Character Analysis Ender Wiggin 11/29/2016 Stephen Spann Stephen Spann PSYC 4312 01 11/29/16 Dr. Bias Ender Wiggin Andrew Wiggin is a fictional character from the book Enders Game written by Orson Scott Card. In the book, Andrew Wiggin (Ender) is a 6-year-old that is the third born child in a society that usually only allows 2 children. The children are monitored for their level of genius and selected to participate in a space Battle School in order to fight against an alien race that humans are at war with. Both of Enders siblings Peter and Valentine have been looked over and Ender is chosen because of his ability to completely destroy his enemies. He is faced with many challenges throughout the book that present these enemies, …show more content…
The battles that each of the armies fights are placed on a standings board that all of the students can see along with individual statistics that show how well each soldier is doing. Scores are also interpreted as a positive reinforcement in the games that the students play in their free time as well as a particular game known as the Giants Game that reacts to the individual soldier playing it by presenting different scenarios that are personalized. Each of these games has a reward system that rewards when the correct behavior is shown and negatively reinforces behavior as well. The Giants Game would have an effect of negative reinforcement where Ender had to think outside of the box in order to complete the task that was at hand which got him into a situation where each option that was presented would not work and some of the options would be removed forcing Ender to make up his own solution. The military leaders also had a hand in reinforcement because they would single Ender out for being correct in a situation or by giving him a response that moved his behavior in a certain direction by removing what he held dear. In one instance, Ender becomes the commander of his own army within the battle school and he is removed from the supervision of more experienced soldiers in order to further him in his progress. Orson Scott Card uses this removal tactic frequently to show that isolation was the best way …show more content…
The general situation of being the savior of mankind definitely set the tone of urgency and gave many excuses as to why some of the military leaders that were responsible for Ender the excuse to treat him the way that they did. Tweaking the behaviors of a child in order to save mankind proved to not only be an excellent experiment but also seemed to dive into the realm of the unknown. The result was the winning of the war as well as Ender not being able to return to earth because of his capabilities. Certain aspects could not and would not be dealt with such as having Ender back on earth and possibly at the hands of certain countries wanting to wage war on each other. The book discusses a lot of the political boundaries that are involved with the ethics and moralities of the battle school itself even though it was necessary in order to win the