Traumatic Events In Ender's Game

Sometimes there are things that can change a person, called a traumatic event. A traumatic event is defined as an incident that causes either physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological harm to oneself. 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 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 alien species, without even knowing what he has done. After this

As a result Ender is left traumatized of the past events, and his actions. It was because Ender decided to tell the full truth that he went on to create the Speaker for the Dead. It is implied that Ender very much dislikes the concept of lying when Colonel Graff states, “That’s the whole point. It had to be a trick or you [Ender] couldn’t of done it” (Card 298). At this point he is admitting fault with lying to Ender about the battles just being a game, and not the actual war. At this point in the book, Card intends that the reader catches on to the fact that Ender dislikes lying, if the reader has not done so already. After this point in the book, Ender does not tell a lie, but only tells the truth. This is how Ender was able to rise up as a person from such a traumatic event, and learn quickly that lying is never the answer, and that it will result in nothing good in the end. Ender even admits earlier that Colonel Graff was indeed right in his speculation of Ender not being able to kill off the bugger species if he had known exactly what he was doing. It is said when Ender exclaims, “I didn’t want to kill them all. I didn’t want to kill anyone! I’m not a killer” (Card 297). This statement