others, Ender possesses a keen sense of empathy, and his rare ability to truly understand what his enemy is thinking is ultimately the key to his strategic genius. However, though these traits lead to victories in battle, they also contribute greatly to Ender’s personal unhappiness, for he can only defeat an enemy after he has come to truly know and “love” them. Ender is repulsed by conflict and aggression, which he associates with Peter, and he is wracked by guilt on the occasions where he is forced to become violent to “win”—as shown after his confrontations with Stilson and Bonzo. The tension between Ender’s natural desire for peace and the violence he is forced to enact eventually comes to a head in the final battle, the aftermath of which devastates Ender to his core. As the novel closes, Ender learns to accept that though he can’t change the past, he can take ownership over his own destiny and try to make amends for the wrongs he has committed. Peter Wiggin
Peter, who is ten years old at the beginning of the story, is Ender’s intelligent and manipulative older brother.