Valentine's Letter
Valentine's Letter is the first communication Ender Wiggin receives from his sister after four years at Battle School, a carefully crafted message that breaks his isolation and reconnects him to his most cherished memory, ultimately serving as a tool of manipulation by Colonel Graff to push Ender back toward his destiny as a commander.
The Letter's Arrival and Content
The letter arrives in the regular way, a MAIL WAITING message when Ender signs into his desk. He reads four lines before realizing it is not from another soldier, then skips to the end to see the signature before returning to the beginning and curling up on his bed to read the words over and over. The letter is written in all capitals, beginning "ENDER," and explains that "THE BASTARDS WOULDN'T PUT ANY OF MY LETTERS THROUGH TILL NOW." Valentine insists she has written "A HUNDRED TIMES" and that she has not forgotten him, remembering his birthday and everything. She directly addresses the fear that he has become a cruel soldier, writing, "I KNOW THAT ISN'T TRUE. YOU ARE NOTHING LIKE YOU-KNOW-WHO." She calls him "STILL PADDLING THE OLD KNEW" and signs off "ALL MY LOVE TURKEY LIPS, VAL," adding a postscript warning him not to write back because they will probably "SIKOWANALIZE" his letter.
Ender's Recognition and Doubt
Ender immediately recognizes the letter as genuine, despite the obvious signs of adult approval. The spelling of "psychoanalyze" as "SIKOWANALIZE," the epithet "slumbitch" for Peter, and the joke about pronouncing "knew" like "canoe" are all things that no one could know but Val. Yet the very density of these private references makes him suspicious; they come "pretty thick, as though someone wanted to make very sure that Ender believed that the letter was genuine." He reasons that even if she wrote it in her own blood, it is not the real thing because they made her write it. Her earlier letters, which were never delivered, might have been real, but this one was asked for, part of their manipulation. This realization fills him with despair, and he hates them and all their games so badly that he cries, reading Val's empty asked-for letter again. The other boys in Phoenix Army notice and look away, disturbed by the sight of the best soldier in any army lying on his bunk crying.
The Letter's Manipulative Purpose
Graff's purpose in delivering the letter becomes clear through his earlier conversation with Valentine. He tells her that Ender is "slacking off" and "coasting," and that they want to push him forward. He asks her to write a letter that will comfort him and tell him that he never likes to hurt people, that he is good and kind and not like Peter at all. Graff admits he will not promise not to cut anything she writes, and when she refuses, he threatens to write the letter himself, using her other letters to reconcile the writing styles. Valentine ultimately agrees, and after the letter is delivered, she receives a formal notification that she has been awarded the Star of the Order of the League of Humanity, First Class, the highest military award that can be given to a civilian, though it cannot be made public until after the war. She reads the letter twice, then watches it burn in an ashtray, and tells Dr. Lineberry, "I sold my brother, and they paid me for it."
Ender's Reaction and the Mind Game
Ender's response to the letter is to delete it, wiping it out of memory, and then to punch up the fantasy game. He wastes no time getting to the End of the World, and only then realizes what he hates most about Val's letter: all that it said was about Peter, about how he was not at all like Peter. The words she had said so often as she held him, comforted him as he trembled after Peter had tortured him, were all that the letter had said. He understands that the bastards knew about that, and they knew about Peter in the mirror in the castle room, and to them Val was just one more tool to use to control him. He decides he is finished, that he is not going to play. But in the tower room, instead of grinding the serpent underfoot as he always had, he catches it in his hands, kneels before it, and gently brings the snake's gaping mouth to his lips and kisses it. The snake thickens and bends into a human shape, becoming Valentine, who kisses him again. She arises and walks to the mirror, where instead of Peter's cruel reflection there stands a dragon and a unicorn. Ender touches the mirror, the wall falls open, and together, arm in arm, he and Valentine walk down a great stairway lined with cheering multitudes, though in his tears he does not notice that every member of the multitude wears Peter's face. He only knows that wherever he goes in this world, Valentine is with him.
The Letter's Significance
The letter serves as the catalyst for Ender's emotional breakthrough, breaking the despair that had trapped him at the End of the World. It reconnects him to the one person he loves and trusts most, and through the mind game, transforms his relationship with the memory of Valentine from a source of pain into a source of strength. The letter also reveals the depth of Graff's manipulation, showing how even the most sacred bond between siblings can be weaponized to serve the war effort. Valentine's own guilt, expressed in her confession that she "sold" her brother, underscores the moral cost of the adults' strategy. The letter ultimately succeeds in its purpose, as Ender, having found Valentine again in the game, is ready to move forward, and shortly thereafter he is called to become commander of Dragon Army, the next step in his training for the war against the buggers.
