Keven Goh
Mrs. Black
Language Arts
2/2/2015
What Does the Giant’s Game Really Signify? (Ender’s Game)

At first, the Giant’s Game is an unwinnable game designed by the Battle School in order to teach recruits how to think through different scenarios, despite the fact that the result is always failure. From Ender’s viewpoint, the Giant’s Game feels like to him a challenge that must be beaten at all costs. At one point he even becomes obsessed with the game, playing it in desperate attempts to beat the Giant every chance he gets. “It’s a dumb game and I can’t ever win. Whatever I choose is wrong. But he went through the mousehole anyway” (62). Ender knows that winning the game is supposed to be impossible, yet he cannot help himself from not playing it. Eventually, it is Ender’s unconventionally violent gaming style that allows him to do the impossible. However, as Ender progresses further and further into the game, it becomes clear to him that someone or something is manipulating the game specifically for him. Strange unpredictable things start to happen, such as a mysterious world never mentioned before and a picture of his older brother Peter shows up, as well as many other odd events in the game that were never initially programmed into the original. Even the instructors do not know what has happened. “’Fairyland was programmed in. It’s mentioned in a few other places. But nothing talks about the End of the World. We don’t have any experience with it” (120). Ender