Chapter 17, The Wives, Summary

Ender has insisted that he be taken to the wives in order to come up with some sort of agreement to allow the two species to live side by side on the planet. The piggies agree even though it is highly unusual. Ender learns about the three levels of life on the way to the wives, the birth, the adulthood, and the third life which belongs to the trees. Ender is taken to one of the wives whom he quickly offends by refusing to speak to her in piggy tradition. The wife shows Ender a tree where baby piggies are crawling around. The wife opens the tree and through Jane, Ender sees that the mothers are all infants who become pregnant, give birth, and die all before maturity. Ender also learns that the trees who were once piggies father...