Fall 2011

Bean tells his 'toon that he doesn’t care about winning, that instead he wants to learn whatever is necessary to fight the Buggers. He says: “Losing is a much more powerful teacher than winning” (393). What do you think about this? Is it true? Why or why not?
Major Anderson chooses 40 students to serve under Ender in Command School and says if anything happens to Ender, Bean can take over. Dimak questions this logic saying: “They’ll never forgive him for not being Ender” (397). Is this true? If something happens to Ender, will the others follow Bean or not?
What do you think about Bean’s decision to send a letter to Demosthenes and Locke? Is this a good idea? What does he hope to achieve?

Bean figures out that the game the boys are playing in Command School is actually real. He says: “And they don’t tell us because we’re children. They think we can’t handle it … They’re keeping it a secret to protect us from our own compassion” (418). What do you think about this statement? Is it true? Is the IF keeping the kids in the dark because they’re afraid their compassion might make them less effective soldiers or because they're protecting them from pain? Is this a good or a bad thing for the IF to be doing?
If the kids found out the truth, would they keep fighting? Why or why not?
What do you think about the IF’s plan to use gifted kids to fight their battles for them?
If you were one of the kids, would you want to know the game is real or not? Why?
If you were Bean would you tell Ender and the others the secret or not? Why?

Bean talks a lot in the beginning of the chapter about how for Ender, “Authority came from him like breath” (432). Do you know people who are born leaders/commanders? What makes them like that?
Bean wonders if he can ever be the kind of commander that Ender is: “Can I learn to do what he does?” (433) Is being a leader something that can be learned or is it something a person is naturally born with?
Bean says that Petra struggles because of her perfectionism. He says: “Couldn’t Ender see that Petra, a perfectionist, was getting eaten alive by guilt and shame over every move she made?” (437) What do you think of this? Can perfectionism get in the way of performance?
Bean sees the toll the battle is taking on Ender. He says: “I think even when Ender doesn’t consciously know that he’s killed somebody, he knows it deep down and it burns in his heart” (444). Yet, Bean decides not to tell Ender the truth because “we can’t lose this war” (448) This is a very difficult dilemma. Would you be able to keep the secret in order to save humankind?
Bean says: “The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life” (451), BUT, he says also “We humans do, when the cause is sufficient, spend our own lives” (451). Both of these statements are interesting views of humanity. Are they accurate? What do you think about them?

Col. Graff reveals that Achilles escaped from prison. What do you think he'll do in the next book?
Col. Graff is going to be court martialed for his role in the battle. Do you think he will be exonerated or not? Why?
Bean says of Ender: “The victory had cost him deeply, more than anybody” (462). Yet, Bean says he believes that Ender “would command again in battle” (463). Do you think Ender will be able to go on?
Bean says that Ender won’t be coming home again so that “neither party on Earth would be able to use him” (464). He also says this was proposed by Peter, Ender’s brother. What do you think about this? What do you think Ender thinks about this?
In the end, Bean finally finds a home. How do you think he'll adapt after all he’s been through?