Peter Wiggin - Rise To Power

Rise To Power

In Shadow of the Hegemon, Bean, the main protagonist, joins Peter when Achilles de Flandres captures all the members of Ender's jeesh. Bean decodes a message sent by one of the captured children and provides Peter with it, which Peter reveals to the world through his Locke persona. Later, Sister Carlotta and Bean convince Peter his path to power requires him to reveal himself as the writer behind Locke and Demosthenes and to decline the position of Hegemon because of his age. Peter dislikes being told what to do, but recognizes that this is the only action he can take, as it is only a matter of time before Achilles, now pulling the strings in India, takes action to expose or kill him. He uses his influence to put Bean in a military position in Thailand, which he and Bean perceive to be the target of a future attack by Achilles' India.

Meanwhile, Peter does consultation work in Haiti to show his abilities at governing and to have a nation’s protection from Achilles. Events during Bean's time in Thailand, the way in which India is conducting its war, and information from Peter's contacts reveal to Peter and Bean that Achilles' true goals are to create a massive Chinese empire by betraying both India and Thailand. Bean and Peter disagree over the release of this information to the world.

Peter eventually reports the information to the world, just before Bean rescues a group of Battle School Students from India. The reporting of China’s plans precipitates their betrayal of India and Thailand. Both of these countries are so weakened by their war with each other that China manages a nearly bloodless conquest.

This new conquest of China’s frightens much of the rest of the world, and they vote Peter in as Hegemon to try to preserve peace, even as China, now ruling over a third of the world’s population, revokes its recognition of the position. At the end of the novel, Bean turns control of his small battle group over to Hegemon Peter. Afterwards, they argue over Peter’s refusal to report on China’s plans sooner. Peter justifies himself by saying that reporting sooner would have done nothing to stop it, as he would not have been believed; and that even if he was, neither India or Thailand had the capacity to resist the Chinese aggression. By revealing the information when he did, he avoided a much bloodier war, and he cemented his reputation for prescience and as a man for peace. Another reason for that, from the point of view of other characters, is that the information being revealed before wouldn't have been as beneficial to Peter getting the office of Hegemon as it was, even if the office was only nominal in practical terms.

Peter sees himself as the only person capable of bringing peace to the warring world. Peter seems to have played his hand perfectly—he unites humanity under a single government, due to the way that he analyzed the problem as early as Shadow of the Hegemon when he decides to take action against Achilles, and releases the information that Achilles was to betray the world via Russia (and later India) to China, which is soon taken over by Han Tzu (a Battle school survivor of Ender Wiggin's jeesh). Peter runs world affairs with an articulate eye and open mind.

In Shadow Puppets, Peter invites Achilles to work for him, despite the danger this places Peter in. In the previous novel, Peter was the writer who exposed Achilles and forced him to abandon his plans for conquest. Achilles moves to subvert the Hegemony and forces Peter to go up into space. There, Colonel Graff gets suspicions that Achilles will attempt to kill Peter and his parents when they return to Earth. Graff sends a dummy ship that Achilles blows up; in doing this, Achilles all but seals his doom, since no nation will want to openly associate with him. Peter retakes the Hegemony.

Shadow of the Giant comes back to Peter's conquest to unite the world and shows his diplomatic and political maneuvering. He creates the Free People of Earth, a contract by all people who have ratified it. Based on principles of republican democracy, all nations—including unrecognized nations within sovereign borders—are invited to join the FPE. By joining of their own accord, the organization governs itself by the rule of law without coercing the populace. If a ratified member is attacked by hostile forces, the FPE as a whole intercedes on their behalf. It begins slowly, but quickens when he uses Bean to swiftly defeat the aggressive armies attacking the new fledgling members. As Hegemon, Peter brokers offers to the other major world forces to retain their autonomy and encourage their ratification, but without compromising the principles of the FPE. Over time, the FPE rises from obscurity and becomes a dominant economic and military force. At the very end of the novel, only the United States has not joined, but the world as a whole is united and peaceful. Peter helps Bean's wife Petra Arkanian to raise her five remaining children and later marries her. Together, they have five children.

Ender's and Valentine's trip through space, though short for them, lasts 50 years on Earth. By this time, Peter has united the world under the office of Hegemon and is suffering from a failing heart. As first described in Ender's Game, and later, with more detail, in Shadow of the Giant, he communicates by ansible and tells Ender what he did on Earth, both good and bad. Peter apologizes to Ender for his behavior, and Ender seems to have forgiven him. He says, "I think I can write about you." Based on these conversations, Ender writes The Hegemon and releases it after Peter's death under a pseudonym, Speaker for the Dead. This story, a frank account of Peter Wiggin's life, is later published as a single volume with Ender's The Hive Queen, a small novel about the Formics, or buggers, telling the truth behind the tale. In the end, both Peter and Ender have done great things that changed human history forever. The final irony in both of their legacies is that Peter is remembered for being a caring and peaceful leader even though he was cruel and violent as a child while Ender is remembered for being a ruthless warmonger even though he was kind and gentle as a child.