Ender's Game Isolation Theme

As humans, people will face many difficulties throughout their life. In the science fiction novel, Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card, the main character, Ender Wiggin, faces complications when he is selected to go to Battle School for training. Many of these hardships are caused by deep affection while other troubles are created because of his separation from the other students at school. However, these obstacles do improve Ender mentally, and it is depicted that these bumps in the road strengthen the protagonist physically in the long run, too. Throughout the book, Card uses love and isolation to demonstrate that life struggles are beneficial to a person’s life which creates a unique and relatable reading experience.

The feeling that

Ender, the potential leader, is put through seclusion at Battle School because the officers decide that they need to “isolate him enough that he remains creative”(Card 58).He is shown later on in the book to get very creative after being isolated because he is often alone and has so much time to himself. This creativity stems from the games he plays and the analyzation he does while alone which is why he has become so successful. The solitude does get to his head, though, which starts to frustrate him and this starts up issues with his teachers and his emotions. Ender’s isolation is beneficial in many ways, however, such as the hero always adapting to new people and settings, and finding new solutions to situations. Also, it does not let him make many friends which actually keeps him from being tainted or influenced by too many students. Ender does make a few really close friends because of the seclusion since he has a lot of free time, but very few friends to share his feelings and affection with. He also learns how to rely on no one for aid through his harsh loneliness which was actually the primary goal of Graff. In fact, “Graff [isolates] Ender to make him struggle” (Card 205) and prove he is better than everyone else, emotionally and physically. The struggles that Ender face allow him to win respect and love from his peers as he is always getting better and stronger from these difficulties. It is also noted that the hurdles turned him into a better soldier, too. However, the complications do have a negative effect on Ender because it makes him question if he should continue on with his future, and stress starts to buildup on the hero. Despite these effects, the problems from the isolation do help Ender because he learns how stressful it is commanding which allows him to take a peek at what being a leader is like. Also, it allows him to sharpen his problem-solving