The setting of a book tells a story in itself, allowing the reader to see a new reality and world. The setting of Ender’s Game takes place mostly on an spaceship, attending an academy created strictly for training and educating soldiers. The academy is full of rowdy children and teens, making the entire ship feel lively and resemble that of a school.
The younger children are often picked on by the older kids who liked the aspect of being better. The setting of Ender’s Game highly relates to aspects of the book. Some would say that the setting has no relation, because It is simply there to support that the enemies were aliens, but the setting also supports other points of the book The setting relates to the events of the plot, the characters, and built suspense.
To begin, the setting relates to the plot in the sense that the over all story is set in space, with an end goal to defeat the enemy aliens. The entire goal of the army school is to train kids to fight these buggers that have attacked before. As one of the higher ranking adults states, We’re trying to save the world, not heal the wounded heart (Card page 100, paragraph 1). This promotes the idea that the school in space is specifically to fight enemies in space, as the plot promotes. The setting relates to the plot because the plot is based around the idea of being in space.
Moreover, the setting relates to the characters in the sense that the characters are training to become soldiers in a space war. The children, specifically Ender, are learning to kill aliens, while the story is based in space. Ender slowly learns how to be a soldier at the battle school, even creating his own after hours training group (page 120, paragraph 3). The action shows he is becoming more of a soldier, showing discipline in extra training, just as the school wants from him. The boy learns from those around him and grows smarter as his time at the school passes. The setting relates to the characters in the sense that the battle school is teaching the characters to become better soldiers.
Finally, the setting relates to the suspense by the ominousness of space. The characters getting ready for war are doing so in space, where they don’t know when the enemies will attack, or where they even are. In the same sense, space is always ominous in some way, dark and void of light and oxygen. Dink, a fellow soldier, says, Listen, Ender, if the buggers were coming back to get us, they’d be here (page 146, paragraph 3). This shows that the idea of not knowing when the enemy will arrive has affected the children into wondering if they will ever show up. Nobody really knows when the buggers will reach the, which has a different outcome on all of the students. The setting relates to the suspense in the sense that no when knows when the enemies will attack, while out in space preparing for the fight.
To conclude, defeating aliens, the training of soldiers, and the empty vacuum of space all relate to the setting of the book. The setting relates to the suspense, characters, and plot of the book in different ways. Ender’s Game has a great deal of suspense and character development throughout, helping it create a vast and intricate world. The setting is an important part of the book, showing when and where the book takes place and how it all takes place.