Leadership In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

Imagine being born an outcast and forced to end a war. That’s what life is like for Ender Wiggin, the protagonist in the novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Ender is a third child in a world where having more than two children is obscure. The only reason he was ever born was to become a commander and defeat the alien threat known as the buggers. To do this Ender is conscripted to Battle School, a place where kids are put against each other in null gravity to learn about the tactics of war. Ender soon becomes a commander of his own army and becomes the best anyone has ever seen. Ender then goes to Command school where he learns about the buggers’ strategies and inevitably commits xenocide on the buggers. In the novel Card describes how Ender is a good leader because of his intelligence, communication skills, and ingenuity. Ender has many strengths, but his greatest is his intelligence. Ender has always been smart, especially in school. Ender didn’t have to be paying attention to understand what was happening. “[Ender] always knew the answer, even when [the teacher] thought he wasn’t listening” (Card 5). This shows that Ender is so deft that he doesn’t have to pay attention to understand what’s happening. Ender needs intelligence helps him to be able to be a good leader and end the war. Other characters in …show more content…
This shows when Ender and Peter, Ender’s older brother, play a game. During the game they get into a fight, “[Peter] lifted his foot, took a step, and then knelt on Ender… it became hard to breathe” (Card 12). This means that Ender isn’t very strong and can’t fight very well. Ender doesn’t need to be physically strong to be a good leader. Instead of being physically strong Ender is mentally strong. Since Ender is intelligent, he can think of other ways to win besides fighting. Ender’s intelligence, communication skills, and ingenuity are what make him a good