Speaker for the Dead Chapter 1 Summary

Pipo

• There's a quote from Demosthenes (which is the secret pen name of Ender's sister Valentine) that says that humans hate each other, so it's no surprise they hate aliens too; but when you allow that aliens are human (or in Demosthenes's terminology raman) you show that you're human yourself.
• The story proper kicks off with Rooter, who is a piggie both difficult and helpful.
• He's helpful because he answers xenologist Pipo's questions, and unhelpful because he looks for answers himself.
• Rooter's banging on a tree with sticks.
• Pipo calls the piggies pequeninos, which means little ones. This is supposed to be less condescending than piggies, but it's not clear that it actually is. The piggies talk, so they must have a name for themselves… Why not use that? Maybe Card couldn't think of a good alien word or something.
• Pipo isn't supposed to pass on info about human culture, but the piggies constantly push for such information.
• Pipo notes that Libo, his son, has been an apprentice xenologist for four months; Libo is also very close-mouthed.
• Rooter asks Pipo to show him a land transporter. Pipo can't because Starways says no contact with the aliens.
• Rooter gets cranky and tells Pipo to go away, so Pipo does, and at the fence separating piggies from humans, Pipo meets Libo, and they head home.
• Pipo gives the reader information because we are not piggies. He's called a Zenador, which is the Portuguese term for xenologist. And then he explains that the ansible is a tool that allows for instant communication across interstellar distances. (See the "Symbols" section for more on this.)
• They go into the Zenador station thinking they'll go over what they gleaned from the piggies that day, but instead they encounter Dona Crista, a monk of the Filhos da Mente de Cristo (or Children of the Mind), who Shmoop supposes we'll learn more about later. The Filhos supervise the colony's schools.
• Dona Crista has come by to talk about a girl named Novinha, who is the child of Lusitania's two xenobiologists, Gusto and Cida.
• The colony early on was beset with a virus called the Descolada. Gusto and Cida found a cure, but not in time to save themselves.
• Pipo remembers the funeral of Gusto and Cida, and how everyone was happy because they'd cured the Descolada; he knows that Novinha was permanently embittered because everyone was joyous while she was devastated at the loss of her parents.
• Pipo had lost a daughter, seven-year-old Maria, to the virus.
• Pipo is the only one who realizes that Novinha is going to hate the community forever (Card is into this exceptional, isolated, bitter child meme. If exceptional, isolated, bitter children are what you want, Card is your man.)
• The church wants to canonize Novinha's parents, but Novinha says that if her parents could work miracles, they should come back to her. Since they haven't come back to her, people asking to canonize them are basically saying her parents despise her.
• This makes the Bishop mad, and he still decides to try to canonize them.
• Pipo is the only one who asked about Novinha's well-being on her own behalf rather than trying to find out about her parents' sainthood, so Dona Crista has come to talk to him about her.
• Libo—who has been listening quietly (because he is always quiet, like a ninja)—says that Novinha has one friend, Marcos Ribeira. Novinha stood up for him once when he was falsely accused, and he is grateful.
• Libo says he doesn't really like Novinha himself because she doesn't want to be liked.
• Dona Crista asks Libo to leave, so out he goes quietly. Ninja.
• She tells Pipo that Novinha has petitioned to be a xenobiologist, though she's only thirteen; Dona Crista asks Pipo to supervise the test.
• She leaves, and Pipo and Libo catalogue their findings for the day.
• Now we jump to Novinha and Pipo talking about the exam. Novinha wants to take it quick, quick; Pipo wants to go slower.
• Novinha says she wants to be xenobiologist to help the people of Lusitania, but Pipo says that this is silliness, since she doesn't like the Lusitanians anyway.
• Eventually he gets her to admit that she wants to tell the story of the piggies the way the Speaker for the Dead (that's Ender) told the story of the Hive Queen. She can understand them because she's an alien herself.
• Pipo says she can take the test, and that he loves her. This is a bit to make you weepy.
• He tells her she can look at all his notes, but that she's not allowed to go out to see the piggies by order of Starways Congress or they'll shut down everything.
• So Novinha passes the exam and starts spending all her time at the Zenador station, which is rough on Libo because Novinha is a jerk and keeps taunting him.
• He's very chill though, and eventually Novinha and he end up getting along/maybe falling in love.
• They continue to puzzle over the piggies. Rooter one day asks why human females don't kill Pipo, causing the xenologists much confusion (this is foreshadowing, in case you missed it).
• Rooter starts shouting about how human men decide and that they are like cabras (a cow-like critter), and then the other piggies pick him up and carry him off, much to Pipo and Libo's confusion.
• The next day they find Rooter dead with a tree growing out of him; he seems to have been extensively tortured.
• Libo feels responsible. Novinha tells him that it can't be their fault; it must be something piggies do for reasons we know not.
• Time passes, and Novinha and Libo get more lovey-dovey.
• Then one day (suspenseful music here) Novinha discovers that the Descolada virus is in the cellular structure of all the creatures on Lusitania.
• In humans, the Descolada unglues the cellular structure, which is bad for you.
• Not with creatures on Lusitania though. Novinha shows a simulation of the Descolada ungluing cells of a Lusitania reed.
• Pipo has a sudden eureka moment and rushes out to the piggies to check it.
• He tells Novinha to show the simulation to Libo and see if he can figure it out.
• But before Libo can see it, they all discover Pipo dead, having been tortured just like Rooter. There's no tree in him though.