Human Nature In Ender's Game

First, the government's fear controls the inhabitants to cause genocide. Earth's fear of the Buggers gives them one priority, kill them all. The Buggers attack on Earth outrages many. The humans support any efforts to hurt the Buggers in any way, even though humans have no idea what they wanted in the first place. The government feels the need to please the people because not a lot gets accomplished when the humans keep thinking about a possible Bugger invasion. The humans fear strongly drives them to do anything that concerns the Buggers death. When the Bugger home planet blows up, no one cares, all the humans and high-ranking government employees rejoice and show no concern for the millions of living beings that just died. Colonel Graff joyfully says, "You're a hero. Ender. They've seen what you did. You and the others. I don't think there's a government on Earth that hasn't voted you their highest medal” (297). The plot lets humans believe the Buggers are terrible, mean things. Their fears do not let the humans ask themselves if the fears are reasonable or not. The plot builds around the idea of the Buggers and the humans battling for survival. Also, Enders fear of his actions, causes him to repay for them. Ender takes the position of fleet commander for humans against the Bugger army. Ender kills all the Buggers and the planet. Ender did not kill them intentionally; the simulations were actual fighters in real battles. Because of this, Enders emotions flood him and he feels regret and deep sadness. He wishes he had never done it and that the Buggers could live. Towards the end, Ender finds a Bugger queen egg. The egg that can repopulate the entire Bugger race, he accepts the task and goes out into space in search for a home world for the Buggers. Ender talking to the Bugger queen says, "I'll carry you," said Ender, "I'll go from world to world until I find a time and a place where you can come

Intentions matter, but is the intent the only factor in determining the morality of an action and the means getting there? Stemming from this question, the biggest issue in Ender’s Game that is still the most controversial, still remains unresolved. Should Ender, the protagonist, be held responsible for the buggers’ deaths? This theme is the basis of Card’s belief of intention-based philosophy. In Ender’s Game and his sequels, he argues that the morality of an act is based solely on the motive of the person acting.  The result is a character who can commit genocide and still remain innocent. Despite knowing the incredible atrocities Ender

throughout their lifetime. But there is one emotion of them all that people want to avoid which is

They arranged the simulations for Ender and technically made him kill off the species. Everything that Ender had to do in Command School, was set up by the adults in the story. Around the end of the story when Ender was “playing” his final “game” Maezr told him that he would be fighting him. Not some completely real alien species! How do you just kill off an entire possibly sentient species? I feel as if the story goes deeper, why would a whole species be mad at our species. The humans must have originally provoked the other species at one time therefore causing them to go to war. Can I just say, I think that the idea of this is absolutely ridiculous. This story is saying that in the future, if this were to happen to us, we would be raising our children to be weapons since the day they were born. I believe that is completely unfair to make a child into a weapon. None of the kids ever worry about family, i don’t think they even care. All of the children are now being raised only to fight and in some cases (like Enders)

On occasion there are things that can change a person, called a traumatic event. A traumatic event, as defined by Health Line, is an incident that causes either physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological harm to oneself (“What Are Traumatic Events?: HealthLine”). This occurs in the novel, Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card in which a dystopian world is brought to justice with the annihilation of a whole alien species, by one child. Within the contents of this text, Card illustrates how traumatic events will change a person, sometimes changing for the better. He achieves this message through his main character, Ender Wiggin. This is shown most importantly, once Ender realizes that he has been lied to, and manipulated into killing off an entire alien species, without even knowing what he has done. It is after this very traumatic childhood experience that Card illustrates how Ender decides to be the better person, by deciding that he will tell nothing but the truth, and becoming the Speaker for the Dead. This interpretation is most important because it tells the reader that not all bad, and traumatic things have to end up so horrible as everyone tends to think; oneself would only have to try to make the best of the particular situation to change themselves for the better. Now it will be explained how Ender decides to tell nothing but the truth.

On Earth there was a bully named, Stilson. Ender found himself getting physically abused by him daily and when he finally got his opportunity, he made sure he was never bullied again. In battle school, there was a commander named, Bonzo that threatened to kill him; then, in the same scenario Ender decided to make sure that he would win the war and erase all future battles. In argument with Major Anderson, Graff states, “Ender’s not a killer. He just wins--thoroughly” (226). The whole time Ender had not been aware he had killed them, and the leaders were manipulating him for his own sake. They explain that they didn’t tell him that he actually killed both Bonzo and Stilson; so that he wouldn’t think of himself as a killer. Throughout the book Ender repeats that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and doesn’t like that he has to be violent in order to be safe. If Ender would’ve found out, it would destroy his motivation and drive to want to be the best he can be. All in all, Ender is an overall better person because of the fact he didn’t know the

John Kessel’s essay, Creating the Innocent Killer, is a character study of Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin, from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. The essay provides an interesting look into who Ender actually is underneath all of Card’s world manipulation, and the message that Card was trying to send through Ender’s existence in the story. Essentially, the message that Kessel sees in the novel is that ‘actions should be judged based on intentions, rather than results,’ which is a belief that is generally be untrue. The theory that this message was intentionally being portrayed in Ender’s journey is backed up by large amounts of evidence, both from the book, and from Card himself. This isn’t all too hard to prove. The big problem with it all, is that Card failed at following his own belief. He takes the ‘Ender-is-a-saint-no-matter-what thing’ too far, and doesn’t compensate properly. This opens up a lot of holes in his argument.

This is another statement that I see often inn the book and agree have with. On this subject kessel writes “The extreme situation Card has constructed to isolate and abuse Ender guarantees our sympathy.  After Ender is manipulated into entering Battle School, (he’s brought there by lies severing him from Valentine, his only protector) his abuse continues, deliberately fostered by Graff. On the shuttle up to the orbiting school Graff singles Ender out for praise for the sole purpose that the other recruits will resent him. Before they even reach the school, Ender is forced to break the arm of Bernard, one of his tormentors.   At every turn Ender faces hostility, scorn, and even physical assault. The result is an escalating series of challenges and violent responses by Ender.” . Sympathy is defined by Oxford Dictionary as feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. Card displaying the great deal of misfortune that Ender faces throughout the book almost guarantees the reader will feel some sense of sorrow for him. So the reader is so full of sorrow for Ender that they want him to be innocent. The reader never gets to experience what the buggers had been through or even  know their future intentions of the humans. The reader gets so trapped in sympathy of Ender that they never once question the morality of his mass genocide. The reader feels as if it isn’t his fault when indeed it is. If one were to just take as step back and think about the Buggers they would realize they really know nothing about them. One may also realize that diplomacy was never discussed but instead violence was the immediate

In the beginning of the chapter, two unknown characters are discussing Ender’s future. “He’s too malleable. Too willing to submerge himself in someone else’s will.” “Not if the other person is his enemy.” “So what do we do? Surround him with enemies all the time?” (Card, page 1) This is important because it foreshadows Ender’s future and the rest of the book. It shows that Ender is going to have a difficult life. Another compelling quote is introduced after Ender knocks Stilson to the ground. “Ender, however, was trying to figure out a way to forestall vengeance. To keep them from taking him in a pack tomorrow. I have to win this now, and for all time, or I’ll fight it every day and it will get worse and worse.” (Card, page 7) This led to Ender

A utopia is supposed to be a perfect world, yet there are rarely any true utopias. Ender’s Game begins with a utopic society, where the government pits Earth against the nasty and evil buggers. Throughout Ender 's Game, written by Orson Scott Card, the reader follows the main protagonist, Ender, from his journey as a young boy on Earth to the hopes of being the next great commander in the fight against the buggers. In his journey, Ender endures multiple occasions of adversity, with the root of the problems coming from the isolation and loneliness that the government and army put him through. This begins to weaken him both individually and emotionally, and it eventually takes a toll on him. Within Ender, Card shows that isolation and loneliness can destroy an individual through his collapse and his change in personality.

An important theme in Ender’s Game is that Ender is continually kept in the dark about the events happening around him. This theme is prevalent throughout the book, and sets the stage for the book’s climax, the Third Invasion. Even in the epilogue following the final battle, this theme is sustained with Ender discovering that he unintentionally murdered both Stilson

Ender’s main objective is to extend his existence, because of this, he forgets his humanity and continues to inflict pain on Stilson. Ender knows what has to be done in order to prevent further, possibly fatal, attacks and demonstrates that he is willing to attack on the helpless to do so. (add more?) good

Ender also has so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, and could understand and anticipate them. This was one of the reasons why he was the perfect choice to be the commander. He also had a tremendous amount of guilt after (unknowingly) killing all the buggers and the pilots he and the squad leaders had controlled. This guilt would only be resolved when Ender finds a purpose as Speaker for the Dead and finding a safe place for the egg to

Everyone should be able to control its own life. Sadly, not everybody can do so. Some people get their life controlled by others. Controlling one’s life means to have the power to choose what you are going to do in any situation. In the science-fiction novel Enders Game the statement “Nobody controls its own life” is true. There is a lot of evidence to show that the thesis is true. I agree with the thesis because of the way the plot unfolds, what happens in battle school and what is said about the topic in the book.

Ender cannot be manipulated like the other kids, he figures out early on that the games they play are real battles against the buggers. He is strongly against destruction and doing damage but he believes that “[he has] to fight this now, and for all time, or I’ll fight it every day and it will get worse and worse” (Card). Ender understands that he must defeat the “game” in order to stop playing it and being forced to cause more