Gustavo Vieyra
Professor Sean Pessin
English 114B
7 March, 2012
Time
Can Change All
The
only thing on this earth that never stops, keeps going, and you will never be
in control of it, time. What is time? Time is a complicated system that can be
described in many ways, in so it can be the past, present, or future, but it
all involves sequential events that build itself, yet it can be the simplest
just by leaving it alone. Time can also be the most powerful tool used in any
event depending on the amount that it is exerted on something, but no matter
the size of the period, drastic changes can be made from a split second to
millions of years. In example, it would only take a second to determine if
someone gets to live by holding a gun to someone else’s head, if the person
holding the gun decides to pull the trigger they will not be able to go back
and undo the damage that is nearly not repairable. In another example,
evolution of animals that occurred from millions of years ago now plays a big
effect on the whole life of the evolved animal, some have adopted from being
water animals to land animal, therefore creating a big change. Changes can be
good yet again can be bad, but again with the amount of time spent on that
change. In two books that I read time greatly impacted the outcomes of
different events and people. These two books were Ender’s Game and Speaker
for the Dead, both written by Orson Scott Card. The first book to the novel
Ender’s Game is about a young boy
named Andrew Wiggin who is known and referred to as Ender. Alien species called
Buggers have attacked the planet twice and almost wiped out humanity, to win
the next war against the Buggers they must prepare. They turn to kids and build
them up to become military experts who will in the future defeat the Buggers.
In the training camps their ways of developing into higher skilled soldiers is
by playing these battle games and Ender being the extraordinary at them easily
dominates. Throughout his young childhood he faces tough obstacles, one being
his brother who desperately wants to kill Ender. He also faces challenges that
shape him into who he becomes, for example leaving his sister and parents, getting
bullied around at school, and following the demands of strict officers that
influence him deeply. He becomes the
best of the best and manages to destroy the Buggers in effort to protect his
home planet, titling him with the name “Ender the Xenocide”. In the second
series Speaker for the Dead, Ender who
now refers to himself as Andrew Wiggin is in his mid-thirties but it has been
over three thousand years since the Xenocide of the Buggers. Because of his
space travel he has managed to beat time and travel for years even though the
real time is still going without affecting him. His new job as a Speaker for
the dead is to travel to world and host these ceremonies where he speaks “true
stories” of those who have recently died. With him he carries a cocoon that
homes the Hive Queen, the only remaining life of the Buggers. His first task was to speak of the Buggers who
he wiped out. He travels to a planet who is given the name of “Lusitania” where
a new alien species since the Buggers is discovered, for short of Pequeninos
they call this species; Piggies. They are observed by two “Zenadors” or
anthropologist; Pipo and Libo who are father and son, as they have the Piggies
in a gated closed society. Mysteriously they are found that they have been
killed but do not know the exact reason why. Only one person knows why they
were killed, her name is Novinha, who used to have a relationship with Libo.
She knows that Pipo was killed right after he discovered a link of the
Descolada disease to the Piggies. A call was made to Andrew to speak for the
deaths of these. After he arrives at the planet him and Novinha quickly grow
fond of each other since they have had similar pasts and encounters. He is
determined to settle this mysterious death of Pipo and Libo. It may too have been
possible that he found a new home for the Buggers since the cocoon can hatch at
any time and possibly give them a second chance to live. Like I mentioned
earlier, time is a powerful tool, in these two books time developed many
changes. Differences between the books enhance how Ender went from being; Ender
to Andrew Wiggin to a Speaker for the dead, many of these events affected his
age dominance meaning that the older Ender got just like anyone they get more
power and respect. As he got older he managed to earn this power of being
better respected and looked up to. He gained more authority.
Throughout
Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead Ender’s age is obviously
affected by time. He began his journey and this great genius military expert at
the age of six when an I.F. Officer named Graff chooses Ender to go to the
battle school to start his training. Enlisting in the military at this certain
age distorts time because it is very unusual. This is never really seen in our
current time country. On the contrary if you wish to enlist in the service here
you have to be at least eighteen years old. Ender is only six, he is still
young and may not be sure about his choice. Although some third world countries
do force child this young to join the military its is nit dine here. While
being eighteen you are technically an adult already, by then you have been
exposed to many things that can possibly affect you choice of enlisting. Here
Ender has not even finished or better yet starting his childhood so how will he
know that he has been exposed enough to certainly make this decision? Ender being really young he is uncertain about
his decision; he leaves his parents to draft and enroll in this battle school.
His age plays a deep roll in his encounters, for one he would be bullied at
school; he wasn’t one of the big older kids so this made him a target. Being
vulnerable may not have been the worst thing though, he was young and picked on
by bullies at school but he was strong and smart. A fight had broken out
between him and a bully named Stilson. Stilson continuously picked on Ender and
one day Ender finally had enough, he fought back. The fight brought out an
inner vane monster-like Ender, his anger took over and harshly beat up Stilson.
Not realizing that the true fact was that he had killed him. We can clearly see
that his young age affected him as any regular child would be affected in our
time. Bullying highly developed ender to become who he is now. The constant
pushing around from his brother and peers at school made him realize that their
doings were to not be tolerated anymore. Bullying made Ender stronger. Young
children now days are targeted by older kids to make themselves feel of power
and control. Everyone wants to seek power, the easiest way of this would be to
go after younger, smaller beings that you know you can easily dominate. This
scenario of what happened to Ender is seen all over the world in schools. Unlike
for ender he did not win dominance by punking younger kids than him. He stongly
fought to be on top. His experience of
being bullied comes into play here, he is tored of it so his only resort is to
fight back. The bullying and experiences that he had at his young age change
him to not let himself get pushed around anymore. We can clearly see this when
he finally decides to stand up for himself and fight back. Many fight for that “popularity” where it is
better to be feared then respected. Power is like a hunger that many crave so
they turn to dominate over those who seem weaker. Back to my example in high
schools the older seniors target new incoming freshman to state their presence
and make a stand that because they are older they have more power and dominate
the area. Ender because he is still the youngest in the battle camps he is
still picked on. On another event on their way to the battle camps he is picked
on by an older kid. The same thing happens, Ender fights back but this time a
result of only a broken arm occurs. Age plays an important role on how Ender
develops over time, he does not have control of time so he can’t magically make
himself older. It forces him to grow as he endures all these painful fights,
even to him as he wins them all. His age overtime does not catch up to other so
he is always looked down upon because he is the youngest.
The
relationship between bullying and time is that from all the time he was bullied
and pushed around it later took affect after a certain amount that in the
future it made him the leader her became. It took years of him being bullied
for him to snap out of his push over ways and realize that I was no longer okay
to get taken advantage of. If possible he had not been bullied for that long he
might not have seen just how bad it was or he wouldn’t have taken it serious to
think that changes had to be made. He might have tolerated it enough to where
no great effect would take part in him. The relationship between knowledge in
time is that the longer you live and are around experiences that build you up
the more aware you become of your surroundings and how to exactly cope or work
with them to your full advantage. Time is powerful, it is impossible to learn
the same amount of material in different time periods. Of course you will take in
and digest more when you have longer time to analyze it. Same thing with
practice, the more practice you have at things the better you will get at
preforming them. Ender did not have the largest amount of time to take in his
childhood but in a way that worked to his advantage. He was more focused on
becoming this great fighter/leader. As you can see he managed his time in his
battle school more over being a kid that form this he became great. He figured
that learning to become a soldier was more important than being a kid, he was
correct because he managed to lead the army into a glorious victory against the
Buggers.
Compared
to Enders age in Speaker for the Dead
he is much older but no one seems to consider his age. The true fact is that no
one really knows that “Andrew” is Ender the Xenocide, they all think that he is
deceased. His life as a young kid drastically impacted the man he is today.
Because of all his struggles with his young age as a kid he is shaped into this
bright brave man. The obstacles he faced really changed him in the most
positive way, as he was picked on through time and time it made him tougher.
Now in this new time of the Piggies his age plays no important roll on what he
is and what he does. Many people have gotten over that age where the feel power
is gained by dominating the younger and weaker. They have matured enough to
realize that other traits are what differences each other and gain a new
respect kind of power. He may not be the oldest in this time but unlike when he
was a kid it does not matter. Although if Ender would have been one of the
older kids in the battle schools, he might never gotten picked on. This effect
trickles all the way down to the person he is now. Those encounters and fights caused by his
younger age shaped him to be this tough victorious man, without them he might
have been a completely different person. I believe those taunts really brought
out the best in him that led him to be the best at the games and eventually
defeat the Buggers and save his planet. If time would be broken to change his
age to be older when he was young the Earth may have perished due to the fact
that Earth never developed a hero to save it. Time unfortunately cannot be
changed to do this. Luckily the perfect time to prepare an ambush against the
Buggers at Enders age came right.
Throughout his life from a young
age to an older soldier Ender changes from being this Ender character to
Andrew, his ability to lead and have respect over most people is managed just
by the experiences he has throughout his life; age dominance. At Enders young
age he was easily influenced to do whatever Graff and the battle school wanted
him to do to create this genius military expert to lead the fight against the
Buggers. With time Ender managed to grow of out this person he was or he was
created to be. His young age managed older people to control him and watch his
every move. He was easily brainwashed to what they wanted to make him into,
what they consciously created was a killer that with any loss of control the
true Ender would come out that would defeat any opponent. His young age brought
him to the lowest possible rank, he had decisions that he was allowed to make
but even those decisions had outcomes that he may not have wanted to do. As
time passed and he grew he slowly moved up not regarding his age. This changed
many things; power was not dominated by his successful doings. People started
to look up to him. A life where age is no determining factor of who you become
will never happen. Although if possible pretty much everyone would be equal. No
matter the time difference whether years or seconds, there will always be that
one individual looking for dominance because they are older. If the same
scenario would occur as when he was older and age didn’t play an important role
on his doings and when he was young I believe that there would be no motivation
to move up and defeat those who believe have power over you. Time had a perfect
impact on Ender because of his age. He was deeply picked on because he was the
youngest but in the end he came out to be victorious over the rest. Time can
change all, this can include your faith as being the world’s Hero.
Works
Cited
Card,
Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tom
Doherty Associates, 1994. Print.
Card,
O. S. Speaker for the dead. Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1986. Print.
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