People Dislike Those Who Excel - Theme Paragraph Ender's Game

Because of the desire to succeed as a part of basic human instinct, people tend to dislike those who excel and do better than they do. When Graff tells the group of launchies, "There's only one boy on this launch with any brains at all, and that's Ender Wiggin." (Card 31), he instantly makes the boys dislike Ender. When compared to someone else in a negative way, people tend to become angry and defensive. This is very clear during the launch, when Graff's statement leads to Ender breaking another boy's arm on accident in self defense.

Name format poem - Valentine

Valentine

Young, brilliant, charming, and loving.

Relative of Ender and Peter Wiggin.

Lover of Ender, Peter, and Demosthenes.

Who feels happy, smart, and adventurous.

Who needs love, opportunity, and help from Peter.

Who fears Ender leaving, Peter quitting, and authorities.

Who gives orders, hugs, and looks.

Who would like to see Ender, herself in charge, and Peter being nice.
Resident of Earth and the bugger colonies.

Wiggin.

Ender Wiggin

Ender Wiggin is a brilliant child with a mind and level of maturity far past his age. Ender's relationship with his brother Peter can be represented by the quote, "Ender looked at Peter only to detect anger or boredom, the dangerous moods that almost always led to pain." Ender has developed an understanding of his brother's nature, and remains watchful to prevent Peter from hurting him. He can figure out the way people act, and use it to his advantage, very similar to how he interacts with Peter. Ender also shows how advanced he is for his age when he says, "If you try to control my free play, I can get you iced." to Bonzo, his leader at the time. Ender hopes to stand up for himself, even to someone much older and in a position of power, which shows his bravery. Not only does it show his bravery, it gives insight to the reader about how old Ender acts for such a young child. What is obvious about Ender is his intelligence, which has a role in all other aspects of his personality and allows him to be so much ahead of his age in maturity, only partly as a result of his relationship with his siblings.