Hyrum Graff

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Colonel Hyrum Graff is a fictional character written about by Orson Scott Card, in several of his Ender and Shadow books. He appears in Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, and the short story The Polish Boy from the collection First Meetings.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In The Polish Boy, he is a young captain and teacher from the Battle School who attempts to recruit a young Polish boy named John Paul Wieczorek. Ultimately, he gives up on the boy and instead helps arrange for the family to move to the United States under the assumed surname Wiggin, with the intention of one day returning to recruit the boy's son.

During Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, he is a manipulative colonel who is in charge of the Battle School. He makes good on his earlier plan when he recruits John Paul's son, Ender. Graff embarks on a carefully formulated plan to make Ender the commander of the human forces for the Third Formic War. This plan includes carefully isolating Ender, from both his peers and from adults. Graff believes this isolation is necessary so that Ender never believes that anyone would help him during battles with the buggers. Even when this noninterference results in a potentially deadly confrontation between Ender and Bonzo Madrid, Graff does not allow anyone to interfere. While, Graff often is portrayed rather coldly in Ender's Game, the reader does see Graff's struggle with what is moral and amoral, in his quest to shape Ender's life.

Following Ender's defeat of the buggers, Graff is court martialed for his decisions at the Battle School, including Graff's decision not to interfere with the fight between Ender and Bonzo Madrid. Graff is acquitted by using a defense that all his actions were necessary in order to ensure that Ender would be able to defeat the buggers.

Later on, he's given the role of Minister of Colonization, and becomes one of the allies of Peter Wiggin and Bean in their struggles against Achilles de Flandres. He is also portrayed as a much more caring person, and more importantly, a strong advocate in establishing Peter as the true Hegemon over Earth. He also shows his more caring side in Ender's Shadow where he develops a slight relationship with Bean

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series
International Fleet Admiral Chamrajnagar | Hyrum Graff | Mazer Rackham
Battle School Petra Arkanian | Bean | Han Tzu | Alai | Achilles de Flandres | Ender's jeesh | Other Battle School students
Ender's family Ender Wiggin | John Paul Wiggin | Peter Wiggin | Theresa Wiggin | Valentine Wiggin
Other Novinha | Han Qing-jao | Si Wang-mu | Jane | The Hive Queen | Minor characters
Books | Characters | Concepts