Evaluating Kessel’s Game Is there a such thing as an innocent killer? Can someone who destroys a planet and commits mass genocide be viewed as a hero? According to John kessel this is attempted in Ender’s Game a science fiction novel written by Orson scott card in 1985. In 2004 Kessel wrote an article titled “Creating the innocent killer Ender's game intention or morality”. In his analysis he comes to the conclusion that Card presents the protagonist, Ender, as a character who is abused, manipulated, sincere, and innocent. 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 …show more content…
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. Before they even reach the school, Ender is forced to break the arm of Bernard, one of his tormentors. At every turn Ender faces hostility, scorn, and even physical assault. The result is an escalating series of challenges and violent responses by Ender.” . Sympathy is defined by Oxford Dictionary as feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. Card displaying the great deal of misfortune that Ender faces throughout the book almost guarantees the reader will feel some sense of sorrow for him. So the reader is so full of sorrow for Ender that they want him to be innocent. The reader never gets to experience what the buggers had been through or even know their future intentions of the humans. The reader gets so trapped in sympathy of Ender that they never once question the morality of his mass genocide. The reader feels as if it isn’t his fault when indeed it is. If one were to just take as step back and think about the Buggers they would realize they really know nothing about them. One may also realize that diplomacy was never discussed but instead violence was the immediate