Examples Of Manipulation In Ender's Game

Theme Analysis Essay
Is the world manipulating you? In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card presents his audience with the theme of manipulation which is still relevant today. Ender was faced with manipulation throughout the entire book, just as soldiers are brainwashed throughout their service.
In Ender’s Game, there are multiple manipulators who influence Ender and others. Colonel Graff is a prominent manipulator of Ender. He continually isolates Ender and makes sure that he knows he is different. This changes Ender’s demeanor and his outlook on the situation. Ender is persistently worried about whether he is good enough, even Major Anderson sees this. The dilemma on whether this is all morally right has come up numerous times. Anderson is constantly questioning Colonel Graff on whether or not he is taking the isolation with Ender too far. Colonel Graff deliberately separated all the other boys in his launch group from Ender. Ender stuck out like a sore thumb in his launch group because the boys always felt inferior to him due to what Colonel Graff told them. They ignored him and looked at him differently because of it. It was only until the end of his launch year that people actually began to become friends with Ender. Alai and Shen became Ender’s only support, but the

Peter often enjoyed the pain and agony of Valentine and Ender when he would threaten death upon the both of them. He influenced many people not only to see things his way, but also tricked them into scheming with him, such as Valentine with the political writings. Multiple times we see Ender saying things like, “I am just like Peter. Take my monitor away, and I am just like Peter”(Card). It quickly becomes clear that Ender wants nothing to do with Peter and wishes to be nothing like him. Peter is deceptive, and often using this to his advantage when threatening