Ender's Shadow Character Analysis

Friendship - Friendship is one of the most prevalent themes in Ender’s Shadow as shown by several instances within the novel. For his entire life in Rotterdam as well as when he first arrived to Battle School, Bean had no friends for the reason that he didn’t believe it was necessary to construct and build upon emotional bonds with other people. However, Bean becomes aware at Battle School that if he wishes to fulfill his present and future goals he would have to start befriending people since he understood that eventually he wouldn’t be able to do everything by himself. As a result, Bean had made friends with Nikolai, a boy from his launch group, and interacted with his fellow comrades in Dragon Army. This is significant due to the fact that
A noteworthy characteristic of Bean is that he is incredibly tiny, as a result of the genetic alteration he underwent. Ergo, almost every person who had met Bean immediately assumed that he could not prove to ever be beneficial to someone. In particular, the adults at Battle School all ridiculed Bean for his abnormal size, expected him to be inferior to all the other students, and some wished for him to be kicked out. Nevertheless, Bean had demonstrated how he was considerably smarter than every kid enrolled in Battle School, even Ender, through his grades, actions, and analytical skills. Another incident in which someone evaluated another person solely on appearance was when Bean determined that Achilles was an insufficient bully to protect Poke’s family solely on the fact that he had a disfigured leg. In spite of this, Achilles had become the ideal bully to lead Poke’s family because he was intelligent enough to acquire food for the children and prevent the other bullies from pilfering their food to the point that he didn't need to use force to do so. In the end, it is best not to judge someone based solely on their looks as shown by this