Ender’s Game
Study Guide for Summer Reading
Mrs. Lasarow: Fall 2016
Scope of Project: Read the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Refer to the chapter-by-chapter study guide below. Save as a Word document. I’ll look forward to reading your answers, which are due the first week of school. Please bring your book to class.
Directions: Write the answer to each chapter question in paragraph form, building the paragraphs with four components: 1. a set-up or claim to introduce the quote; 2. a quote from the text; 3. the parenthetical citation: (author’s last name and page number) and; 4. an explanation of how the quote supports the claim you made in the set-up.
Example: Esmerelda had been dreading the arrival of the dark searchers for days. When they finally knocked on the front door, her “heart galloped in my chest, and then slowly stumbled to a halt” (Haslet 24). The imagery of her heart “galloping and stumbling” lets the reader know that she was so terrified by these visitors that she actually felt her fear as a physical manifestation. She was literally almost scared to death.
Chapter 1 Third
What clues does the author give to let the reader know that this is a dystopic society?
Chapter 2 Peter
How does the conversation at the beginning of chapters 1 and 2, printed in a different font, convey this society’s values?
Chapter 3 Graff
How does the author reveal Colonel Graff’s values and what are those values?
Chapter 4 Launch
What is Graff’s theory of the individual? Does this agree with or run counter to how the individual is treated in our public education system?
Chapter 5 Games
What does Ender have Peter to thank for?
Chapter 6 The Giant’s Drink
Ender thinks that Peter would be proud of him. Why?
Chapter 7 Salamander
What is this society’s position on religions? What clues can you find in this chapter and two previous ones: Ch. 3 and Ch. 5?
Chapter 8 Rat
What does Dink mean by “It’s the teachers, they’re the enemy” (Card 108)? Find an example in a previous chapter that supports your claim.
What is Dink’s alternative explanation of the bugger menace? What makes this explanation plausible to Ender?
Chapter 9 Locke and Demosthenes
How does Valentine support her statement to Col. Graff: “… if there’s anybody who was the opposite of Ender, it’s Peter” (Card 145). Find some examples in previous chapter that counter Val’s argument.
Chapter 10 Dragon
Why does Ender treat Bean the way he himself was treated?
Chapter 11 Veni Vidi Vici
What are some of the hallmarks of effective leadership that Ender demonstrated in this chapter?
Chapter 12 Bonzo
How did Ender turn Bonzo’s one good quality, his sense of honor, against him?
Chapter 13 Valentine
How did Valentine change Ender’s mind about his military service?
Chapter 14 Ender’s Teacher
Since the buggers had no need for language, how could they communicate with humans?
Why is the catch phrase “remember, the enemy’s gate is down” the key to how Ender’s command style works (Card 293)?
Chapter 15 Speaker for the Dead
How did the book Ender wrote, Speaker for the Dead, start a new religion? When and where did it prosper?
For Magnet English 10 students: Honors and regular