I recently finished reading Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card. It was a science-fiction book about a boy named Ender Wiggin. He is incredibly smart, and is recruited by the currently desperate military to go into training at age six. The military trains him harshly from this young age, and does not make him aware of what he is doing, but only because they terribly need him, and he may be the last hope to save everyone.
I thought that one of the issues in this book was how Ender was robbed of his childhood, by being taken away from his home and put into intense training at age six. This was done by the government, but only because he was a genius, and they needed him to save everybody. Of course, at the age of six Ender did not actually know about the life he was going into, and did not really have a say in what was being done to him. Is it right to take a child away from their home and put them into training, when they are at an age so young that they do not know what is happening to them? I think that this really depends on the situation, and how it will end up affecting other people and the world in general. For example, in the situation in Ender’s Game, if Ender had not been taken away and put into training, many or possibly all people would have died. His life was completely changed, but it was for the benefit of every other person. I do not think that there would ever actually be a situation where the fate of everyone depended on one boy. How important must the situation be for it to be justifiable to take away someone’s childhood to save others? I think it could be far less important than saving the world for it to be justifiable to take away much of someone’s life.
Another issue main issue in Ender’s Game, involved the war that Ender has been trained to be in. There is another species, and this other species is just as evolved and intelligent as humans are, but this species is very different from humans. Because neither species can understand each other, the two species have set out to destroy each other. Neither wants to destroy another species, but both are convinced that the other must not be as developed as they themselves are because they can not communicate, and therefore understand the each other. I think this introduces a bigger issue of how they value themselves more than the other not only because they want to survive, but because they can not understand each other. Just because you yourself cannot understand something, does not mean it is stupid and worthless. They also think that whoever does not kill the other, will probably be killed. At the time of the book, the humans are probably going to all die and lose, but they are desperately trying to save themselves. Ender is the only person smart enough to save everyone, but they know that he is far too kind to eliminate another species. Because of this difficult situation, the military people tell Ender that he is just going through a training simulation while he is actually fighting the battles. On the final one, his instructors do not expect him to ever be smart enough to beat the other species and kill them all. His instructors do not think he is completely capable, and are only aiming for him to severely hurt them, and send the message that they should stop attacking. Because Ender is under the impression that this is just a simulation, he wants to win, and he is completely smart enough to win this battle; Ender never loses. He ends up killing the species, and destroying their planet. All of the military people are overjoyed, but this is also when Ender finds out what he has really been doing. He would never intend to kill a species completely. This made me wonder whether Ender is responsible for his actions, or whether he is not because he was unaware and under the control of the military throughout the whole experience.
In conclusion, I loved reading Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, and although it is a science-fiction book with unrealistic situations, I could relate it back to realistic ideas and questions. I enjoyed reading it and am definitely looking forward to reading the sequel.
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