Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Cardscience fiction young adult
Reviewed on: 23rd February 2025.
“Ender’s Game” is a fantastic story on violence and empathy.
On its surface, “Ender’s Game” is a scifi story about an intergalactic war. The Formics have attacked Earth twice in the past century, and Earth is preparing to fight off a third invasion. Andrew (Ender) Wiggin is a tactical genius who is being trained to lead Earth’s forces in preparation for this invasion. Ender’s older siblings, Peter and Valentine, also geniuses in their own right, had been previously considered but ultimately rejected for that same role. Together, they represent three side of one coin: meaningless violence, powerless empathy, and a synergy between the two extremes: violence as a deterrent and empathy as a weapon.
Violence as a Deterrent
Peter Wiggin, Ender’s eldest brother, is a violent child with sociopathic tendencies, and the person who Ender hates the most. Before Ender leaves for Battle School, Ender is a common target for Peter’s violence and death threats. This has a profound effect on Ender, who fear seeing himself become as ruthless as his brother, and rejects gratuitous violence, whether exerted physically or emotionally.
Ender didn't like fighting. He didn't like Peter's kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn't like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid.
Unfortunately for him, an unofficial side to his training demands that he reach deep into his violent tendencies; over and over, Ender is purposefully put in situations where he is forced to resort to violence to end conflicts.
"Ender Wiggin must believe that no matter what happens, no adult will ever, ever step in to help him in any way. He must believe that he can only do what he and the other children work out for themselves." — Colonel Graff
Ender is forced to face conflicts with no external help. In doing so by himself, he resorts to violent solutions that put an end not just to the current conflict, but future ones as well. When Ender resorts to violence, he does so decisively, with maybe some regret, but certainly no hesitation. When Ender wins, he does not win just the current fight, but all the future ones as well.
There was no doubt now in Ender's mind. There was no help for him. Whatever he faced, now and forever, no one would save him from it. Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.
Empathy as a Weapon
Valentine Wiggin, Ender’s older sister, is a compassionate child who was rejected from Battle School for her lack of innate killer instinct. Ender and her share a strong desire for peace and keen empathic abilities. In the context of his training, this is seen by the adults as a powerful weapon to wield; the Formics are too powerful to beat by means of brute force alone, and victory can only come through a profound understanding of the enemy. Unfortunately, this is also a primary source of Ender’s internal conflicts.
"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them."
— Ender
Speaker for the Dead
Most of the story focuses on Ender’s training in Battle School and Command School, and the themes of violence and empathy play off each other well as the plot unfolds. However, I have to say that my favorite part of the book by far is found in the final chapter, “Speaker for the Dead”. I have a hard time properly conveying the emotional weight carried in these last couple pages.
Earlier in the novel, before the final climax of the main plot, Ender is finally revealed classified information about Formics. They are a hive-minded species, with individual queens that control large swarms of drones and workers. They have an instant faster-than-light ability to share thoughts, and to communicate without the need of an explicit language. Ender learns that the whole war may be happening simply because communication has not been possible. Nonetheless, he quickly concludes that the only option to guarantee human survival is to conclude the Formic wars as the sole victor.
Years after the end of the war, while developing the first human colonies across the universe, Ender finds the cocoon of a Formic queen, and she is able to communicate with him. She tells him their history, reassures him that they never meant to harm humans and did not understand until the second invasion that humans were sentient beings of their own rights. She promises forgiveness for the genocide that he enacted, and pleads for mutual understanding.
"We are like you [...]. We did not mean to murder, and when we understood, we never came again. We thought we were the only thinking beings in the universe, until we met you, but never did we dream that thought could arise from the lonely animals who cannot dream each other's dreams. How were we to know? We could live with you in peace. Believe us, believe us, believe us." — Hive Queen
The tragic irony of this chapter comes into full fruition as we learn that the Formics were a peaceful and deeply empathetic species. To seek redemption, Ender pledges to find this queen a new home where to settle and hopefully, one day, repopulate her species.
Ender writes the Formic’s story into an essay, written from their perspective, under the anonymous name “Speaker for the Dead”. Over many years, the essay spreads and gains popularity, and shifts the popular opinion on the Formics against their genocide, to the point where Ender himself is seen unfavorably as a malevolent killer for his primary role in the war. Speaking for the dead becomes a human tradition and, in some colonies, a major religion: When a loved one died, a believer would arise beside the grave to be the Speaker for the Dead, and say what the dead one would have said, but with full candor, hiding no faults, and pretending no virtues. An ultimate and final act of empathy towards those who are not longer able to speak for themselves.