Ender’s Game: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Anderson and Graff argue about the battle schedule Graff has planned for Ender. Anderson objects that the schedule is too challenging: Ender faces a new battle almost every day. Graff insists that the new schedule will toughen Ender and make him a stronger commander. He adds that “computer simulations” have predicted that Ender will reach his full potential soon. Anderson wonders aloud if humans—who are clearly capable of torturing young children—are worthy of winning the war with the Buggers. Then he laughs and calls this “black humor.”

Ender has been a commander for a few weeks now. He barely sleeps, and spends long hours making plans of attack for the battleroom. His troops have grown into capable, intelligent soldiers, and Ender trusts them to improvise strategies and tactics on the spot. This gives them a huge advantage over other armies, who are trained by their commanders to obey orders at all costs. As Ender sits in his room and thinks about all this, he sees a piece of paper slipped under his door. Without reading the paper he knows what it says: his army will have a battle today.

Ender goes to meet his army at 6 am, and informs them that they have a battle with Rabbit Army. To Ender’s surprise, the troops accept this order grudgingly but maturely—clearly Ender has trained his troops to be loyal and disciplined. After an hour of light practice, the troops go to the battleroom. As the battle is about to begin, Ender reminds his soldiers of their signature attack position: “the enemy’s gate is down.”

The battle begins. Right away, Ender notices that there are “stars” scattered through the battleroom. He directs his toons to shoot through the room and improvise their strategies once they’ve secured a position. Ender notes with pleasure that his toons are arranging themselves so that they break up the Rabbit Army into small, weak parts. One of his toon leaders, Crazy Tom, has the bright idea of ordering his troops to flash their own legs, making them nearly invisible in the low light of the battleroom. Ender makes a mental note to praise Tom for this decision later on.

The battle proceeds very quickly—Ender’s organized yet free-thinking troops easily overpower the Rabbit Army’s plodding forces. Ender assembles five troops and sends them through the enemy’s gate, winning the battle. After the battle, Carn Carby, the leader of Rabbit Army, approaches Ender and commends him for his good performance.

It’s still early in the morning when Ender’s troops have left the battleroom. He orders them to the mess hall for breakfast, and then to the battleroom for their usual practice. Ender himself doesn’t eat any breakfast—he’s too busy thinking about his next move. He’s just won a major victory with an inexperienced, barely-trained group of soldiers, and he now expects to see the other armies imitating his methods—dividing armies into small toons that use improvisational strategies. At practice, Ender doesn’t linger on praising his troops. He gives everyone strict instructions for how to improve their performances. By this point, the soldiers are used to Ender’s calm yet severe style of leadership: they know that he’s stern but also very patient with them.

After practice, Ender goes to the commander’s mess hall, and notices his old toon leader Dink Meeker sitting there. Dink greets Ender cheerfully, and compliments him for his good showing in the battleroom. After a few moments, however, Ender realizes that Dink isn’t as friendly as he seems—in fact, Dink finishes his conversation with Ender quickly and goes to sit at a different table. After Dink leaves, Carn Carby sits down with Ender and praises him once again. Ender is impressed: Carn seems sincere, even if he’s a lackluster commander. That night, Ender sleeps better than he has in months.

The next day, Ender wakes up to find that he has another battle scheduled, this time with Petra Arkanian’s army, Phoenix. He’s disturbed to see that he’s already late: the battle is scheduled in only half an hour. Quickly, he runs to his troops’ barracks and tells them about the battle. They’re surprised—having two battles in two days is unheard of. Nevertheless, the troops perform well against Petra. (Card gives almost no details about the battle.) At the conclusion, Petra is visibly angry with Ender for beating her. Ender hopes that they’ll be friends again at some point.

By the end of the week, Dragon Army has fought seven battles, and won all of them. Ender has acquired a reputation among commanders for being cocky and arrogant, especially because he’s younger than the average commander by more than a year. Other commanders bully him, pushing him aside in the halls.

Ender focuses his attention on learning new strategies for the battleroom. He researches old propaganda videos of Mazer Rackham defeating the Buggers. As he watches in more detail, it becomes increasingly clear that the humans should never have defeated the Buggers in the first place. Human ships were slow and difficult to navigate, while the Bugger ships, by contrast, moved quickly and skillfully. He notices that the Buggers have only one big strategy: send as many ships as possible to the greatest point of enemy concentration. He also notices that there’s almost no footage of Rackham’s true victory—only a few shots of Rackham firing at one large ship.

One day, Ender receives a visit from Anderson and Graff. They ask him how his army has been doing, and ask him why he doesn’t play the Giant’s game anymore. Ender, who’s been frustrated with Graff for months now, fires back that his troops are exceptional, and capable of beating any army in Battle School. He adds that he doesn’t play the Giant game anymore because he already won. Graff tells Ender that he wants him to be as happy as possible, but also wants him to improve as a commander. He gives Ender a slip of paper with his new battle assignment: he’s fighting the Salamander Army, still commanded by Bonzo Madrid.

Ender goes to his troops and tells them about their new battle. Thinking quickly, he devises a novel strategy: he assembles the larger boys and freezes their legs. Then, he lets the smaller boys sit on top of the larger boys, creating a strong defensive position from which the smaller boys can fire without being hit in return. The battle proceeds quickly, and Ender’s troops overpower Bonzo’s in less than a minute. (Again, Card gives few details.)

After the battle, Major Anderson enters the battleroom, approaches Ender, and congratulates him on his victory. Ender is furious, however, and insists that he should have been paired against a competent army. He asks Bean what he would have done as Salamander commander, and Bean points out that Bonzo should never have kept his troops in one place. Ender leaves the battleroom quickly, still angry with the teachers for pitting him against an incompetent army. As he emerges, he realizes the truth: Bonzo will despise Ender for beating him.

The chapter cuts to Bean’s point of view. Bean is sitting in his barracks room when he receives a message from Ender. He goes to Ender’s room, where Ender asks him how he’s been doing in the battles. Bean knows that Ender knows the answer to his own question, but he plays along: he explains that he’s completed every assignment he’s ever been given, and always has an impressive number of hits. Ender asks Bean why the teachers made him a soldier at such a young age. Bean replies that the IF needs commanders as soon as possible. Ender sighs and tells Bean the truth: he’s tired of commanding and tired of fighting. Bean realizes that Ender is no longer bullying him—he’s confiding in him.

Ender asks Bean for his help. He needs Bean to think of “crazy ideas” to help the Dragon Army win in the coming weeks. The teachers will continue to challenge Ender by giving him tighter schedules and increasingly unfair odds, but if Bean is on his side, then Ender might be able to weather the new challenges. Bean agrees. By the time Bean returns to his barracks, he’s already thought of half a dozen ideas: “Ender would be pleased—every one of them was stupid.”