“Ender’s Game” (chapter one) by Orson Scott Card (post 2): Suggestible six-year-old boy with two names is threatened by bullies, brother, and “buggers”

In the context of the author’s history of using at least seven pseudonyms (see post 1), it is notable that the protagonist, a six-year-old boy, is referred to by more than one name, “Ender” and “Andrew.” I suppose “Ender” is a nickname for Andrew, but the third-person narrator does not immediately explain how and when each name should be used, and I wonder if the two names imply any differences in attitude and personality.

Andrew/Ender is said to be “too malleable,” except if “the other person is his enemy” (1, p. 1). To illustrate the latter, he viciously beats a bully (p. 7).

The two attitudes, malleable and vicious, are very different; indeed, so different as to suggest two distinct personalities. Perhaps Andrew/Ender got these two attitudes or personalities from his experience of being bullied by his older brother, Peter, who likes to play “buggers and astronauts” (p. 2) with him.

What are “buggers” (p. 1)? Apparently, they are some kind of real-life enemy threatening “the world” (p. 1). Judging from the name of the game “buggers and astronauts,” they are from outer space.

In addition, since the author has publicly stated his opposition to homosexuality (for religious reasons), it must be assumed that the slang meaning of “bugger,” sodomite, was intended. And since the older, bullying brother, Peter (slang for penis) has played “buggers and astronauts” games with Andrew/Ender, Peter may have sexually molested him. Indeed, the title itself, “Ender’s Game,” could refer to sodomy (sex in the rear end).

And since bullying and sexual abuse are things that might lead an intelligent and malleable child to develop multiple personality, “Ender’s Game” may turn out to be a multiple personality story (probably unacknowledged).

1. Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game. New York, Tor, 1985/1991.