Do we trust Graff when he says this? We’ve seen how smart Ender is (see the first quote in this time), so maybe this is just a reminder that Ender is the best at what he does. But when Graff says “stronger,” he’s not talking about physical strength – he’s talking about Ender’s identity. Do you agree with him that Ender has a strong character?

This is Ender’s worst nightmare – that, when he looks into a mirror, he’ll see Peter looking out. Now, this is the same mind game in which Ender killed a giant, so the game has some evidence that Ender is a killer, just like his brother. (In fact, Ender kills a snake in the mind game right before this, just like Peter kills small animals in Chapter 9.) Now, only the game tells Ender that he’s like Peter, while just about every one tells Ender that he <em>isn’t</em> like Peter. Interesting. What do you make of that? Who's right?

We’re back to non-Ender confinement. Here, Graff is complaining that he doesn’t want people to mess up his finely-tuned system of making Ender unhappy. Graff is the principal of the school – can we even imagine anyone higher up than him? Well, as it so happens, we can: there’s a whole group of people (politicians) who could force Graff to take some actions, and he’s trying to avoid those folks.