Ender's Game

As the new Battle School students—nicknamed Launchies—board the space shuttle, Ender already feels isolated from the other boys, who are goofing off and laughing at jokes he doesn’t find funny. Ender’s imagination constructs a different reality that suits his humor, where cameras and interviewers pepper him with questions like he’s a celebrity. (The idea that he would be chosen as the group’s spokesperson is funny to him.) As Ender buckles himself in his seat, he notices the carpet lining a wall and realizes the normal laws of gravity won’t apply to him much longer. He reimagines his orientation to the planet, now “hanging upside down from the belly of the Earth” (22). Ender is relieved to see Graff’s familiar presence join the shuttle, but when Graff addresses the new students after launch, he aggressively designates Ender as the smartest among them, insulting everyone else. After Graff leaves, the other boys mock his favored status, and Ender realizes Graff created this dynamic intentionally. One boy starts hitting the back of Ender’s head. As the blows come, Ender patiently plans his retaliation; he anticipates a particular hit, catching the boy’s wrist and pulling hard. Ender doesn’t calculate null gravity’s effects, and the boy flips over him and slams into a wall, breaking his arm.