Ender's Game Theme Analysis

     The novel Ender’s Game is written by Orson Schott Card. It is about a young boy who is sent to battle school. He meets friends and makes adversaries. In battle school, out in space, Ender, the young boy is a genius and is taught many tactics to destroy their prime enemy the buggers. He excels in school and battles his way into command school before the required age. There he is told he is battling buggers in simulations or is he? Throughout the novel, Ender is manipulated, bullied, and isolated, which creates many themes and messages. In this novel Ender’s Game the main theme is life is a game. Three characters that best prove this are Ender, Peter, and Bonzo.

In Ender’s Game, the constrained amount of freedom is evident right at the beginning of the novel when the International Fleet places Ender in Battle School. Not only was Ender overwhelmed with numerous laws and rules, but he was frequently supervised. Ender’s frustration in the lack of freedom he receives can be shown when Card says, “Now he knew what he hated so much. He had no control over his own life. They ran everything. They made all the choices. Only the game was left to him, that was all, everything else was them and their rules and plans and lessons and programs, and all he could do was go this way or that way in battle” (Card 117). This quote demonstrates Ender’s predicament at Battle School. Many times in the novel, the International Fleet reminds Ender that he is the ‘best soldier’ there; however, he is still soldier doing what someone else wants him to do. As a result, the commanders praise Ender as he is described as the “best in this launch” (Card 26); however, by giving him a high status, in reality this is an illusion as he lacks autonomy and the title is meaningless. Also, Card uses the game Ender plays in Battle School as an image to show the lack of freedom he has. By stating how the only thing Ender has left is the game and that “all he could do was go this way or that way,” Card gives the impression that the only aspect in life Ender has a little freedom in, is still confined by rules that it is meaningless. Additionally, the constrained amount of freedom in Ender’s Game is present not only for Ender, but for everyone. This can be displayed when Valentine (Ender’s sister) claims that, “Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people, by people who love you” (Card 241). Valentine talks about the theme of

In Ender's Game, author Orson Scott Card uses a foreshadowing technique to convey a sense of danger throughout the novel, which leads the readers to develop a feeling of apprehensiveness while reading. After getting his monitor mysteriously removed, Ender is sent back to class. When the bell rings, Ender is the

Ender's Game is author Orson Scott Card's best-known work. The novel has sold over one million copies and is published worldwide (Whyte). The novel won the Hugo and Nebula award in 1986; science fiction’s most prestigious writing awards (University of Utah). In summary, the plot of the novel is a story about a young child, Ender Wiggin, taken away from his family by the International Fleet (a world order devoted to protecting the planet from space invaders) in order to train him to be a military genius to defend the human race from an alien species (Buggers) that has already attacked Earth twice. At the end of the novel Ender kills the entire bugger race but does not know it until after the

One theme in Ender’s Game is “Things aren’t always going it be fair in life.” Ender is having a bad time in battle school and the teachers were being hard on him. On page 215 the book says, “Two armies weren’t enough. They had to make Ender deploy his forces blind.” This supports the theme because the teachers are making it harder for Ender to train his army and work with them. Another quote that supports this theme is “A game nine weeks earlier than it should’ve come. A game everyday. And now two games in the same day. Bean, I don’t know what the teachers are doing, but my army is getting tired, I’m getting tired and they don’t care at all about the rules of the game.” This quote supports the theme because it shows what the

In Ender's game a boy named Ender Wiggin is sent to battle school at a very young age to learn how to become a commander in the military. Throughout the entire book the government seems to control everything. This reflects Orson Scott Card's communistic political views. The government controls how many kids’ families can have, and the government begins conditioning children to become military leaders at a very young age. Another underlying theme in this book is the idea of perfection.

The Enders Game has any themes within the story. One of the themes is

“This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question.” This quote by Orson Scott Card in the Ender’s Game sequel, Speaker for the Dead, points out that it is in human nature to question beliefs and ideas. Reading Ender’s Game for the first time, I saw a boy in the future who was struggling through battle, and later command school. However, when I looked a little closer, I noticed much deeper ideas implanted in the story by Orson Scott Card, no doubt on purpose, to make his readers think; to make them question. There are multiple themes weaved throughout Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, among them; manipulation, xenophobia, and compassion, all of which are interrelated.

The book has a repeated theme of Ender being put down emotionally and physically. Along with his childhood, his identity is taken away from him. Ender is put through endless training with little rest and is put under an immense lot of pressure.

The premise of the story is about, an imperiled mankind after two conflicts with the “buggers” which are an insectoid alien species and is set in Earth’s future. It’s also about, Ender being in a school that teaches children about warfare, which could also be known as the ‘Battle School’. There, kids which consist of bullies, killers, and manipulators, play military games and fight a constant war with the “buggers”. The underlying themes of the story have to do with youth, manipulation, warfare, isolation, competition, friendship, and strength and skill. The book Ender’s Game is set in the future, and is set in not only a fantastical world but in a place we know here in the world.

In the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, it starts with ender in school and being made fun of. After he beats up a bully, he goes home to deal with his brother Peter who also bullies him because Ender is a better specimen than Peter was. But what no one expected was that a representative from the military came to invite Ender to Battle School up in space. Ender accepted and went to live up in Battle School for years to come. At first, Ender was hated for being such a talented student at the age of six but was soon respected after he was able to beat all the other armies with just a bunch of little kids. Ender became the best soldier at Battle School and was moved up to Command School where he would learn to command

Fifty nine percent of Americans play video games (VGVN). In the book Ender’s Game video games is crucial as the entire story is based on Ender’s video games, and how videogames are connected to the real world. Orson Scott Card creator of Ender’s Game was born in Richland, WA on august 24, 1951 . Ender’s Game main theme (Games) is a big part of life in today’s society, consumers spent $21.53 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in 2013 (IGN).

In the novel Ender’s Games, Orson Scott Card portrays the theme of identity very thoroughly through the main character Ender Wiggins. He achieves this by developing the character, helping the reader know Ender’s feelings and thoughts, and by relating most scenes back to the theme of identity. First of all, Orson Scott Card portrays the theme identity by developing the main character, Ender Wiggins. This example can be seen many times throughout the book. For example, “ Ender knew the unspoken rules of manly warfare, even though he was only six” (7). This quote gives the reader a better understanding of the character, Ender Wiggins. Orson Scott Card uses small passages like these to develop the character more and more as the book continues.

“You won’t fail, Ender. Not this early in the course. You’ve had some tight ones, but you’ve always won. You don’t know what your limits are yet, but if you’ve reached them already you’re a good deal feebler than I thought.” (Card 286). Ender’s Game is a dystopian novel by Orson Scott Card that follows the training and thoughts of the protagonist, Ender, ultimately ending with the destruction of an alien race, the buggers. Ender’s militaristic and desperate society forces him to unwillingly commit genocide to an extent where Ender’s withering and empathetic mind begins to question the consequences of his actions.

Ender's Game has many deep thoughts the reader can conclude. One of the important themes that the story has is the relationship between masculinity and femininity. I like to call the relationship between masculinity and femininity in Ender's Game “the circulation of features”. This name derived from the description and changes in characters. At the beginning the story gives the typical features of men and women. Women are emotional, but men are cold-hearted. At the end, we can observe that the features are turned over. Men expressed their emotions and what they really feel. Plus, women take responsibility and become harsh and cold. In fact, I am going to express the circulation of features in