Power In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

The novel Enders Game by Orson Scott Card is compelling with its characterizations and futurist plot line. Written in 1985, the story shows a boy, only 6 years of age named Ender and his journey through battle school with his companions and altercations with enemies to defeat the supposed “threat” of the buggers: alien invaders. A common practice by the characters in the novel is lying and deceiving to gain power; oddly however, the lies and deceit are more useful than telling the truth. Card shows this theme through the motif of power and how those above Ender such as Graff, Valentine and Mazer Rackham lied to him to help Ender gain power.
In the novel, Graff is Ender’s commander and deceived Ender in the beginning by taking away his monitor.

Ender and Valentine are at his cabin talking about whether or not Ender should save humanity. Valentine simply tells Ender, “If you don’t try and we lose, then it’s all your fault. You killed us all” (282). With pressure on Ender to protect Earth from the buggers coming from all directions the last person he wanted to hear that from was Valentine. Her words provided Ender help in making a decision, but also put him in the position to access more power because of the role he is about to take on. Sequentially, Ender takes it upon himself to make sure that he doesn’t mess up even though the loss, in fact, couldn’t be Enders fault. It’d be the fault of humanity who put so much faith and power into the hands of one simple young boy. It has always been better to try and fail than to never try at all, and that’s what gave Ender the most power: the fact he tried. The deceit from Valentine and her words are what assisted Ender in his journey to try and to strive, this deceit; more or less one of the most helpful in the entire

At the end of the novel is where Ender achieves the most power. When Mazer Rackham didn’t lie per say, however, deceived Ender by not explaining that the “simulations” were no longer a game, but real life war against the buggers. Ender finds out the was no game when he finishes the “simulations” and Mazer Rackham says, “Congratulations. You beat them....This was the Third invasion...no games, the battles were real” (340-341). This deception ends up giving Ender the most power because he was now a hero to the human world. Yet, when Ender assumed the game was merely a simulation, he could do the harmful deeds without so much of a conscious, since there was no one real threat of someone being hurt. Therefore, the false sense of security and safety blanketed by the word “simulation” allowed Ender to let his genius flow, and save the Earth from its supposed “threat” of the buggers: even though he thought the game only counted as practice for what was to come. Without this deception, Enders actions would have been less about winning, but making sure he left his armies as safe as possible. By doing this it potentially would leave Ender and the platoons vulnerable to the attack of the buggers. Ultimately, Ender earns his highest achievement of power with the deception given to him by Mazer Rackham and for the sake of humanity, the lie is better and more helpful than the