Chapter nine begins as all of the chapters in Ender's Game do. Colonel Graff talks to another member of the I.F. about Ender's progress as a leader, or lack thereof. This time, the men are worried about the "End of the World" that Ender has encountered in his computer game. The end of the world consists of a room in a tower with no window, but a snake and a mirror. In the mirror, Ender's brother Peter shows as the reflection. Ender cannot seem to get past this room, and because no other student at the battle school has gotten anywhere close to there, the commanders are at a loss. The chapter then goes into earthly life, and we see what is happening with Ender's siblings, Valentine and Peter. The chapter is written mostly in Valentine's view, and how she views events as they happen. At the beginning of the chapter, it seems that her relationship with Peter is the same as it was when Ender left. She is still worried about his manipulative habits and cruel actions. Not long after we learn about her opinion of Peter, he does something that neither Valentine nor any reader would expect. He showed his vulnerable, pleading side. Of course, Valentine was suspicious. Peter never showed any weakness, he just used others' weaknesses for his own muse or personal gain. This time, he was using a mixture of information he'd gathered over time and emotional appeal to try to convince Valentine to help him gain power He wants to long onto the nets with two false identities and say inflammatory, yet cohesive and fact-based statements to build a following and get noticed. His goal is to keep the two separate, like they have no idea who the other was. Since Peter and Valentine are only 12 and 10 respectively, they can't use their student net passes and be taken seriously. Peter wants Valentine to convince their father to allow them to join in on his citizen's pass. Peter and Valentine use this to log onto the nets and create the identities Demosthenes and Locke. These identities quickly become well-known among the news and media world online, and their comments are requested on major media outlets within seven months of Peter's idea formulating. Soon, important political figures are abuzz with praise and hate for the two anonymous figures. Just while the drama of Locke and Demosthenes was at its highest, the I.F. shows up at Valentine's school, asking her about her brother. She immediately thinks of Peter, worried that he was acting out again. Colonel Graff, the member of the I.F. who came to meet her, tells Valentine that he's there because he's worried about Ender. Valentine unintentionally reveals that Ender was always afraid of becoming Peter, and not peter himself, which explains why Ender saw Peter in the reflection in the mirror of the video game. Colonel Graff requests that valentine send Ender a letter to console him, but this frustrates Ender more, because he knows that the I.F. told her to send it. Ender is worried that his peers and even teachers only see him as a leader and amazing soldier, but not as a friend. He wants camaraderie, not respect, after all, he is only nine. Ender is in despair because he feels alone, like he has no freedom of choice and no purpose. He no longer wants to achieve anything in battle school. He goes into the game once again and finally escaped the room by kissing there snake, which turns into Valentine and leads him through the mirror. The irony of Valentine and Peter using Demosthenes and Locke as their anonymous identities is that both Demosthenes and Locke were great political and social thinkers of their times. Valentine and Peter both want to be considered great thinkers of their time, regardless of their age. They want to be remembered as people who came to power through their wise words and well thought out arguments. Both Demosthenes and Locke are well-known today, hundred of years after their time. They made vast and important changes to the society during their time, and some of those changes are visible even today. Peter wants to use these anonymous people to spread his controversial and new ideas around and to develop a loyal following.
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