Good vs Evil in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game

The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur into many shades of grey allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being. Man is not inherently good or evil but they are born innocent without any values or sense of morality until people impart their philosophies of life to them. In the words of John Locke:

Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience (Locke, 1690/1947, bk. II, chap. 1, p.26).

Society teaches both good and evil without realizing that they are corrupting In the novel Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card uses Peter, Ender, and several symbols to strengthen his theme of the duality of human nature to show that humans are not pure good or pure evil – they are a combination of both.

The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.

the lines tend to blur and the colours intermingle

The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white but tend to

antagonist dualism

value of good and evil

written in black and white

property/quality/standard/characteristics

right relation/morality

inherent

Though there is a dichotomy between good and evil these

Firstly, Peter is seen as the human manifestation of evil yet he is capable of performing civil acts towards ...

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... other. Although Peter is considered evil and cruel, the novel never mentions him killing any human being. Ender is another perfect example of good and evil coexisting in one body though he is generally seen as good, he has his moments. Finally, Card expresses his thoughts on his theme of good versus evil with symbols that can describe the deception of looks; not all who look innocent are innocent, and not all those who look guilty are guilty. Good and evil lives within us however it is up to each individual person to decide which side of the fence they would rather be on: good or evil.

Works Cited

Card, Orson. S: Ender's Game. New York: Starscape, 1977. Print

Locke, John Essay concerning Humane Understanding, Book II ("Of Ideas"), Chapter 1 ("Of Ideas in General, and Their Original")

https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/locke21.html