Ender's Game Identity Analysis

Identity in Ender’s Game

Identity is a tricky thing. Some people know who they are and have no trouble with their identity. While with some people it takes them their whole lives to figure it out. In Orson Scott Cards book Ender’s Game you see this come up a lot. From the moment Ender is born people around him had already decided who he is. Throughout the whole book you see Ender have these things put on him. These things make it hard for Ender to find his identity. Through Ender's struggle with his identity, Card suggests that when you let people and their expectations of you dictate your life you struggle with your identity and struggle being the person you want to be.

In the beginning of the novel, the author suggests that one often struggles

When Ender and Bean are having a private conversation Bean sees Enders exterior start to crack, "Bean looked at him and realized that the impossible was happening. Far from baiting him, Ender Wiggin was actually confiding in him. Not much. But a little. Ender was Human and bean had been allowed to see" (197). Bean was part of this group of people who admired Ender to point of forgetting he is human. And in that moment Bean realizes that Ender is human. That Ender feels the same emotions that Bean does. During their evening practice Shen comes up and starts joking around with Alai completely ignoring Ender because of this Ender realizes that they do not see him as a friend but as a leader and a teacher, "That's how they think of me, too. Teacher. Legendary soldier. Not one of them. Not someone that you embrace and whisper Salaam in his ear. That only lasted while Ender still seemed a victim. Still seemed vulnerable. Now he was the master soldier, and he was completely, utterly alone" (140). Ender sees the fact that his friends don't see him as friends anymore they see him as a teacher and a leader not someone they can joke around with or confide in. Ender feels extremely alone because of this. Everyone is looking up to him and sees him as some legendary soldier but because of this they forget that Ender is human. That he doesn't want to be alone. That’s he wants friends and a family. But because he is admired so much they don't see him that way and probably never will. Ender is this symbol to them he is the earths savior. When people are put on a pedestal they start to look less human and more like a symbol of greatness which causes loneliness for that