Please be aware this article will give away some of the plotline of Ender’s Game.
Card depicts the character of Ender as a victim. He is bullied at school, at home and in Battle School. Though he is small in stature and resented for his powers of intellect, Ender is by no means a pushover. Though he is represented as weak and compassionate, when backed into a corner he viciously defends himself to the end. It is this quality that gains him the admiration of the adults and the respect of his peers.
Ender demonstrates his will to survive in the non-dangerous environment of the games in the Battle School. However outside of the games when the pain is very much real, Ender’s will to survive develops into a monstrous streak, belying his hitherto placid nature.
Within the first few scenes Ender has already taken down his school bully and asserted himself in the shuttle by breaking Bernard’s arm. Both acts seem outside of Ender’s nature and can be attributed to the change of situation he is suffering. Graff encourages the other boys to pick on Ender in the shuttle and so his reaction can be empathised with. The difference in gravity accounting for the unforeseen strength of his action.
The scene with Bonzo is a key scene. Ender is a few years older and is more or less settled at Battle School. The teachers continue to make his life difficult and his constant success has earned the jealous hatred of some of the other students. Ender’s violence in this scene depicts how far he will go to ensure his own survival despite the odds. He is dragged away by another student and sobs that he did not want to fight. Ender’s repentance demonstrates the compassion he still houses in his soul but the monstrosity within him is just as clear.
Ender often repeats his fear that he is more like Peter than Valentine. At first he is adamant that he will never become like his brother, however by the age of twelve he has already committed two murders, two more than his brother has. Squirrelcide not included. Ender is also preparing for Genocide, he is being trained to kill an entire species in order to preserve his own race. The fact that the Buggers are not attacking seems irrelevant.
Peter and Valentina represent the two extremes of Ender’s personality. Whilst Peter is strong he is also malicious, Valentina on the other hand is extremely intelligent but too placid. We are led at first to believe that Ender’s temperament is closer to that of Valentina’s, he himself certainly thinks that is the case. However, backed into a corner Ender is vicious with only survival on his mind. At these points his temperament swings to the complete opposite and he aligns himself closer to Peter.
Aside from his personal conflicts, Ender moves to completely and utterly destroy the buggers in a manner he knows is immoral. That he is tricked into believing it is a simulation is beside the point. He was willing to cast off what he knew to be unfair about conflict in order to succeed in his “examination”. Ender’s level of intelligence also raises the question: did he honestly not know he was being set up?
The fact that Ender is a child is his final advocation. Childish innocence and naivety explain away the monstrous side of his nature. When he is allowed to grow up, free of Battle School he chooses to educate the humans about their late enemy, the buggers. He feels repentence for his military actions.
Can repentence truly undo all of the monstrosity in his nature? And is it genetic or has it been manifested through the manipulation of the teachers?
