Ender's Shadow

Author's Note: I wrote this piece because in literature we were told to write a literary analysis on a book of our choice. I chose Ender's Shadow, a great book with a great theme. In this analysis I am focusing on conventions and idea development and content.

Ender’s Shadow has a great theme to it, exploiting it in places in the book you wouldn’t expect. Leadership plays a huge role in every kid’s and adult’s actions in this book. They even had kids commanding a fleet that would decide either the beginning or end of humanity! Ender’s Shadow shows that kids given great responsibility can range from excellent leaders to horrible bullies.

Ender, the commander who handles responsibility wonderfully, was promoted to the elite commander of the International Fleet. This was most likely because of Ender’s being open to innovative battle techniques, giving power to his subordinates, and believing in changing how “the game” is played.

Bean, on the same hand, is a great commander that leads, for most of the book, under Ender. He leads by pure respect that is earned by his high scores on tests and epic battle tactics. He’s the guy who gives Ender most of his fantastic ideas, like using insanely strong cord to change direction instantly in null-G. He's so much smarter than Ender, in fact, that he is made commander of Rabbit Army.

Now let’s look at the other side of kid commanders. Bonzo Madrid is a cruel, mean, dumb bully who thinks he’s so great because the teachers foolishly chose him as a commander of an army. Because he thinks he’s so awesome, he can’t rely on other kids to take responsibility on the battlefield. Because of those actions, he almost always loses the battles and most everyone despises him. If Bonzo was put into a role like Bean’s, where he has to be a leader and follower, he would fail. His pride and arrogance would cloud his ability to make tactical decisions on the spot. That is what makes Bean and Ender so much better commanders than Bonzo. Ender is the most worshiped and famed soldier in Battle School, everyone is in awe of Bean, and where is Bonzo? At the bottom of the food chain.

Leadership is applied on the street as well as in Battle School. Before Achilles comes along, Poke is a pretty decent but dumb crew leader. She usually manages well enough to get food to everyone in the crew, finding it thrown out, on the ground, or in the charity kitchen. Then Bean comes up with a great plan. Poke’s crew will pound one of the street bullies with rocks, and then force him to let Poke and her crew into the charity kitchen. People don’t really respect Poke, because she doesn’t really do anything exceptional. That’s where Achilles comes in.

Achilles is like Tom Alacran in The House of the Scorpion -- a lying, cheating, deceptive person on the inside, but on the outside is a cheerful, kind respectful boy. He acts all nice to the crew, especially when they set him up as their “papa” and protector, and what he does to get food affects how they treat him. Because he gets them enough food to grow and be nourished, they accept him as their leader. Because Achilles is so smart and sly, people like him and give Achilles more food and provisions to him than Poke, who is just an average, dumb person trying to gain other’s respect.

The message in this book is awesome, adding to how well it is portrayed throughout the book. Most people can become great leaders, as long as they are willing to change how they act and don’t allow their pride or any of their other flaws to affect the way they act in their role of leadership. Bonzo could have easily changed the way he acted and become well-liked and respected but his arrogance got in the way.