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Literary Criticism Of Ender's Game

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Literary criticism has existed for almost as long as literature itself. It is an important part of our world as it examines the messages throughout everyday media. Ender’s Game is a prominent piece of literature that has experienced literary criticism from a variety of sources; one of these sources being John Kessel. These criticisms have a variety of focuses; one being the morality of Ender Wiggin. While greatly debated, Ender Wiggin’s morality lies in the drain. Ender Wiggin vilifies himself, and while this sentiment creates empathy, it is not without reason. Even excluding the xenocide, Ender Wiggin has caused pain and death to win. He crushes almost everyone in his way, causing him to murder two children. Ender acknowledges his actions …show more content…

John Kessel, a well known critic of Ender’s Game, briefly touches upon this in Creating the Innocent Killer, “Ender becomes expert at wielding violence against his enemies, and this ability ultimately makes him the savior of the human race.” (Kessel, 4) Ender causing death is not only good but what makes him a hero. Even when others shun him and disapprove of his actions they are in the wrong. “ ‘It wasn't murder, Colonel…No one can blame Ender.’...Ender Wiggin isn't a killer. . He just wins -- thoroughly. If anybody's going to be scared, let it be the buggers’ " (Ender’s Game, 1) In chapter twelve, the Colonel shows disapproval for Ender's actions and is reprimanded. The International Fleet endorsed Ender's killings because it could serve them in eradicating the buggers. Ender’s action of harm brings him glory, and when anyone opposes his actions, they are considered unreasonable. He becomes a savior because he committed …show more content…

" ‘I don't want to go,’ said Ender, ‘but I will.’ ” (Ender’s Game, 1) In chapter three, Ender had a decision, and he chose to leave to battle school. In chapter thirteen, he made the same choice again. He at many points of his life decided to stay with the program. He was aware that his whole purpose of battle school was to prepare to kill the buggers. He may not have chosen to genocide the buggers at that moment, but make no mistake Ender was planning for the buggers to die by his hands. John Kessel took this position as well: “the ultimate purpose of any practice was to enact such destruction in reality.” (Kessel, 4) He worked to understand their tactics, pieced together videos, trained extra hours, all so he could be more effective in killing the

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438 Words | 2 Pages

When Ender was boarding a bus, another boy named Stilson had initiated a fight between the two of them. This fight had had resulted in Stilson dying, but Ender didn’t know this until later in the book. Although Stilson had been giving Ender a hard time, I don’t think that he deserved to die. I believe a severe punishment would have been better for this situation. Ender also should have received a punishment as well because he did take the fight farther than it had to go.

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456 Words | 2 Pages

Through the rest of the chapters Ender goes through a lot of things like succeeding in battle school which is in space by the way, he kept getting switched to different schools and he gets his own army called Dragon Army, and they win every battle. When Colonel Graff takes Ender to command school, where the readers finds out Ender killed Bonzo and Stilson, Ender later finds out though, Ender also fund out that the game was real war and that he killed the buggers off and he feels bad about it. Ender finally finds out he killed Bonzo and Stilson when he watches Colonel Graff’s trial (Colonel Graff was found not guilty). So, in the end Valentine, Enders sister convinced Ender to move away to another new colony with her, the buggers found a way to talk to Ender telepathically saying how they’re sorry they killed people, they forgive humans for wiping them out and the history of the Bugger species. They leave Ender a queen pupa which means he can restart the species.

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1403 Words | 6 Pages

Kessel says that this is all used to by Card to make the reader sympathize for Ender. This allows him to be portrayed as a killer who commits mass genocide, yet is innocent because he has good motives. Kessel goes on to

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397 Words | 2 Pages

In Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game, Ender Wiggin, the youngest of three, is bullied for being a ‘third’. His brother and two boys from his different schools are the main cause of his bullying. When Ender takes matters into in own hands, he mercilessly beats two of the boys in his schools. Graff is responsible for Ender when he goes to Euro, but is it right for him to be responsible for the fatalities Ender had caused? When Ender is bullied at school by Stilson, he gets fed and he kicks Stilson in his face.

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1990 Words | 8 Pages

As a child, he is taunted and bullied constantly. In response to all of this, he escapes to the military school where he is used, exploited and ultimately becomes a killer. Ender is forced to hurt others in many instances. Each event leaves him a little more scarred than the last.

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672 Words | 3 Pages

This is not because he is afraid for his life, but is afraid for their lives. An example of this can be found in the text where the narrator states, “Ender grabbed Mazer’s uniform and hung onto it, pulling him down so they were face to face. ‘I didn’t want to kill them all. I didn’t want to kill anybody! I’m not a killer!’”

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612 Words | 3 Pages

This lessens the scope of how much the International Fleet has been lying to Ender, leading to the reveal being less dramatic. The movie also completely erases the Locke and Demosthenes subplot, removes the epilogue of Ender moving to a colony with Valentine, and then replaces it with Ender finding the queen bugger’s egg on the same planet as the Command School and leaving to find a safe home for it. This also gets rid of the parallel between Ender and Peter at the end of the book, where it’s pointed out that in spite of Peter being portrayed as exceedingly cruel, he prevents the war on Earth which saves millions of lives. Ender kills billions of buggers in the Third Invasion, almost wiping out their race completely, despite being described as gentle and not wanting to hurt anyone. The movie’s tendency to cut anything not deemed an important event also makes it seem that Ender is unaffected by most of the events that occur.

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237 Words | 1 Pages

We learn from this scenario that Ender has come to believe that the only rational policy to insure one’s safety in the world is to be ready always to inflict grievous bodily harm on anyone who threatens him. No adult, authority, law, or social institution may be relied upon. “The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can’t kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.” (p 232) Despite the revelation of this philosophy, after the fight is over the reader is once again reassured that Ender is at heart a pacifist.

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831 Words | 4 Pages

The whole time Ender had not been aware he had killed them, and the leaders were manipulating him for his own sake. They explain that they didn’t tell him that he actually killed both Bonzo and Stilson; so that he wouldn’t think of himself as a killer. Throughout the book Ender repeats that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and doesn’t like that he has to be violent in order to be safe. If Ender would’ve found out, it would destroy his motivation and drive to want to be the best he can be. All in all, Ender is an overall better person because of the fact he didn’t know the

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754 Words | 4 Pages

This was one of the reasons why he was the perfect choice to be the commander. He also had a tremendous amount of guilt after (unknowingly) killing all the buggers and the pilots he and the squad leaders had controlled. This guilt would only be resolved when Ender finds a purpose as Speaker for the Dead and finding a safe place for the egg to

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1755 Words | 8 Pages

The author cannot say that Ender never had selfish motives or bad intentions when it came to hurting others, because it is shown in the book that he does. Andrew admits it when he says, "I guess I'm just a killer to the core. " But I'd rather be alive than dead"(Ender’s Game, 293). This hatred can dig deep into children's minds by showing them that they can get away with cruel things as long as they do it to make sure they will be safe in the future. Card teaches them never to consider another’s feelings and to only care for themselves, as violence is the only answer to every situation in which they suspect they will be harmed.

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1183 Words | 5 Pages

However, the majority of the battles he fights are constructed and orchestrated and controlled by the Adults. Ender lives in a military archetype which assumes humans are compliant, flexible, controllable pawns, tool to be used for the benefit of others. Ender’s insecurities,doubts and fears, as to why he is so isolated, how he is becoming more like petter, how he is an ostracized genius, all that sets him apart– make him diligent, sympathetic, preservant, resilient, flexible, and above all pliable, impressionable, malleable, qualities far more common in children. Supporting quote: “‘So what do we do now?’ asked Alai.

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784 Words | 4 Pages

6 page 64. Ender faces a war simulation that he is going again the Giant. Ender has no intention of hurting something or someone, he is very loyal to everyone. “ I am a murderer even when I play, Peter would be proud of me. ”-Ender Wiggins Ch.

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734 Words | 3 Pages

Ender’s realization and mistake is made on a much grander scale when he eliminates all but one egg in a species, but there are parallels between the two. He kills “buggers” without giving them proper consideration because he thought he was playing a game of little consequence. This is a reasonable assumption in his situation, but while Ender thought he was doing good for the world, he was actually exterminating a species based on a lack of communication. Similarly, I thought that I was doing a good thing by including my sister and keeping her connected to her family, when in reality some of her family (and mine) isn’t worth keeping contact with. Even if my mom was worth her time, though, hearing the specific details of how she has hurt people isn’t necessary or helpful.

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776 Words | 4 Pages

When Ender was talking to himself he said,”the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can’t kill then you’re always subject to those who can, and no one will ever save you,”(Card pg.212). This shows that inaction can make people prone to lose against people who have power can have power over them because inaction leaves them open and defenseless to those they could restrain. This also shows that inaction leads to loss because Ender is referring to the fight against Stilson, Bonzo, and Bernard because if he had waited for the teachers to respond to call for help they would’ve overpowered him and he would’ve lost. After ender defeated the buggers Mazer Rackham told Ender, “you made the hard choice, boy. All or nothing.

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