Ender's Game Analysis

Allowing children to play games, such as imaginary war, or a lifelike video game such as Call Of Duty, is both a good thing and a bad thing in our society. The games teach the children how to use self defense, yes. However, they are still children and should be treated as such and should be able to live their life as innocently as possible. The real world is a cruel place and when children are still in the oblivious state of what is really going on around, we should let them stay that way for as long as possible. However, the children do need to know how to survive, in any case of emergency it is better to know the basics rather than know nothing at all.

For example, in the novel “Ender’s Game” the main character is a six year old boy who is in a world where war is one of the most well-known things in their society. In this society, children are raised to be able to fight and survive and have no true childhood other than what they have to learn in order to survive in a worse case scenario. In this story the children don’t have the normal activities such as going

outside and playing like what we consider normal children in our society. However, in a situation of war or emergency these children know what to and not to do in order to survive.

Furthermore, in countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan the children that live there grow up with nothing but violence and the need to learn how to survive on their own.

The children there don’t all have the chance to be a kid, from the minute they are able to walk and talk they are taught that they have to survive from then and until they die. The kids over there can’t play freeze tag or swing on the swing sets, or go out and have play dates with the other kids in their town. Children overseas have seen war and seen their families have to leave them. These children also have to go fight themselves, whether it be because of religion or just for the sake of them hopefully surviving. The children going into war at such a young age is terrible, and even some adults can’t even begin to imagine what the children would and have seen. No child should have to see things that even adults can’t see

themselves.

In the article “Videogames and Children: Playing with Violence” by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, it talks about how children who play more violent games often imitate the violence that was in the game and show more aggressive behavior. The article states, “Younger children and those with emotional, behavioral or learning problems may be more influenced by violent images,” meaning that eclectric children who have an easier way of allowing the game to influence could possibly act out in violent ways. However, the article also states, “Some video games may promote learning, problem solving and help with the development of fine motor skills and coordination,” which is true and can be scientifically proven. The violence in the video games teaches kids how to deal with a problem in a stressful situation and how to assess the problem in a calm and well thought process. Even though the video games with violent content can cause some problems for some people, it is helpful for learning new things and getting better at handling problems.

In conclusion, even though violence isn’t particularly something children should do on a daily basis, they should still know the basic ways of survive. Knowing what to do in stressful situations can help the children and even the adults in case of panic or a serious problem. However, children should still be monitored in what they do to make sure that the violent images that they may be seeing doesn’t affect them in a harmful way and that they are all safe. Overall children do need to be introduced to some violence to a certain extent, but they are still children and should be treated as so and not forced into anything that isn’t really benefiting them.