Ender's Game

Why Ender's Leadership in Ender's Game was so Successful Compared to Other Leaders

By Ellie Rosch

The Book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card tells the story of a young genius in a sci-fi world going through strenuous training to defeat enemies that are trying to kill everyone on Earth. The main character, Ender, has to be taught how to lead and strategize platoons of soldiers to defeat the Buggers, who are connected to a hive mind trying to kill Earth. In battle school you get assigned to armies where you have a commander that leads soldiers into war games. War games is most comparable to a mix of capture the flag and laser tag. It's a place to try out strategies and learn how to use weaponry. Gravity also is constantly changing throughout the game; A concept that many don't understand.

Graff, the administrator of battle school, puts Ender in Salamander Army where he meets his commander, Bonzo. Bonzo is described as a young and aggressive leader who hurts anyone that steps out of line. We see this the on the first day when Ender meets Bonzo when he told him "Don't give me any problems or I'll paste you to the wall" (Card 68). Ender does not like Bonzo's leadership because he thinks that good commanders don't have to make threats and instead should earn the trust of their soldiers. Commanding with trust and friendship instead of fear. Throughout Ender's time at the Salamander Army we see him time and time again obey Bonzo but in a way that makes Bonzo look like a stupid commander; He makes Bonzo lose the fear and respect the soldiers have for him. One example of this was when the Salamander Army was in a war game and was losing. Bonzo had directly ordered Ender to not draw him gun under any circumstance so when the opposing army was about to win and Ender had an open shot that could have drawn the game, Ender did nothing and the opposing army won (Card 72). Bonzo was embarrassed and tried to punish Ender for losing them the game but couldn't do it publicly because it was a direct order that he gave Ender in front of everyone to not draw his gun. Ender kept following orders but always found loopholes and made Bonzo repeal the order because it was hurting him more than Ender. After all of this Ender had made a name for himself and was popular enough to get traded to another army; Bonzo took the first offer he got to get rid of Ender, but not before beating him and says how Ender repeatedly disobeyed him.

Ender got introduced to his new army called the Rat Army. The commander was named Rose and he  immediately puts him in a platoon run by a boy named Dink and tells Ender to act like Dink is god (Card 78). Ender doesn't like Rose from the start. He's lazy and depends on other people to do work for him. He also likes to goof off and perform inappropriate actions in front of his army. Despite this, he's smart and immediately orders Ender to not use tech outside of the war games because that's one of the ways he was able to frustrate Bonzo by hacking into his tech. Ender thinks "how does a boy who spends his time like this win battles? (Card 78). Ender then met Dink. Dink is the first one to see promise in Ender and wants to actually train him. Dink does not consult or even talk to Rose. Ender likes Dink. He likes the way he leads his toon, the way he takes time to talk to the soldiers instead of just ordering them round. Ender and Dink grow and learn together with Dink teaching Ender the basics and Ender teaching Dink how to understand and manipulate the gravity. While Ender is getting better he gets into many fights with Rose. He repeats the actions that he took with Bonzo but with a bit more defiance. An example of this is when Ender uses technology to complete a trigonometry assignment even though earlier Rose told him not to use any type of tech. Rose gets really mad at him and tells him to basically commit suicide in the next war game by telling him to charge straight down into the enemy's main toon with no chance to survive and remain a player in the game. Ender followed orders but not before taking a lot of the enemy out with him gaining the respect of many soldiers. (Card 81-83). Rose likes winning, but he hates Ender more so after a few more battles and arguments with Ender he gets traded yet again to Phoenix Army. 

Ender does not stay in Phoenix Army for long, but there he meets Petra. Petra is the Commander of Phoenix Army and is the best sharpshooter in battle school. Petra lets Ender do his own thing because at this point he is so good at strategy and shooting that he wins every battle he's in. So good that he soon becomes his own commander.

Ender becomes the commander of the Dragon Army. The Dragon Army was a failed attempt of adding another army long before Ender got to battle school but because they still had all of the uniforms they resurrected it and put it in command of Ender. Because it was a new army Ender recieved young kids that didn't know how to play or how to follow instructions.While Ender is training the army he notices that one kid stands out because this kid reminds him of himself. His name was Bean and at first Ender noticed himself isolating Ender because that's what Graff had done to him when Ender first came to battle school; Making sure Bean felt alone with nothing to rely on but his own genius and strategy. As soon as Ender realized what he had done he tried to change. He didn't want to be like all of his past commanders so he made jokes and earned the army's trust; He let Bean make friends, and when Bean asked to be a toon leader he made him work for it even though he knew Bean would be a toon leader from the moment he was being taught by Ender. Ender knew when to be hard and when to be soft. He allowed people to see him as human instead of just a commander. Because of this the Dragon Army never lost a game even when all of the odds were stacked against them. They faced multiple battles in one day, battles before breakfast, battles where two armies were up against Dragon Army but no matter what battle school threw at Ender and Dragon Army they always won. 

I feel like this is reflective of the leadership styles that commanders employ. In the Salamander Army, Bonzo was harsh and didn't connect with his team. He ruled on threats which made it easier for Ender to work around him because he seemed to be all bark and no bite. Bonzo had the best soldier battle school had ever seen and told him not to fire his gun. Salamander Army did not do well in the rankings because of Bonzo's lack of strategy and teamwork. The same would be said for the Rat Army but it happened that Rose had an excellent toon leader, Dink. Dink taught Ender what it was like to actually have a connection with his leader. Ender was willing to do whatever Dink told him to, not because it was an order from Rose, but because Dink had earned Ender's trust. Rose's leadership was exactly like Bonzo's, he just got lucky with having such a great toon leader that actually cared about the soldiers he was teaching. That's why the Rat Army was ranked higher than the Salamander Army, but it was the disconnect between Rose and Dink and the pettiness of Rose that ultimately made them worse than they could have been. With Petra there was nothing she could really do to teach Ender more. We aren't able to see many examples of her leadership because Ender didn't need to be lead. We see this when Pheonix Army quickly rose to be one of if not the best army in battle school at the time. Ender was just that good and that's why pretty quickly he was his own commander. Ender took everything that he learned from his previous commanders and perfectected his leadership. From Dink he knew to make a connection with your army and to gain their trust. With Petra he knew when to leave people alone. Like when he allowed Bean to have his own toon and only teach him when necessary (Card 151). He even learned things from Bonzo and Rose; When to be hard on your team. It is ultimately Ender's ability to lead and his genius of strategies that make him so successful. 

Works Cited

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. Tor Books, 1985.