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The legendary military commander and pilot who is celebrated on Earth for defeating the Buggers (though exactly how he did so isn’t common knowledge) seventy years before the novel begins. Mazer Rackham travels at extremely high speeds to slow his aging process—as a result, he appears before Ender as a middle-aged man, and serves as Ender’s teacher at Command School. Mazer pushes Ender harder than anyone else in the novel, including Colonel Graff, and seems to believe in defeating the Buggers at all costs—even if it means Ender losing his sanity. (Mazer’s first name even suggests the half-physical, half-mental challenges he places in Ender’s way.) In spite of his callous beliefs, Mazer is an intelligent and perceptive man, and his insights into Bugger psychology are invaluable in influencing Ender to first defeat the Buggers and then nurture them back into existence.
Mazer Rackham Quotes in Ender’s Game
The Ender’s Game quotes below are all either spoken by Mazer Rackham or refer to Mazer Rackham. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 14 Quotes
“I surprised you once, Ender Wiggin, Why didn’t you destroy me immediately afterward? Just because I looked peaceful? You turned your back on me. Stupid. You have learned nothing. You have never had a teacher.”
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Forget it, Mazer. I don’t care if I pass your test, I don’t care if I follow your rules, if you can cheat, so can I. I won’t let you beat me unfairly—I’ll beat you unfairly first.
In that final battle in Battle School, he had won by ignoring the enemy, ignoring his own losses; he had moved against the enemy’s gate.
And the enemy’s gate was down.
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Mazer Rackham Character Timeline in Ender’s Game
The timeline below shows where the character Mazer Rackham appears in Ender’s Game. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Graff
...ago, destroying large chunks of the world’s population. It was only because of the brilliant Mazer Rackham, Ender has been told, that humans were able to destroy the Buggers’ powerful enemy...
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Chapter 4: Launch
...agree that they’ll need to educate Ender very carefully if he’s to become the next Mazer Rackham. The most important step, X suggests, will be “purging” Ender of his kindness and...
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Chapter 8: Rat
...conversation with a disturbing possibility: it’s likely that the Buggers are already dead, killed by Mazer Rackham long ago. The governments of the world then manipulate their people using fear propaganda—in...
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Chapter 11: Veni Vidi Vici
...his attention on learning new strategies for the battleroom. He researches old propaganda videos of Mazer Rackham defeating the Buggers. As he watches in more detail, it becomes increasingly clear that...
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Chapter 14: Ender’s Teacher
...military exercises. Ender asks the man if he has a name, and the man replies, “Mazer Rackham.”
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In the coming weeks, Ender spends his days learning strategy from Mazer. Every day Mazer programs battles for Ender on a simulation computer. Ender asks Mazer how...
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Ender asks Mazer the question he’s been considering for years: he wants to know how, exactly, Mazer defeated...
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Mazer explains his new military strategies to Ender. The humans have invented a new weapon: the...
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...of talented commanders, and they improvise with their assigned portions of the IF fleet. With Mazer’s direction, Ender learns to use his subordinates like a Bugger queen using her drones: whenever...
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...Ender and his commanders begin a new military exercise against a computerized enemy programmed by Mazer Rackham, and every day the enemy is more challenging. Rackham warns Ender that he’s going...
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...his fleet: he never tries anything brilliant because he’s afraid of even the smallest losses. Mazer encourages Ender to try bolder strategies that involve sacrificing larger numbers of ships.
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...push his commanders too far. As a result, he pushes himself even farther. One night Mazer wakes him up, and he notices that he’s been gnawing on his own hand. He...
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...are kind and fatherly, and others that are harsher. He thinks he hears Graff and Mazer talking about him, with Graff arguing that Mazer should go easy on Ender. Mazer says...
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...last in Command School, though he doesn’t know it. Ender wakes up and finds that Mazer isn’t waiting for him, as usual. He walks out of his bedroom and sees Mazer...
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...of adults watching him is cheering. He’s surprised: he’d expected to be chewed out by Mazer and Graff for losing so many of his own ships and “bending” the rules of...
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Ender wakes up to find Graff and Mazer standing over him. Graff informs Ender that news of his victory over the Buggers has...
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...and he rolls over and closes his eyes. Instead of falling asleep, he listens to Mazer and Graff speak to each other. Graff tells Mazer that Mazer has pushed Ender too...
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