Ender S Game by Orson Scott Card Study Guide

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – Study Guide

Chapter 1: Third

1. What is their concern about Ender?

2. Discuss the beginning of this book and how it might “hook” a reader.

3. Discuss the significance of Ender’s monitor.

4. Why can’t Ender be friends with Peter?

5. What happened to Ender when they did the procedure and why?

6. Why does the name calling please Ender? Why is that word an insult?

7. What does Ender decide he must do about bullies and why?

8. What doe Ender say he’s become and why does it distress him?

9. What does this distress tell us about Ender’s character?

10. Discuss the problems Ender faces as a “third.”

11. Write three passages describing Ender’s intelligence.

12. How old is Ender? Are his actions appropriate to his age?

13. Describe the fight with Stilson.

Chapter 2: Peter

1. Describe Peter. How does he feel about Ender? Be thorough in your answer, as this will change over the course of the chapter.

2. What were dangerous moods for Peter and why?

3. “Buggers” is the word used to refer to the aliens that have attacked the earth on two previous occasions. Describe the buggers as you understand them from this chapter.

4. Describe the game Buggers and Astronauts? How does it turn out for Ender?

5. Describe Valentine. What does Valentine become for Ender? What does Valentine have to say about Ender?

6. Why is Ender upset that his father is “happy” that Ender is a third?

7. What does Peter do that night that surprised Ender? Why do you think Peter did it?

8. This book contains some language which is often considered objectionable. How do you feel about this kind of language in books? Why do you think the author has his characters use vernacular?

Chapter 3: Graff

1. How do they plan to get Ender to do what they want him to do?

2. What does it first seem Graff has arrived to do? What does he really want?

3. What is unique about Ender being a third?

4. What is Ender’s answer to the IF officer as to why he kicked Stilson when Stilson was down?

5. Why didn’t Ender ask a grown up for help?

6. When did Ender become property of the I.F.?

7. Why must Ender’s parents let him go?

8. “It wasn’t a charade, Mrs. Wiggin. Until we knew what Ender’s motivation was, we couldn’t be sure he wasn’t another—we had to knowwhat the action meant.“ What word did Graff mean to end his original thought with? Why did he have to be sure of Ender’s motivation?

9. Graff says Ender must volunteer to go to Battle School, and he personally tells Ender many reasons which might convince Ender not to go. What aspects of Battle School does Graff warn Ender about?

10. Why are Ender’s parents ambiguous about his going to Battle School?

11. Explain how Ender is a composite between Peter and Valentine.

12. What does Ender learn about his parents? What does this tell us about this society?

13. Why does Ender ultimately choose to go with Graff?

Reading Check: Ender’s Game ch. 1 – 3

1. What did the doctor remove from Ender’s neck?

(a) monitoring device

(b) freckles

(d) hairy warts

2. How old is Ender?

(a) 6

(b) 16

(d) 31

3. Stilson makes fun of Ender by calling him

(a) Brainiac

(b) Superfly

(d) Third

4. Ender’s brother is named

(a) Peter

(b) Valentine

(d) Stilson

5. What game does Peter want Ender to play with him?

(a) Cops and Robbers

(b) Heroes and Villains

(d) Cowboys and Indians

6. At the end of chapter two, Peter unexpectedly

(a) begins to cry

(b) apologizes to Ender

(d) runs away from home

7. The leader of Battle School is

(a) Valentine

(b) Bernard

(d) Alai

8. Ender thinks that the Military Colonel has come to his house to

(a) explain why his monitor is gone

(b) invite him to enter Battle School

(d) make his parents have another child

9. “I.F.” stands for

(a) International Fleet

(b) Imaginary Friend

(d) Intelligence Factor

10. What are “buggers”?

(a) aliens

(b) listening devices

(d) kids who don’t make it in battle school

Chapter 4: Launch

1. How does Ender differ from the other nineteen boys in his launch group?

2. What do they plan to do to Ender?

3. What does Ender realize the officers are doing?

4. What does Ender’s understanding about gravity reveal about Ender’s ability to think? How might this benefit him in outer space?

5. How does Ender think of earth?

6. What effect does Graff’s assertion that Ender will be a commander while the other boys are still learning have? How does Ender feel about this statement?

7. Why doesn’t Graff stop the boy from hitting Ender on the head? What happens to the boy?

8. Why does the incident on the shuttle distress Ender?

9. Why did Ender think Graff was his friend? What is Graff’s response

10. How can Ender make friends?

11. What does Graff say humanity is often?

12. What is Graff’s estimation of Ender and do you think it is accurate?

Chapter 5: Games

1. What is unique about where Ender’s bunk is located?

2. Who is Dap? Why is he important to the Launchies?

3. Write three passages describing Ender’s isolation.

4. What does the kid at dinner call Ender and why?

5. What does Ender do to keep from crying?

6. Why does Ender thank Peter?

7. What advice does Mick give Ender? How does Ender feel about Mick?

8. Of what importance are the games that the boys play? How does Ender do at these games?

9. Who becomes Ender’s first friend? Under what circumstances?

10. How does Ender overcome Bernard’s malice?

Chapter 6 The Giant’s Drink

1. Describe the battleroom. What importance do gravity, lasers, and spacesuits have there?

2. How do Ender and Alai become friends? What is surprising about Ender’s friendship with Alai?

3. Who do the boys choose to be their launch leader? Why does their choice seem appropriate?

4. Describe the computer game. Why can’t Ender beat the giant at first? How does he eventually win? What lesson does this teach Ender?

5. What upsets Ender about the way he won the game? What does this tell us about Ender’s character?

6. How have the dynamics of the group changed?

QUIZ

Chapters 4-6

_____1. Whose arm gets broken on the voyage from Earth to Battle School?

a) Ender’s

b) Graff’s

c) Bernard’s

d) Shen’s

_____2. When Graff tells the other Launchies that Ender is the best in their launch, the other boys

a) applaud

b) salute him

c) dislike him

d) gang up to attack him.

_____3. Who is the launchies’ “mom”?

a) Ender

b) Dap

c) Bernard

d) Alai

_____4. Bernard and his friends pick on Shen because

a) he is crippled

b) he wiggles his butt when he walks

c) he scores lowest on a math test

d) he is the first to be “iced”

_____5. In the battle rooms there is no

a) gravity

b) light

c) sound

d) oxygen

_____6. Guns in the battle rooms shoot

a) bullets

b) blanks

c) paintballs

d) light

_____7. The person that Ender first teams up in the battle room with is

a) Alai

b) Shen

c) Bernard

d) Anderson

_____8. Why can’t Ender originally beat the Giant?

a) The giant is too big

b) Whatever Ender chooses is always wrong

c) Ender has not received his password to the Giant’s castle

d) The Giant is immortal

_____9. Ender eventually beats the Giant by

a) turning himself invisible

b) typing in the special password that Shen gave him

c) attacking the Giant’s eye

d) kicking over a glass of acid

_____10. What does Ender do after he defeats the Giant?

a) He calls his friends over to see his monitor

b) He registers his high score with the school’s database

c) He turns off his computer and thinks about how violent he has become

d) He writes a letter to his sister

Chapter 7: Salamander

1. What disturbs the command about how Ender won the Giant’s drink game?

2. How does Command continue to justify how they treat the kids?

3. Why is Ender promoted? What is surprising about his promotion?

4. What does Alai want Ender to do?

5. Describe the computer game now that Ender has beaten the giant. How does Ender identify with the children in the game?

6. What does Ender find at the “End of the World”?

7. What does Ender want to do that he’s never done before?

8. Why is Petra Arkanian exactly the wrong kind of friend to have? What valuable skill does she eventually teach Ender?

9. What lessons does Ender learn from Bonzo Madrid about being a commander? What instructions does Bonzo give Ender concerning battles?

10. Where is Ender’s bunk and what does it indicate?

11. Why is it stupid of Bonzo to make everyone wear uniforms, but Petra can be naked? Do you agree that it’s stupid?

12. Why are adults the real enemies?

13. Why does Ender practice with his original Launchie group? What sorts of things does he teach them? How does Bonzo feel about Ender’spractices?

14. Discuss Salamander’s battle with Condor. What does Ender realize at its conclusion?

15. Why does Ender become suddenly homesick?

16. Discuss Salamander’s battle with Leopard. How does Bonzo react to Ender’s action during the battle?

17. Is Bonzo a good leader? Why or why not?

18. Where are Ender’s belongings?

19. What important things does Ender learn from Bonzo?

20. Is Ender a good leader? Is he a good friend? Can he be a leader and a friend? (Paragraph!)

Chapter 8: Rat

1. How is Rat Army different from Salamander?

2. What will happen if they change the game?

3. What surprising information does Dink Meeker relay to Ender?

4. What does Rose order Ender to do in his first battle with Rat? How does Ender respond to the order?

5. Why does Dink keep refusing to be promoted?

6. Summarize Dink’s discussion with Ender as they float in the battleroom’s anti-gravity. What surprising opinion does he have about the Bugger Invasion? Does Ender believe him?

7. How does Dink’s revelation start to change Ender’s way of think?

8. Describe Rat’s battle with Centipede. How does Ender turn Rose’s foolish order to his advantage?

9. Describe the other commanders’ attempts to stop Ender’s practices with the Launchies.

10. Why aren’t the teachers doing anything?

11. What had the computer game come to mean for Ender and why?

12. Describe where Ender is in the computer game. What does he see in the mirror after he defeats the snake? How does he react?

13. What happens the next day with Ender’s practice session?

14. What has Ender figured out about the game and about himself?

Reading Check: Ender’s Game chapters 7 – 9

_____1. Where in the computer game does Ender go after he beats the Giant?

a) back to the beginning

b) to fairyland

c) to the winner’s circle

d) to steal the Giant’s golden harp

_____2. Who teaches Ender to shoot his weapon more effectively?

a) Alai

b) Bonzo

c) Graff

d) Petra

_____3. The leader of Salamander Army is

a) Ender

b) Bonzo

c) Petra

d) Shen

_____4. Bonzo tells Ender

a) that he is not allowed to draw his weapon in the battle room

b) that he reminds him of Peter

c) that Petra will help him learn self-defense

d) that Mazer Rackham is his father.

_____5. With whom does Ender practice maneuvers in the battle room?

a) Salamander Army

b) Graff and Anderson

c) the kids in his original launchie group

d) Bonzo

_____6. Before Ender is transferred to Rat Army, he

a) is struck by Bonzo

b) meets Rose de Nose

c) receives a letter from his sister, Valentine

d) leads an important mission for Salamander Army.

_____7. Dink Meeker tells Ender that he believes

a) that the buggers were defeated in the second wave of attacks

b) that he wants to become commander of his own army

c) that he has been doing Rose de Nose’s homework

d) that Ender will be iced after the next battle.

_____8. What position does Ender suggest for fighting in the battle room?

a) Feet first, knees folded

b) somersaulting up to the ceiling

c) Head first, arms extended to both sides

d) head turned to the left, gun clenched in the right hand

_____9. What happens to a soldier when he is shot in the battle room?

a) his suit freezes up and he is unable to fight

b) he is knocked unconscious

c) he must leave the room immediately

d) he must surrender his gun to the other army’s commander

_____10. What image does Ender see looking back at him from the mirror in the computer game?

a) his own

b) a dragon

c) Peter

d) a bugger

Chapter 9: Locke and Demosthenes

1. According to Graff and the Aministrator, what is the computer game for?

2. What does the “end of the world” mean for Ender?

3. Why is Peter important to Ender?

4. Why had Ender’s family forgotten him?

5. Why did the Wiggin family move from the city to rural North Carolina?

6. Explain how the following people perceive Peter: his parents...his teachers...Valentine.

7. Valentine says “to keep herself safe, all she had to do was make sure itwas more in Peter’s interest to keep her alive than to have her dead.” How is she valuable to Peter?