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Manipulation In Ender's Game

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Everyday, people manipulate and are manipulated, whether it is a small matter or life-changing. Many question the ethics behind manipulation, but in some circumstances, the use of manipulation is considered to be more morally okay. In the novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, manipulation is used to prevent many issues, mainly a war between humankind and an alien race called buggers, and a war between countries on earth. A recurring theme of Ender’s Game is that manipulation is justified if it is for the common good. Firstly, Ender, who does not wish to hurt anyone, is manipulated to unknowingly fight as a commander in the bugger war by the Battle School teachers. Though Colonel Graff does not want to put this pressure and lie to Ender, he …show more content…

After Ender destroys the bugger planet in the final simulation, Graff tells him the truth, that he has been killing real buggers, that the simulated games are not actually simulations. Graff’s reasoning is this: “Of course we tricked you into it. That’s the whole point, [...] It had to be a trick or you couldn’t have done it. We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, [...] So much compassion that he could win the love of his underlings [...] But somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed.” (Scott Card, 342) His explanation demonstrates how he believes that sacrificing Ender’s feelings by lying to him is necessary to defeat the buggers to save humanity from possible destruction, emphasizing the theme of manipulation for the common good. They make Ender do what he hates most, hurting others, by isolating him into not trusting anybody, moulding him to the perfect commander, then tricking him into believing he was only battling simulations. In this case, even though Graff detests manipulating and lying to Ender, he feels it is ultimately okay because the outcome of exploiting Ender is saving humankind. One person is manipulated for the greater common good of humanity as a whole. While Graff and other adults manipulate Ender, Peter and Valentine …show more content…

When Peter tells Valentine about his plan to have them take on false identities and slowly become respected political figures he says: “I’m going to have control of something. But I want it to be something worth ruling. I want to accomplish something worthwhile. [...] So that when somebody else comes, after we beat the buggers, when somebody else comes here to defeat us, they’ll find we’ve already spread over a thousand worlds, we’re at peace with ourselves and impossible to destroy. [...] I want to save mankind from self-destruction.” (167) Peter’s reasoning behind his plan is that manipulating the adults to believe the political views they have is worth it because it means that Peter’s hunger for power and control will be satiated and a potential war will be avoided. This illustrates how manipulation is condoned if it is for the greater common good because the outcome of humankind being at peace under Peter’s rule is considered to be more significant than lying to people and adopting false

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Ender’s Game v.s Ender’s Game movie After I read Ender’s Game I watched the movie and I can’t say the movie was bad, but many things in the movie were not relevant at all to the book. The movie was way too short and they fast forwarded too many things. They also dumbed down the twists like when Ender destroys the Buggers when he thought it was a simulation game. It even ditched all the somewhat important things. They must have cut out over 2 hours of plot between every new scene.

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HE never wanted to kill the buggers he wanted to see if the war was a mistake or misunderstanding. He wanted to talk to the buggers and figure them out. Ender’s ability to see patterns as shown through his ability to reorient his gravitational angle, his great ability to think like the enemy and see from the enemy’s perspective,through his ability to innovate unique battle strategies.

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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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This is another statement that I see often inn the book and agree have with. On this subject kessel writes “The extreme situation Card has constructed to isolate and abuse Ender guarantees our sympathy.   After Ender is manipulated into entering Battle School, (he’s brought there by lies severing him from Valentine, his only protector) his abuse continues, deliberately fostered by Graff. On the shuttle up to the orbiting school Graff singles Ender out for praise for the sole purpose that the other recruits will resent him.

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John Kessel’s essay, Creating the Innocent Killer, is a character study of Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin, from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. The essay provides an interesting look into who Ender actually is underneath all of Card’s world manipulation, and the message that Card was trying to send through Ender’s existence in the story. Essentially, the message that Kessel sees in the novel is that ‘actions should be judged based on intentions, rather than results,’ which is a belief that is generally be untrue. The theory that this message was intentionally being portrayed in Ender’s journey is backed up by large amounts of evidence, both from the book, and from Card himself. This isn’t all too hard to prove.

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In Orson Scott Card’s book Ender’s Game, Ender is continually set up against impossible odds by the International Fleet, which is part of a plan to train Ender to fight in the Third Invasion and end the bugger wars forever. Ender’s trials are portrayed more convincingly in the book, as the book shows him struggling with the expectations placed upon him more so than in the movie. An important theme in Ender’s Game is that Ender is continually kept in the dark about the events happening around him. This theme is prevalent throughout the book, and sets the stage for the book’s climax, the Third Invasion.

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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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This causes problems only to himself when he refuses to acknowledge Ender’s potential in battles making him look foolish to other characters. Violence and revenge is his way to solve his problems, but it ultimately fails and creates more. He doesn’t enforce discipline but destroys

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Scott Macarthy Mr. Werley English III 22 September 2014 The Destruction of Ender A utopia is supposed to be a perfect world, yet there are rarely any true utopias. Ender’s Game begins with a utopic society, where the government pits Earth against the nasty and evil buggers. Throughout Ender 's Game, written by Orson Scott Card, the reader follows the main protagonist, Ender, from his journey as a young boy on Earth to the hopes of being the next great commander in the fight against the buggers.

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“Just as the next blow was coming, Ender reached up with both hands, snatched the boy by his wrist, and then pulled down on the arm, hard.” () Card and his somewhat applaudable idea of power did not view it sufficient enough for Ender to request the aid of an adult. But did envision Ender reinforcing the agony brought upon him, promulgating his power in such a way he experiences yet another unintended consequence. “…the boy was feeling exactly the pain Ender had meant him to feel…I am Peter. I’m just like him.

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His compassion is proven many times, and one of them is the fact that he hates that he feels just like Peter. If Ender had no compassion, why would he have regretted acting like Peter? Ender is also very sympathetic to Bean (even though Ender tries not to show it) and Ender would see himself in Bean, how small and young Bean is but still so determined. Ender initially realizes that he is isolating Bean because Ender himself was once isolated and he wants to force Bean to flourish like Ender did. Ender also has so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, and could understand and anticipate them.

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Without the bugger war, Ender would not have been born, and he realizes this fact. Interestingly enough, the reader never directly see’s the war against the buggers. The only war ever seen directly is the other war that Ender fights every day – the war against the teachers games, against the other kids, against his fear of becoming his brother, against the instinct that drives Ender to hurt other people. Ender’s entire life is made up of these little battles. Ender finds his identity in the battles that he fights and the challenges that he over comes.

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Ender ends up crying while the queen bugger wipes his tears away. At this point, he knows that the queen bugger is going to die. This shows that he’s passionate because he shows that he’s sorry for her and doesn’t want her to

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End them or end us. But heaven knows there was no other way you could’ve done it,” (Card pg.296). This shows that Mazer knew that if they had done nothing during the fight against the bugger humanity would be in danger because the buggers would’ve came back to wipe out humanity. This also shows that inaction leads to loss because Mazer said that it was, “all or nothing”, which meant that they could do everything they could and win or do nothing and lose. These quotes prove that inaction leads to loss because throughout Ender’s Game the characters like Ender and Mazer have been through battles where they know that if they don’t do anything at all

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Therefore tricking the commander and the squadron leaders was the only choice mankind has against forces that may destroy humanity. Another reason why the command school authorities kept the truth away from Ender especially is because Ender’s personality is a combination between Valentine’s and Peter’s. Basically a mix between good and evil. If his compassionate side gave in, then the buggers might take over the world. Although his kindness might cost the destruction of his world, his killer instinct might take rash decisions.

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