Controversial topics are typically surrounded by a lot of “grey area” and strong opinions. People dispute abortion, war, and genetically modified food. Yet, no sane person disputes the immorality of genocide; likewise, no sane person celebrates when a genocide has taken place. By these standards nearly every human in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game is insane. Ender Wiggin may be the only sane person, yet he is the celebrated killer in question. Ender’s good intentions do nothing to alter his status as a killer. And the child did not stop at killing his childhood bully or the older boy who meant to kill him, Ender only stops once he realizes he has killed off an entire species. Ender takes his first life at only six years old; his victim,
…show more content…
Ender leads the attack against the Buggers’ home world; in the process of doing so, he commands pilots and soldiers to give their lives in a kamikaze style. The attack leads to the decimation of the entire race: genocide. Ender, himself brings up a good point: “In battle I killed ten billion buggers, whose queens, at least, were as alive and wise as any man, who had not even launched a third attack against us, and no one thinks to call it a crime” (Ender’s Game, 309). The civilization that Ender is responsible for destroying did nothing to prompt an attack of that scale. Ender’s supporters may claim that because he feels guilt, he is innocent. However, realizing that he is responsible does not excuse his actions or wash the blood of millions from his hands. Other of Ender’s supporters use the defense that Ender did not know he was taking real lives. The counter argument is this: Ender was bred and trained to calculate every possible outcome, to notice every detail and plan accordingly for every situation which he could be put in. To make the allegation that Ender did not suspect his superiors of manipulating him is foolish. Card even attempted to make a case for Ender’s innocence: “Genocide was the result of not understanding the effect on the buggers of the hive queen” (Response, 14). Card must be forgetting the plethora of pages where he writes of Ender analyzing the videos of previous battles and finding that the queens’
Ender leads the attack against the Buggers’ home world; in the process of doing so, he commands pilots and soldiers to give their lives in a kamikaze style. The attack leads to the decimation of the entire race: genocide. Ender, himself brings up a good point: “In battle I killed ten billion buggers, whose queens, at least, were as alive and wise as any man, who had not even launched a third attack against us, and no one thinks to call it a crime” (Ender’s Game, 309). The civilization that Ender is responsible for destroying did nothing to prompt an attack of that scale. Ender’s supporters may claim that because he feels guilt, he is innocent. However, realizing that he is responsible does not excuse his actions or wash the blood of millions from his hands. Other of Ender’s supporters use the defense that Ender did not know he was taking real lives. The counter argument is this: Ender was bred and trained to calculate every possible outcome, to notice every detail and plan accordingly for every situation which he could be put in. To make the allegation that Ender did not suspect his superiors of manipulating him is foolish. Card even attempted to make a case for Ender’s innocence: “Genocide was the result of not understanding the effect on the buggers of the hive queen” (Response, 14). Card must be forgetting the plethora of pages where he writes of Ender analyzing the videos of previous battles and finding that the queens’