Synopsis Ender's Game, Analysis in relation to my life story, and J Campbell Monomyth

By Leader Bien Patrick Velasquez

The Earth was ravaged by the Formics, an alien race seemingly determined to destroy humanity. Seventy years later, the people of Earth remain banded together to prevent their own race from this technologically superior alien species. Ender Wiggin, a quiet but brilliant boy, may become the saviour of the human race. He is separated from his beloved sister and his terrifying brother and brought to battle school in orbit around earth. He will be tested and trained into an empathetic killer who begins to despise what he does as he learns to fight in hopes of saving Earth and his family.

Ender is a slight fragile teenager with the expanding mind of a genius. His brother, the brute jock, is violent and only sees through strength and brutality. His sister the kind and compassionate one sees only through an affected sense of contact. Ender is a third child in a population overloaded world that is reeling from the previous war with the alien race of insect beings who work and behave like the ants nest, the Formics. Having been brought in to being by loving parents who gained permission for his birth, Ender feels he is not only unwanted but excess baggage to the world. However, his mind is his strength. He is gifted with the ability to become his aggressor and think like his aggressor thus giving him the key to the aggressor as he learns to love them through their frailty - using this to exploit them and thus destroy them. This ability is seen by those old men solidified in their ways, who have no flexibility in their thinking anymore, and exploit Ender to achieve their own ends.

The Hero is introduce to his ordinary world

Ender have siblings, sister and brother. His brother and sister were tested first. So the government requested the parents of ender to have one more child which breaks the population laws allowing only 2 child per family

The Miraculous Birth

In Ender's case, much of the novel's introduction focuses on the fact that he is a "Third." In a futuristic world where families are only allowed two children, the government gave Ender's parents special permission to have a third child because their first two had shown such promise. From the start, then, Ender is singled out as different, and this marks his relationships with his peers, teachers, siblings, and parents. It fuels much of his brother Peter's jealousy, for example, and causes Ender to feel separated from those around him.

The Call to Adventure

Though at first the hero's life may be relatively dull or ordinary, something happens to call him or her away from that life. The call to adventure is the hero's invitation to begin his or her journey or quest. For Ender, this is the visit from Colonel Graff that comes soon after the device that has monitored Ender for his entire life is removed. Graff extends an invitation for Ender to come with him into space and join the elite Battle School, to train to be one of the commanders who will protect Earth from the alien "Buggers." Though sometimes heroes refuse the first call, Ender accepts his with very little hesitation and is soon leaving his family and home world behind.

The Road of Trials

Much of a hero's quest comes in the form of trials he or she must overcome in order to get closer to the final goal, just as Hercules was set 12 impossible tasks by the gods. Ender faces many trials throughout his time in Battle School, trials that test him in various ways. The battle room tests him physically, the fantasy game tests him psychologically, and his alienation from his peers tests him socially. Though many of these trials tax him to his limits, and at times seem overwhelming, eventually Ender overcomes each one. With each test he passes he is given another more challenging assessment, and proves himself a truly heroic figure by surpassing all expectations. He makes it further into the fantasy game than his teachers thought possible, for example, and as a commander he never once loses a battle.

Death and Descent into the Underworld

Though the hero in a story does not usually die, there is often a symbolic or metaphorical death. This death is typically represented by a descent (moving downwards, into a lower place such as a valley or cave). This descent is the hero's travel to the underworld, the place of death, and when the hero later returns he or she is said to have been reborn.

At the end of his time in Battle School, Ender is mentally and psychologically drained to the extent that he refuses to continue his education (his quest). Instead of moving forward, he gives up and returns to Earth, descending from space to the planet's surface. He spends his days idle and despairing until his sister Valentine visits him, giving him the courage to return to space and enter Command School. This return is Ender's rebirth, giving him enough strength and conviction to see him through the even harder trials he still must face.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold

Once the hero has completed the quest (gained the magical item, fulfilled all the tasks, saved the world, and so on), he or she must find a way to cope with all that has happened, and to return to the real world to share what has been learned throughout the journey. Once Ender learns the truth about his 'game,' he must cope with the genocide he has committed and begin to move forward. He does this in several ways: by forgiving himself, by forgiving the Buggers, and by devoting himself to the protection of the last remaining hive queen. Most importantly, he shares what he has learned during his journey with the rest of the world by writing a book, The Hive Queen, which he hopes will teach the human race to love and understand the Buggers as he does. He has become what Campbell would call a "Master of Two Worlds," able to understand and hopefully someday reconcile two very different races.

Final Note

Ender's journey is not actually complete at the conclusion of Ender's Game. He appears in several later novels (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind), which give accounts of his life after he leaves Earth. These novels also play out the hero's journey in various ways. They feature new trials, descents, and rebirths for Ender, showing that the hero's quest is in many ways never truly complete.

How is Ender's leadership style different? Here are five which I find worth highlighting:

1) The respect of a leader has to be earned, not given by default. "I have a problem respecting someone just because they outrank me," Ender says to his Colonel when asked about the troubles he's having. Ender knows that a leader shouldn't be shown respect simply because he has the rank – he has to prove his worth, or his competency (or lacked of) is challenged, because too much is at stake for blind obeisance. Which leads to the next point…

2) He challenges his leader by asking questions. The leader's orders are not to be followed blindly just because he says so. New leadership is no longer a one way instruction and expects everyone to obey. Ender challenged his superiors' orders repeatedly by asking provoking questions, upsetting a few of them inevitably. Insecure leaders dislike being asked questions. Unlike the rest, Ender dares to speak up and raise what is on everyone else's mind but choose to remain silent and play safe.

3) He involves as many thinking brains as he possibly can. The old military leadership style is the leader who does all the thinking and his soldiers do all the fighting. Ender makes it clear to his soldiers, that if they have any good ideas, he wants to hear them. He doesn't want to be the only brain doing all the thinking. Unlike the other tough military leaders, he invites his followers to participate in strategy planning together with him, to their surprise!

4) He cares for others. Ender display as much heart (if not more) as his brilliant mind. He elevates his fellow soldiers to be his equal, and gaining the advantage of their loyalty and their best strengths as the result. He understands that others have needs too, and he takes them into consideration in his strategies.

5) He takes full responsibility for his actions and outcome. I can't elaborate too much on this without giving away the main spoiler of the movie. As a young commander who is instructed by the senior authority to kill the enemies, Ender need not bear the consequences of his actions but he did. Upon realization that he was tricked by the powers above him, he takes full responsibility to make amends and take the corrective actions. What a hero!

Overall, Ender's Game was emotionally compelling and asked a question or two on leadership issues. He displayed the coaching leadership style that I, as a leader, can appreciate.

ENDER'S GAME TO MY LIFE:

                Like ender, at a young age he was gifted and talented. The government saw in him the qualities of a true leader. Like ender I was also the "Third" in the family. In my childhood my father is just working for my Grandfather in our business and my mother was a pharmacist also operated by her family. Just like ender I was deployed to war at a very young age. My father trained me and saw in me a very good potential in handling the business, just like ender. The government saw in him the qualities of a true leader. My father trained me when I am still in my college days on how to be effective in decicion making and how to persuade people with different ages and attitudes. Again, like ender, he was given a huge responsibility in handling bigger duties by simply operating a fleet and become a leader to different types of attitudes inside his team whether they are older or younger to him. i see myself through ender, a young courageous skillful leader.

3