Ender's Game Theme

“I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. Children aren't in armies, they aren't commanders, they don't rule over forty other kids, it's more than anybody can take and not get crazy" (Card, 8.134). This shows the immense pressure put on children to behave more like adults throughout Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game has an action pact plot that focuses on the main character, Ender, maturing into a commander to save the human race. The story starts out with Ender being a young boy who is very intelligent in a school with regular kids. He is being monitored by the International Fleet so that they can decide whether he will make it into battle school. After many stressful encounters
with other kids and family he is asked to join the International Fleet at battle school. At the battle school he is challenged with harsh conditions and not having respect from the other boys due to being singled out by Graff, the head of battle school. He initially struggles but ended up overcoming his hardships and becoming the best commander and fighter in battle school. Ender continued his success in battle school even though he was treated unfairly by the teachers and some of the other children. After he was fed up, he ended up basically quitting and was taken back to Earth.
His sister, Valentine, was needed to convince him that he needed to reenlist and save the human population from the buggers (alien species). After his conversation with his sister Ender moves on to command school where he prepares to become the battle commander of the entire International Fleet. He trains with the great Mazer Rackham who had won the second invasion for the humans. Some of Enders close friends from battle school become his platoon leaders and help him win almost all of his battles. After much training Ender is faced with a final test in which he faces an almost unbeatable enemy where he only won by completely destroying their home planet and queens/controllers. It is then revealed to Ender that his training battles had not been training, it had been him facing a real enemy which he had destroyed. Although Ender is a hero, he feels horrible and is relieved that he finds a bugger egg with which he could repopulate the bugger race. As we read the book and watched the movie I believe that the book is better than the movie for many reasons. Some of these reasons include character development, details, and an overall better timing of
events. Ender’s Game would not be complete without certain elements of the story that tie everything together and give meaning to some of the smallest details.
Some of these elements are Enders resentment for Peter, the youth of the characters, and the manipulation of the children. Throughout the book Ender expresses his resentment of Peter due to Peter’s dark side and his eagerness to use violence. Ender ends up in many situations where his only way out is extreme violence with which he prevails but ends up feeling sorry for himself and compares himself to his horrible brother. He then must convince himself that he is not a violent person and that he only did what he did to survive. "I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer” (Card, 14.391). This was towards the end of the book; Ender had just won his final battle simulation that was supposed to be his final test but ended up being a real battle in which he wiped out an entire race. He had not known he had been fighting and killing things in real life, he felt horrible about it even though he had defeated the enemy and saved the human population from any threat of an attack from the buggers. Ender also felt remorse and felt it was a bad thing he did because killing and committing horrible violence had been something he associated with Peter whom he did not want to be like. He immediately tries to convince people that he is not a killer so they do not compare him to his brother Peter. Another
theme that adds to story greatly is the youth of the characters. Although the book would be action packed and exciting regardless; the fact that the main characters, who are leaders of an entire fleet, are still children adds greatly to the depth of the story. "You're wrong, Ender. You think you're grown up and tired and jaded with everything, but in your heart you're just as much a kid as I am” (Card, 15.106).