Hatrack River - The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card | |
Print | Back |
CHOOSE ANY FIVE OF THE FOLLOWING. These chapters focus on the
conditioning Ender receives. Below you will find a list of quotes. Explain the
following for each:
A. The context
B. The meaning or purpose
C. The result
"Colonel Graff, the games have always been run fairly before …"
"Fairness is a wonderful attribute, Major Anderson. It has nothing to do
with war."…
"That's why I'm asking you now. To begin. Be creative. Think of every
stacked, impossible, unfair … Think of other ways to bend the rules…
You're forgetting that it is merely a training exercise."
"It's also status, identity, purpose, name; all that makes these children who
they are comes out of this game. When it becomes known that the game can
be manipulated, weighted, cheated, it will undo this whole school. I'm not
exaggerating."
"I know."
"I know, you've been here a year, you think these people are normal. Well,
they're not. We''re not. I look in the library, I call up books on my desk.
Old one, because they won't let us have anything new, but I've got a pretty
good idea what children are, and we're not children."
"Ender didn't go back to the fantasy game. But it lived in his dreams. He
kept remembering how it felt to kill the snake, grinding it in, the way he tore
the ear off that boy, the way he destroyed Stilson, the way he broke
Bernard's arm. And then to stand up, holding the corpse of his enemy, and
find Peter's face looking out at him from the mirror. This game knows too
much about me. This game tells filthy lies. I am not Peter. I don't have
murder in my heart.
And then a worse fear, that he was a killer, only better at it than Peter ever
was; that it was this very trait that pleased the teachers…"
"But I didn't hate you. I loved you both, I just had to be - had to have
control, do you understand that? It's the most important thing to me, it's
my greatest gift, I can see where the weak points are, I can see how to get in
and use them, I just see those things without even trying."
Not only should you discuss this quote, but also what Peter is planning
with Valentine.
"Valentine, we need your help for Ender."
"What kind of help?"
"We aren't even sure of that. We need you to help us figure out how you can
help us."
"But what was this thing with Bean? Why had he gone for the smallest,
weakest, and possibly the brightest of the boys? Why had he done to Bean
what had been done to Ender by commanders that he despised?
Then he remembered that it hadn't begun with his commanders."
In an interview, Orson Scott Card stated:
"I use the character's own attitude and experiences to let the reader see how
important the events are in the character's life. Instead of having the character
smacked in the head with a brick, I have the character smacked with an emotional
surprise that only FEELS like a brick. Works better, less blood."
These questions were used as both a quiz and as a vehicle for discussion. Many of my students had not read sci-fi prior to this.
Ender's Game: Quiz chapters 1- 7
Ender's Game: Quiz chapters 8 - 10
Ender's Game: Quiz chapters 11 - 13
Ender's Game portion of Semester Exam