Andre Parada Ms. Eutizi English 1 Honors 23 September 2014 Hopeful Destruction Hope stemming from destruction to most people seems impossible but on a deeper level of understanding it is the ultimate truth. Two novels have prime examples of this type of conclusion, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card both leave the reader with a sense of meaning and ambiguity. Fahrenheit 451 ends with the society that oppressed thoughts and creativity being destroyed; leaving those who broke free from the confines of that same society to rebuild a society of their own. Whereas Ender’s Game ends with mankind's greatest enemy being destroyed leaving Ender with a sense of moral obligation to make things right after being used …show more content…
Both novels conclude with destruction which oddly enough provides a sense of hope in the reader; for behind the facade of destruction lies the possibility for future greatness. This sense of hope in destruction allows the novels to live on inside of the minds of the audience by creating a sense of hope in their minds while simultaneously proposing questions about humanity, both novels in a way that may seem difficult to grasp but when understood provide a completely appropriate and satisfying sense of closure. The importance of the ending of these two novels lie not in the destruction but the hope that destruction brings. To explain, this understanding of Fahrenheit 451’s conclusion is reinforced as Granger says “every time [the Phoenix] burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did" (Bradbury 163). The future of their society contrasts the figurative rebirth of a Phoenix and the literal rebirth of their …show more content…
To elaborate, buggers or buggers in the novel Ender’s Game were seen by all of humanity as mankind's greatest enemy and they were. But when considering the fact that they could not communicate anything back to the humans one could argue that they were not at fault for their actions. This becomes clear when ender is finally able to communicate with the hive-queen, she says “We did not mean to murder, and when we understood, we never came again” (Card). A society like Enders, where every individual is unique and has value, and where individuals have a measure of independence and responsibility, is entirely unrelatable to the hive-queen. This grave misunderstanding caused them to kill millions of humans in battles that seemed to be nothing more to them than replaceable pawns being killed. It wasn’t until humans killed one of the hive-queens that the bugger race recognized what was happening was not merely a meaningless skirmish between insignificant pawns but rather the buggers had been killing untold numbers of unique individuals. In contrast, in Fahrenheit 451 an entire city is destroyed and although not near the same scale as the destruction that occurred in Ender’s Game it was never suggested that the reader should respond to the destruction with sadness or grief but with hope. One could ask why this is so and many would argue that it is due to the fact that the