The Cold War was a time of incredible political tension and of incredible technological advance. The world had two major political influences in the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Both countries fought for influence in as much of the world as they could. On factor of gaining influence was to be the the most technologically advanced. There is no technological advance more impressive or powerful than conquering space. So the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR) both went to work on orbiting the earth and putting men on the moon. With such an intense focus on beating the other to space, the advance in the technology grew at an explosive rate. This was the backdrop of the world Orson Scott Card lived in when he was writing Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game uses the scientific genre which was emerging rapidly due to technological advance coming to the forefront of people 's attention. Ender’s Game captures the context of Cold War politics and how he viewed the Cold War would come to an end in a fantastical, entertaining tale.
Ender’s
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Ender Wiggin represents the United States’ view of itself during the Cold War. The relationship between children and adults in the novel represent the relationship the United States citizens had with their government during the Cold War. The Buggers represented the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And the interaction between Ender and the Buggers signal an end to the Cold War. Ender’s military defeat of the Buggers is a prediction of how the Cold War would end, but it’s a wrong one. Ender’s Game has captivated for decades based on its nuance, complex, and fast paced storytelling. It entertains, educates and makes the reader reflect. Ender’s Game is a metaphorical story based on a time now in our history, but the storytelling, well we can always be learning from
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
The Enders Game written by Orson Scott Card provides understanding of the characters and their relationships with others through indirect characterization and diction. Orson Scott Card uses literacy devices and specific word choice to let the reader draw conclusions about the characters and the relationships between Peter and Ender, the symbolism of the bugger mask/bugger-astronaut game, and the foreshadowing of Peter and Valentines death.
“Ender’s Game”, by Orson Scott Card, is a military science fiction novel that narrates the story of a boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin and his predetermined life to save humanity. Set in the future, humans are at war with an alien insect race dubbed the “buggers.” The buggers have already invaded Earth two times previously and did not succeed because of Mazer Rackham, the general that won the second invasion. Expecting a third invasion of the buggers, the International Fleet (I.F.) has trained child geniuses at very young ages through games that gradually increase in difficulty including the zero gravity battle rooms in preparation for them to become commanders of the Third Invasion.
The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.
In 1980, it seemed like the United States was not as dominant in the world as it had been before. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union began after World War II. The two nations had joined forces as members of the Allies, but tensions arose after the war. The Americans were very worried about the spread of Soviet communism, and tried to prevent it with a policy of containment, where the United States would protect countries from outside oppression. The Cold War also expanded to include the race between the Soviets and Americans to create atomic weapons. Furthermore, there was a race between the two countries to put the first man in space, which was accomplished by the United States in 1961 (“Cold War History”). The Cold War was a standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union to try to prove their dominance in the world. Each country wanted to have more power and diminish the power of the other. At home, Americans were paranoid with the thought of Soviet spies and communists hiding amongst them, dubbed the “Red Scare.” President Richard Nixon and the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic A...
Ray Bradbury, from small town America (Waukegan, Illinois), wrote two very distinctly different novels in the early Cold War era. The first was The Martian Chronicles (1950) know for its “collection” of short stories that, by name, implies a broad historical rather than a primarily individual account and Fahrenheit 451 (1953), which centers on Guy Montag. The thematic similarities of Mars coupled with the state of the American mindset during the Cold War era entwine the two novels on the surface. Moreover, Bradbury was “preventing futures” as he stated in an interview with David Mogen in 1980. A dystopian society was a main theme in both books, but done in a compelling manner that makes the reader aware of Bradbury’s optimism in the stories. A society completely frightened by a nuclear bomb for example will inevitably become civil to one another. Bradbury used his life to formulate his writing, from his views of people, to the books he read, to his deep suspicion of the machines. . The final nuclear bombs that decimate the earth transform the land. The reader is left with the autonomous house and its final moments as, it, is taken over by fire and consumed by the nature it resisted. Bradbury used science fantasy to analyze humans themselves and the “frontiersman attitude” of destroying the very beauty they find by civilizing it.
Odd Arne Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how the Cold War “shaped the world we live in today — its politics, economics, and military affairs“ (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). Furthermore, Westad continues, “ the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created foundations” for most of the historic conflicts we see today. The Cold War, asserts Westad, centers on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — escalates to antipathy and conflict that in the end helped oust one world power while challenging the other. This supplies a universal understanding on the Cold War (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union opposed each other over the expansion of their power.
As these ongoing fears were going on during Dick’s time, he was able to predict a nuclear bomb would be dropped and would destroy most of the Earth. When the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everyone was excited as this meant the end of WWII and to the end of all wars. In 1949, the Cold War began between two ideological sides – the United States of America (USA) which led capitalism and the Soviets leading communism. Most of society predicted a turn of events causing ongoing fear of another nuclear bomb to be dropped by either the Americans or the Russians. Those fears grew more when Cuba decided to join the soviets in 1964 which allowed the Russians to set up nuclear rockets and fire to different cities in the USA. This ongoing fear during the Cold War is related back to World War Terminus as Dick presents the effects that would take place if another nuclear bomb would drop. During Dick’s time in the 1960s, he wanted to predict what if another nuclear bomb was dropped during the Cold War and what would have been the consequence of this to happen and he does so in his novel, saying this nuclear bomb will destroy most of our
The novel Ender’s Game is written by Orson Schott Card. It is about a young boy who is sent to battle school. He meets friends and makes adversaries. In battle school, out in space, Ender, the young boy is a genius and is taught many tactics to destroy their prime enemy the buggers. He excels in school and battles his way into command school before the required age. There he is told he is battling buggers in simulations or is he? Throughout the novel, Ender is manipulated, bullied, and isolated, which creates many themes and messages. In this novel Ender’s Game the main theme is life is a game. Three characters that best prove this are Ender, Peter, and Bonzo.
With the shock of two destructive world wars and then the creation of the United Nations, whose aim is to preserve peace, it is unconceivable for these two nations to fight directly in order to promote their own ideology. But the US and the USSR end up to be in competition in numerous ways, particularly in technological and industrial fields. In the same time they start to spread their influence over their former allies. This phenomenon have led to the creation of a bipolar world, divided in two powerful blocs surrounded by buffer zones, and to the beginning of what we call the Cold War because of the absence of direct conflicts between the two nations.
Barbara Sher is quoted saying, “Isolation is a dream killer” which is a perfect summation of Ender’s lonely journey through an isolated childhood. Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card about a young boy named Ender Wiggin who is taken from his family at the age of six for rigorous training that ultimately leads the entire human space fleet against the alien race, the Buggers, that threatens to destroy all of mankind. Card makes it clear from the very beginning Ender is alone in all this. It is precisely this that is needed for the transformation Ender must undergo to carry the weight of an entire race on his shoulders. Isolation becomes the primary element that contributes to Ender’s success as a leader because it instills self-reliance, strength, and above all else, empathy. He realized that no one is there to help him, no one is coming to his rescue, and only he can be the one to save them all.
The Cold War is the closest the world has ever come to complete destruction. In this period of time, two world super powers were in a stalemate economically and militarily and were constantly competing to be the superior. The Cold War started as result of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had some differences on their perspectives of the world. United States being the richest country in the world promoted democracy and capitalism in the world. The newly formed Soviet Union thought that communism was a better political system because it transformed their economy and status in the world from nothing but a declining empire to a super power once again. The Cold War was a long series of events in which the communist tried to spread their ideas of government and socialist economy, known as expansionism, and the United States and some of the other Western powers such as Great Britain tried to contain it. Containment, a term introduced by George F. Kennan, was the foreign policy the United States practiced from 1946 to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States saw the Soviet Union to be a direct threat to the free world. During president Truman and Eisenhower’s administration the policy of containment evolved so drastically that American presidents would put anything on the line, including world peace.
The time period between 1945 and 1991 is considered to be the era of the Cold War. The Cold War, known as the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, each known during this time as the “super powers”. This conflict consisted of the differing attitudes on the ideological, political, and military interests of these two states and their allies, exte nded around the globe. A common political debate covers the issue of who, if anyone won the Cold War. Many believe the United States won the Cold War since (it) had resulted in the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. While others are to believe the United States had not won it as much as the Soviet Union had lost it since they feel Reagan did not end the Cold War, but that he prolonged it (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This has lead me to believe that there is no winner, only losers of the cold war. The cold war for the Soviet Union was to ensure security, block out capitalism, gain power, and improve their economy. While, on the other hand the United States just wanted to stop the spread of communism, which they felt, would spread rapidly throughout the world if they did not put an end to it soon. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid WWIII in the process of trying to achieve their goals.
The book starts off with Ender getting his monitor off. A monitor is something that they but on the back of these peoples necks to see if they are a good candidate to be a general to fight the buggers. The buggers are aliens. Well, since he is not monitored anymore people who have always wanted to fight him can now fight them. He ends up winning all of the fights and he goes home. As it turns out taking off his monitor was a test to see how he would handle people that fight him.
...competition for power is mirrored in the book by Jack and Ralph’s fight for the position of chief on the island. Their fighting, however, results in death and destruction, not only of people, but of civil behavior as well. Another way destruction of humans and civil behavior is achieved is through abuse of technology, which is signified in the story by the misuse and ill-treatment of Piggy’s glasses. In addition, the boys commit crimes on account of their fear. These crimes cause the boys to become savage and lose their civil ways. Golding wrote this novel as a reaction to the bombing of Hiroshima, which also displayed American hunger for power, destruction by atom bombs, and the U.S.’s reaction to their fear of Japan’s destructive capabilities. It is important that readers at least recognize these faults, because only then might they attempt to correct them.