POWER

              
                  The book Ender's Game is about a boy named Ender who is taken to a place called battle school.  It seems like he was taken there to become a great general in an impending battle against an alien race called buggers.  In this book, the government seems to have an agenda that they are willing to do anything to keep.  They have a tendency to force Ender into being more mature and growing up faster than he should.
                              
                  
                   In this book, the goverrnment uses fear as their main source of power. It's the only reason that the battle school exists, to instill the fear that the Buggers may come back and slaughter most(or all) of the human race. The government uses this fear to make people follow them, essentialy creating a militaristic world. This book came out in the year 1985, just ten years after the war in Vietnam. Maybe Orson Scott Card was trying to say something about the way the government was operating in that time.

                   Ender goes through a lot in this book.  The teachers try to make sure that he is ostracized by other students.  The people that are in charge of him abuse him.  His older sister, Valentine is on Earth and she is the only person that truly loves him.  At one point in this book, Orson Scott Card says: "Home was merely a dull ache in the back of his memory."  I feel that this quote applies to most coming of age stories.  Teenagers in these are often distant from their families and even though the situations aren't quite as literal, they still apply.



                   So, what does this book say about growing up?  Just like lots of other coming ogf age stories, growing up is hard.  But the difference is that in this book, the main character doesn't do bad things to themself or others because of it.  Ender fights against peoople wronging him.  As soon as he catches himself feeling depressed, instead of hiding in the corner off a room, he does somthing to make himseelf feel better as opposed to loathing.  I believe that this book is saying that when people try to knock you down, no matter what, get right back up.