Project Text

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.

            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. 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. 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. 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.  

            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 tis 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 oldest kid 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.

            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.