Greatness: Differences Between Ender And Colonel Graff

Greatness, being one of the most desired, and the most respected traits by humanity throughout history. For countless generations humanity struggles trying to find change, trying to produce someone who can make that change which has been sought after for so long, someone who is great. While genetics may be what often makes a person a genius, greatness is created with the addition of experience, a very particular type of experience unique to the individual that changes them into the best possible version of themselves. Ender proves his greatness by defeating the vastly superior enemy of earth, and he is able to through his experience with battle school’s unforgiving environment and Graff’s harsh training that is specific to Ender. To reach
the peak of his abilities, Ender must believe, in his core, that everything rests on his shoulders alone and that he will never receive help. The social and physical environment Ender inhabits is not naturally isolating, however there are occasions when he finds himself alone, and those occasions of his isolation, not the times when he is surrounded by allies, are the times when he shines the brightest, exhibiting his higher potential. For instance, before Ender is accepted into Battle School he has a monitor device installed into the back of his neck. This device allows faculty to see from his eyes, and hear from his ears, so he is essentially never alone. But, as part of a test of his ability to perform alone, the monitor is removed. Without the monitor Ender believes he is cut off from the help of all faculty who would normally be able to see if he was in peril or not. Unfortunately, Stillson, a foe of Ender, takes notice of this. Stillson proceeds to seize his new found opportunity and faces Ender alone, and he does so with the aid of his comrades. Ender realizes that without the aid of the faculty he must permanently end the threat Stillson poses to him; first he takes advantage of Stillsons pride and has him fight with alone, and then, with the ferocity of a cornered animal Ender becomes willing to do anything it takes to destroy the threat Stillson poses. Moreover, now in battle school Ender has a new enemy, Bonzo. Bonzo organises an assault against Ender, but Ender's Dragon army protects him along with a crowd of witnesses. Luckily, Bonzo is never able to launch his attack, thus Ender has no need to uses all of his skills to defeat Bonzo in that moment, and because Ender is not alone against Bonzo, he never unleashes his full potential. Still Bonzo does find a way to attack him, but it requires that he be isolated. Just like with with Stillson, Ender once more used his maximum potential to destroy the threat against him. If Ender had ever failed while he was alone, he would have no one to finish the fight for him so he had to do all he could to make sure he didn’t fail, he was forced into being at his peak performance.
Chance is not the only thing relegating Ender to seclusion, Colonel Graff, an expert at training geniuses in battle school to reach their maximum potential believes that “Isolation is the optimum environment for creativity” ([insert page #]).
Accordingly, Graff is always manipulating Ender into being separate others, and his doing so almost always exposes the higher qualities Ender posses. The two fights mentioned earlier did not merely happen by accident, they were intentionally composed for the very purpose of bringing out Ender’s best. Not only did Graff manipulate Ender into fighting Stillson and Bonzo, but he also lengthened the divide between Ender and his classmates by pointing him out as superior to all of his peers during the trip to Battle School from Earth. However, despite him being initially an outcast, Ender proves his ability to attain loyalty by gradually gaining the friendship, trust and respect of those around him through clever means. Once more Graff isolates Ender, but by separating him from his peers, rather Graff forces him into new situations that he alone must explore where he must lead Dragon Army through battles that no other commander has ever experienced, where the odds are against him and almost no one but himself can help him. Through Graff’s training methods of separation as previously described, Ender’s brightest qualities were
proven.
When the time finally comes for Ender to face the Buggers, Ender does not act act lone.
He is provided a task force of individuals to assist him, and only by that assistance does Ender succeed. Seemingly this undermines the theory that his seclusion is what brings his best skills to the surface, but this is not so. First of all, at this point all of his finest features had already arose in him; it is for this very reason he was allowed to fight the Bugger’s at all, because the teachers already felt he had reached his maximum potential. Together with his companions Ender was not improved, rather it was Ender alone whose grand strategy defeated the buggers, his team was an extension of his will, being merely fine tool with which he destroyed the
enemy. Situations Ender happened to be in and ones he was secretly forced into that left him without outside guidance, have essentially bestowed and proved Ender’s great skill, and worthy commander to lead Earth’s final assault. Even though it in many situations Graff was supporting Ender from the shadows, it was Ender's belief that he solely was available to achieve his mark that allowed him to be able to.