After he starts to treat Bean badly, Ender finally realizes what the advantage of isolation is, and why Graff isolated him when he was first starting out at Battle School. The fact that multiple characters come to the same conclusions helps the reader get the idea.

We like to think about this quote in terms of community because it really shows the cost involved in not having (or losing) one – especially if someone joins another community. In this quote, Ender has gotten control over Dragon Army, and that screws up his relationship with his old friends. So he’s losing one social group pretty much just because he gained another. (Which we’re sure never happens in real-life schools. Right?)

This is Ender’s thought on what he’s doing to Bean. (As he says just before this, he’s hurting Bean in order to make him a better soldier.) But does that make Ender into Bean’s friend? (Whatever we say here probably goes for Graff and Ender’s relationship as well.) This is an interesting moment because Ender declares himself to be Bean’s secret friend, which seems to be an unusual type of friendship. (Again, this isn’t going to be one of those friendships where they can go catch a movie together.) Maybe unusual friendships are the only types of friendships we find in <em>Ender’s Game</em>. Are there any simple, “normal” friendships here?