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. Countless times, Ender does something horrible, but is forgiven for it. Card works hard to generate copious amounts of pity and empathy for Ender throughout the beginning of the book, and then proceeds to reveal what Ender has actually been doing throughout the story. That’s okay though, because Ender is actually innocent and the victim. The entire plot consists of Ender is unknowingly committing murder, abuse, and …show more content…
Following this line of thought, Ender’s actions during the final make him a bad person, thus disproving Card’s presentation of Ender as a perfect person with no irredeemable flaws. In conclusion, Kessel is certainly correct in his claims towards Ender’s Game and it’s hidden message. This essay takes Kessel’s point even farther however. Not only does it agree that Card tries to insert his own moral views into the book, this essay attempts to show where Card messed up, and went too