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Ender 's Game : A Fiction Genre Essay

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Ender’s Game is consistently listed as one the masterpieces of the science fiction genre. Since the novel’s publication in 1986, Ender’s Game has captured the attention and adoration of readers throughout the world. A sci-fi drama that came out in the final, heated years of the Cold War, Ender’s Game is an allegorical tale for that very time period. After the Second World War two incredibly powerful nations emerged and became locked in a battle over which belief system (capitalism or communism) was best. The United States (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR) tried to show their superiority over the other in a myriad of ways, the most notable being the space race. The space race made the world shift their focus from being earth bound to thinking much more about the stars in the heavens above. The space race inspired many authors which lead to an explosion of new works in the science fiction genre, eventually leading to Ender’s Game’s publication. Card uses the main character Ender to represent the United States, the dynamics between adults and children to represent the relationship between the United States government and its citizens, the alien species called Buggers to represent the Soviet Union, and the final battle in the novel to represent the downfall of the Soviet Union. Ender’s Game allegorizes Cold War politics and how Orson Scott Card viewed the Cold War would come to an end in a fantastical, entertaining tale.
Ender’s Game is the story of a boy named Ender Wiggin.

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