Ender's Morality

Something that I think we lost sight of during the discussion was the idea of "humanity." We sidetracked into a discussion of whether or not certain traits were implicit in humanity and if the buggers were human, but what we seemed to forget was that the discussion began with Ender's definition of "human," and that most homo sapiens don't qualify. Humans are not defined by humanity. In fact, for the most part, according to Ender, humans don't have any. So when it was said that the Buggers were acting with more humanity than the humans, or that the humans themselves were inhumane, it was by Ender's standards that I think we should judge whether or not this is true.

Ender's ideal of humanity seems to be Valentine, or at least his mental image of Valentine. To him, she is compassionate, understanding and fair. These are the traits Ender sees as worthy of protection, since it is because of her that he wants to save the Earth. But we know from his thoughts that not everyone is a human to him, it is something that must be earned.

It makes even more sense to use Ender's view of humanity when discussing Ender's Game because it allows the motif of role reversal to be expanded to the humans and Buggers. The motif is set up with Valentine and Peter when they write in each others personality for Locke and Demosthenes. It is continued by having Peter prevent war and Ender kill an entire race. It is also present in the end, because Ender, a child, is protecting the adults from the monsters in their nightmares. If if we use Ender's standard of morality, that it must be earned through fairness and compassion, then the Buggers are human and the humans are inhuman, since the Buggers stop attacking once they find out what they are doing, whereas the humans decide to manipulate children into committing genocide.