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Ooooo, that IS a a good question, Gary!
I'm thinking one of the reasons I wasn't bothered by the "surprise" ending was that OSC had done a good enough job thinking that the characters were fooled.... So I'm not bothered by it.
He did go to a lot of effort to portray them as harried and exhausted, in addition to be absorbed in their "training" and determined to succeed, so it seemed to work.
But that might just be me. In part, that effort to "overwork" the characters could have seemed contrived in relation to the secret that they were dealing with. Did anyone else think the characters should have realized what was going on?
Gary, I actually really liked your answer to your question. What an interesting question at that!! It's been a couple months since the last time that I read the book (so bare with me), but although most of the characters where focused on their work, not all of them were focused on it 100% of the time.
Skipping over the idea that their work kept them blind to the twist (for only a moment), what I originally thought after reading your question (which I never thought of before but I'm giddy with the idea now) is that perhaps you have to give credit to the adults? Think in a game of cards, even bad players can occasionally have a good hand and win a round. It's really interesting to consider that the "opposing team" actually might have had a good hand!
Back to your question: should the characters have seen what was happening? Maybe they were starting to before Ender was sent off? Maybe that could have been why he was advanced so early and not only because of the main issue at hand. Maybe they were catching on to the idea and a new rebellion was about to begin!! Then again an author can only have so many ideas in one book. The amount of ideas in this book was excellently handled, too. I think the book loses something if any of the other characters knew, or it would just add a few pages too the book. What's the big picture of the story though? Have a child prodigy do something that no one else could do. Get the job done. No need to complicate the story with other outside characters knowing something and having Ender not know. Then he eventually finds out. Okay, what happens now? Is this a rumor like any other rumor in school, or is it the truth? Now Ender's a skeptic, you've lost your one chance at success. End of story. Regardless, the main point I was trying to get at is that it splits the attention. So to answer your question, for the sake of the entire book (which I believe is virtually a masterpiece) No, I don't think the other characters should have known. As for the entire idea of "Ender's Game" in general, YES!! Just imagine Battle School if some of the kids had known!!
I, also, completely agree with you. The way OSC handled the characters to be seen as "completely exhausted in training and work" was well handled.
Thank you, for this this wonderful question!! I really enjoyed it!!
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Brian
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Feb 27, 2013 10:56AM
Ooooo, that IS a a good question, Gary!
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I'm thinking one of the reasons I wasn't bothered by the "surprise" ending was that OSC had done a good enough job thinking that the characters were fooled.... So I'm not bothered by it.He did go to a lot of effort to portray them as harried and exhausted, in addition to be absorbed in their "training" and determined to succeed, so it seemed to work.
But that might just be me. In part, that effort to "overwork" the characters could have seemed contrived in relation to the secret that they were dealing with. Did anyone else think the characters should have realized what was going on?
Gary, I actually really liked your answer to your question. What an interesting question at that!! It's been a couple months since the last time that I read the book (so bare with me), but although most of the characters where focused on their work, not all of them were focused on it 100% of the time. Skipping over the idea that their work kept them blind to the twist (for only a moment), what I originally thought after reading your question (which I never thought of before but I'm giddy with the idea now) is that perhaps you have to give credit to the adults? Think in a game of cards, even bad players can occasionally have a good hand and win a round. It's really interesting to consider that the "opposing team" actually might have had a good hand!
Back to your question: should the characters have seen what was happening? Maybe they were starting to before Ender was sent off? Maybe that could have been why he was advanced so early and not only because of the main issue at hand. Maybe they were catching on to the idea and a new rebellion was about to begin!! Then again an author can only have so many ideas in one book. The amount of ideas in this book was excellently handled, too. I think the book loses something if any of the other characters knew, or it would just add a few pages too the book. What's the big picture of the story though? Have a child prodigy do something that no one else could do. Get the job done. No need to complicate the story with other outside characters knowing something and having Ender not know. Then he eventually finds out. Okay, what happens now? Is this a rumor like any other rumor in school, or is it the truth? Now Ender's a skeptic, you've lost your one chance at success. End of story. Regardless, the main point I was trying to get at is that it splits the attention. So to answer your question, for the sake of the entire book (which I believe is virtually a masterpiece) No, I don't think the other characters should have known. As for the entire idea of "Ender's Game" in general, YES!! Just imagine Battle School if some of the kids had known!!
I, also, completely agree with you. The way OSC handled the characters to be seen as "completely exhausted in training and work" was well handled.
Thank you, for this this wonderful question!! I really enjoyed it!!
