Well, that might sound like a terrible idea – hey, we have this kid, let’s surround him with enemies! – but that’s pretty much what they do. And this is in the very first chapter of the book. From the very beginning, we have the connection between Ender and isolation.

We first meet Ender as a kid who doesn’t have friends. Heck, his first wish is that his brother will simply allow him to live. That’s a pretty poor wish – he can’t even let himself hope that his brother might be his friend. All of this drives home the idea that Ender and friends don’t mix – like dogs and chocolate. Or something.

The first thing we hear about Ender is from the two military guys telling us that he’s probably “the one,” and pretty soon, we see some examples of what makes Ender special. He understands that “it won’t hurt” means “it <em>will</em> hurt,” and he’s just generally so beyond the other kids at school. Like, he hacked the computer network at school and told the other kids how to send messages. All of this seems to get the message across pretty clearly: Ender is great at what he does.