How Small Details Influence a Victory in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game

The difference between victory and defeat may be decided only on the ability to notice minor details in tough situations. Ender Wiggin, a 6 year old genius, is able to quickly learn strategies and manipulate his opponents in order to defeat them. When he got time off to talk to his sister valentine on Earth he told her about battle school. He was explaining the battles to her and said, “ Every time, I’ve won because I could understand the way my enemy thought” (Card 238). In Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, the idea of seeing small details to change defeat into victory is evident when Ender figures out null gravity, understands how to manipulate others, and realizes who the real enemy is.
One key to victory is knowing your battle environment. This may give one a tremendous edge over their opponent. When Ender and his group of launchies got into the spacecraft, “He noticed that the wall to his right was carpeted like a floor” (Card 29). This is where the children’s sense of up and down would be challenged. Just like being in null gravity, they would have to forget about up and down for they could harm their fighting ability. This new insight could give Ender a very important advantage. Just to show how much this could help, the commanders also start to stress thinking in null gravity. Once the spacecraft has taken off, the launchies experience null gravity for the first time. When talking to the launchies, Colonel Graff says, “Only one of u had the brains to realize that in null gravity directions are whatever you conceive them to be” (Card 31). Colonel Graff realizes how this could be a factor and decides to emphasize it in front of everyone. This proves that it could be very useful information. Being the first to know could giv...

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...t and only try to defeat the I.F. Just as important as knowing that they hurt Ender was knowing why. After talking with Bean he realized that he was becoming everything he wanted to avoid. A commander that pushed around his soldiers and put them down. But he knew why. He thought, “Graff had isolated [me] to make [me] struggle” (Card 167). He was beginning to be like the people he hated because of his own isolation. He was supposed to struggle so he didn’t feel like anyone would help him but that only made his situation worse. Once again, knowing who the real enemy was was a key step to defeating the real enemy. Truly knowing your enemy can help a lot when trying to defeat them.
In order to defeat his opponents, Ender is able to figure them out by noticing small details when he understands null gravity, learns how to manipulate others, and the real enemy is known.