One of the recommended readings for this week was Heinlein's Starship Troopers, which throws reader into serious moral questions as to who're the good guys and who are the bad guys...who is committing genocide towards whom? Who is the victim?
From the moment Graff appeared at the door of Ender's home, Ender was presented with choices. His anger, and emotional swings got in the way of his decisions and his actions...he could not control his passions or desires. By becoming the Xenocide he wanted to end all wars...a strategy he followed from the beginning with all his fights and all his encounters. However, he constantly found himself in controlled environments...like a test-rat in a laboratory. The setting (or the environment) of his interactions were controlled by his teachers to prevent Ender from learning the truth, if you will. I think this is how we can claim Ender's innocence. Ender, just like the Buggers, is a victim.
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I disagree with the characterization of Ender as an overly emotional little boy who is not in control of his actions. While it is true that Ender is rarely in control of his situation, and that he is being manipulated by those around him, this doesn't mean that he is not a rational person who is able to make decisions for himself. We shouldn't say that he isn't in control of himself just because it is possible for people to predict what he is going to do if they put him in a given situation. And there are few passages in the book where Ender is actually angry. He becomes angry with the people who run Battle school when they were running his team ragged, and he accidentally insults Bonzo at this point, but I can't think of any other time when Ender makes a mistake due to anger. I also think it is important to recognize that he didn't intend to become the Xenocide, he was just tricked into it.
ReplyDeleteTricked into killing Buggers. Yes. Tricked into killing all Buggers to become the Xenocide? No I do not think so. I think by the end of the book Ender figures out that the Buggers are actually one unit, they carry a different kind of a collective identity. They are the Hive Queen and Hive Queen is the Buggers. I think it it this knowledge that leads Ender into doing what he is doing to stop the game. He is a victim of continous brainwashing, but the kid managed to make a decision on his own by the end of the book, which indicates a sense of personal growth in another sense.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Ender was a victim to his passions either. Rather he seems to have been highly analytical and strategic when faced with a conflict. A trapped animal lunges wildly. Ender did not. He carefully calculated how to win against overwhelming odds and demoralize his foes in the schoolyard fight. As Sun Tzu said, the purpose of war is victory, not a prolonged conflict. Ender understood that and wanted to elimanate the challenges brought before him quickly and permanently. I also do not believe that an overly passionate person with little self control could have overcome the bullying and sleep deprivation Ender did without succumbing to a nervous breakdown earlier in the novel.
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