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Violence In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

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“You can't tell any kind of a story without having some kind of a theme, something to say between the lines (Robert Wise). ” This quote shows that a piece of literature isn’t literature without a theme. Themes are ways to help the reader sympathize with the thoughts and opinions of an author. Orson Scott Card, an author of science fiction and fantasy, wrote Ender’s Game, a book about Ender who went to a battle school (IF or International Fleet) in order to learn how to fight when the buggers invade their planet. This book held two central themes: children have the potential to be powerful in society, and how resorting to violence is never right. Orson Scott Card portrayed how children can be powerful, yet dangerous. In Ender’s Game, Ender, the main character of the book, went to command in the IF at the age of 10, which is considered strange since people were supposed to command at age 16. He was mainly taught by Mazer Rackham, the old leader of the IF when …show more content…

This theme started to show itself when Ender fought Bonzo in the shower. Bonzo wanted to fight him, knowing that he felt like a disappointment to Ender. Ender wins, but it stained him emotionally, knowing that he did not want violence. “I didn’t want to hurt him, Ender cried, Why didn’t he just leave me alone (213)!” This event gave Ender some character development, turning him from someone who wanted to kill the buggers, to a pacifist who did not want to kill at all. Unfortunately, Ender was tricked into killing the buggers, feeling regretful that he did not learn his lesson or try to achieve peace after he fought Bonzo. “I didn’t want to kill them all. I didn’t want to kill anybody! I’m not a killer! You didn’t want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it (297)!” Therefore, these two quotes show that violence hurts one

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