Self Defense In Ender's Game, By Orson Scott Card

In “Ender’s Game,” the science-fiction novel created by Orson Scott Card, the character Ender has to use violence to defend himself. The way he does this protects him from multiple separate attackers, but creates advantages and disadvantages for Ender. The author presents a story in which a character defends himself by using his available mental and physical strength. He does this to instill fear into his attackers, in order to avoid being hurt by them again. Card offered two ideas with this. Firstly, the idea that actions heavily rely on situations and circumstances, and are capable of being justified. More importantly, Card stressed the idea that self defense justifies violence. Self defense is when force is used against another human to prevent them from using force against you; this includes deadly or fatal force. The text reads, “It didn’t occur to him that Stilson didn’t take a fight like this seriously, that he wasn’t prepared for a truly desperate blow.” This proves that Ender was under the impression that Stilson intended to hurt him, and that Ender intended to defend himself. Therefore, Ender is irreproachable when it comes to typical legalities about self defense. Ender used

For example, Ender’s mental health is greatly affected by the events that cause Stilson and Bonzo to be killed. He cries after both instances, showing the gradual deterioration of his emotional well-being, wishing they would have just left him alone. In the novel, after Ender beat Stilson, the author wrote, “Ender leaned his head against the wall of the corridor and cried until the bus came.” (Chpt. 1 pg. 8). After that he compared himself to Peter—his brother, who is known for being an evil and cruel child. This is not completely true because of Ender’s gift of compassion and Peter’s lack of it, but Ender despises Peter and hates how he is becoming more like