Of Battle School, Buggers, and Bonzo Madrid

I read Ender's Game for the first time when I was only 12 years old. This was, for me, an unusually short book to tackle. When I was 9 I read most of the way into Jurassic Park before my elementary school teacher confiscated it because I was reading too much. I suppose you could say that I was a precocious reader. 

Perhaps that is why I connected in some ways with the character of Andrew Wiggin, also known by the titular nickname of "Ender." Ender had many attributes that I aspired to as a young man. He was intelligent, he was adept at finding creative solutions, he was goodhearted, he was able to defend himself. Ender's experiences in Battle School felt as if they paralleled some struggles in my life dealing with the cruelties of other children. Ender's mind felt like it operated on many of the same principles as mine. 

Ender became a sort of idol to me. He became an example of the kind of person that I want to be, in many ways. As the series progressed into further works, I found myself gravitating towards Ender more and more. Through the novels Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, which I read some years later, I watched as Ender grew from a young boy into a grown man. I felt as if I was watching a friend grow up alongside me, and eventually surpass me in age. Ender's struggles with his own identity and his past mistakes were a large influence on my teenage years. In many ways, this fictional character served as not only a motivational force, but a guiding one. I still think of Ender as being one of the most important people in my young life, even though he isn't real. 

That's why I consider Orson Scott Card to be one of the best authors I have ever read, and why I esteem him to be the author I'd most want to write like. 

 

-Ender Wiggin