Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
10th grade Summer Reading
The study questions are due the first day of school. No partial credit for
late papers. Late papers will not be accepted. The answers should be
typed on a separate sheet of paper.
Be prepared for a test.
Ender's Game is one of the great ones, a novel of extraordinary power that is among the very best the genre has
ever produced. Written at a stage in Orson Scott Card's career when it seemed as if he could genuinely do no
wrong, Ender's Game takes a familiar theme from war fiction — war as seen through the eyes of a child, as in
Ballard's Empire of the Sun — and reframes it by making the child the war's central figure. It is a tale defined
by a sense of both tragic inevitability and cold irony. It is not merely about the loss of innocence, as so many
stories are with children at their center. It is about innocence systematically deceived and purposefully
destroyed in the fanatical pursuit of a misguided higher ideal.
Ender's Game Study Questions
Chapter 1
1. What does Ender's monitor do?
2. What is the nature of Ender's relationship with Peter?
3. What does it mean to be a Third? Is it good or bad? Why?
4. Why did Ender hurt Stilson so badly, so violently?
Chapter 2
5. Who are the two guys talking at the beginning of each chapter? What is their significance?
6. Does Peter hate Ender or is he just playing games? Why do you think so?
Chapter 3
7. How old is Ender? How old does he seem to you? Why?
8. Why does the IF finally decide they want Ender? What sways them?
9. What arguments does Graff give to get Ender to leave?
10. How does the family react to Ender going away? Would you react differently?
Chapter 4
11. Why does Graff want to isolate Ender from the other kids? How does he do it?
12. Have you ever been alienated from your friends for some reason? How did it feel?
Chapter 5
13. Why does Ender feel like he can't cry?
14. What is the first evidence we see that Ender has special abilities?
15. What does Ender do to begin to break up Bernard's gang? How does it change things?
Chapter 6
16. Why are the men so worried about Ender and the computer game?
17. In the battle room, who did Ender use to bridge the gap between the rival gangs? Who was the new leader?
18. How did Ender finally get past the giant in the video game? How did it make him feel?
Chapter 7
19. Why do they promote Ender so early? What is the worst part about it for Ender?
20. What is the symbolism of the playground ("the slide would not hold him")?
21. What is the difference between Petra Arkanian and Bonzo Madrid?
22. What does Ender learn about the battleroom from Petra? from the other launchies?
23. What does Ender do in the battle room to get himself traded? How does Bonzo take it?
Chapter 8
24. What do Col. Graff and Major Anderson want to use Ender for?
25. What was Ender's favorite method of attack? Why did it work so well?
26. Why does Dink think about the "bugger threat"? Whom did he say was the real enemy?
27. How did Ender fight the older boys in null gravity? How does Ender feel about the violence?
28. What is the significance of Peter's image in the mirror in the computer game?
Chapter 9
29. How is Ender alone even among his friends? Why is he like this?
30. Why does Graff need Valentine to help Ender?
31. How does Ender finally get away from the End of the World?
Chapter 10
32. When Ender finally gets an army of his own, how do they stack the odds against him?
33. How does Ender treat Bean? How is this ironic?
34. What happens between Ender and his only real friend, Alai? What does competition do?
Chapter 11
35. How do Graff and Anderson treat Ender as a tool? Does this happen in real life?
36. What makes Ender such a great commander? How does his army do?
37. How does Ender defeat Bonzo against all odds?
Chapter 12
38. Why is Ender in danger? Why doesn't Graff protect him?
39. How does Ender defeat Bonzo? Is he right to be so violent?
40. What trick does Ender use to defeat two armies at once? How does he feel about the game afterwards?
Chapter 13
41. What does Ender want from Peter? Is this possible?
42. Why does Graff bring Ender to Earth? What does he want to show him?
43. Describe the buggers. How are they different from us?
44. Why is the IF fighting the buggers? Are they making a mistake?
Chapter 14
45. Who is Ender's new teacher? How are they alike? different?
46. Who are Ender's squadron leaders? How do they fare on the simulator?
47. How does Ender's relationship with the others change now that he is their commander?
48. What started to happen to Ender physically? How do the battles change Ender?
49. How did he defeat the Buggers without knowing it? Why did they lie to him?
50. How do Ender's friends feel about him now?
51. How are they no longer children?
Chapter 15
52. Why can't Ender go back to Earth?
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53. What has Peter become? How has he changed?
54. Why does Ender decide to go with Valentine and the colonists?
55. What did the buggers leave for Ender? What do they want him to do?
56. What is a Speaker for the Dead?
General Themes
Population Control, use of violence to solve problems, Xenocide/genocide, genius
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