Ender's Game Loss Of Innocence Theme

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is a book about children, but the kids in the book don’t act anywhere near their age. I was introduced to this book in eighth grade and immediately loved it. It is a 1985 military science fiction set far in the future. The book is about the preparation for a third invasion of the “buggers”, a insect-like alien. The need for fighters is greater now than ever and children are chosen to be the ones going into battle. Children are carefully selected and the chosen ones are sent off to battle school. In doing so many things are taken from the special few, such as loss of innocence and the ability to be a carefree child in general. Ender’s Game explores themes of loss of innocence just as To Kill a Mockingbird did.

Ender’s Game theme of loss of innocence is shown when readers see the childrens ages. Childhood innocence is a carefree fragile mind that has not experienced the cruelty of the world. The children in Card’s book are manipulators and killers. At a young age, a monitor is implanted at the nape of children’s necks and the government watches the child grow and decides if they will be good for battle school and possibly be the only hope for humanity. The monitor is usually taken out before age five but Ender keeps his until he is six. At age six Ender is highly intelligent and is the last in his family and grade level to get his monitor taken out. He is bullied for keeping it for so long and when he finally gets it out, he loses the protection it gave. The government is no longer hearing and seeing what he sees, so a group kids gang up on him after school. He fights and ends up hospitalizing one kid, Stilson.

A government official, Graff, shows up at the Wiggin’s front door and tells Ender’s parents that he has been chosen to come to battle school.

After much internal debate Ender decides to go to battle school and leave home. He knows he won’t see his family until he is at least 12 but most likely he will have to wait until he is 16. When Ender is inside the ship on the way to battle school, the adults start their manipulation game. Graff calls out Ender as the only one who will save mankind, making the other kids hate Ender and become envious. Ender already lost the chance at having a normal childhood when he was born a third, but he was also considered to be the chosen one to save mankind from the very beginning. The manipulation of Ender is shown through the book and the children at the school either take part in his abuse or ignore the adults who cause it. Through this abusive training tactic Ender becomes the skilled fighter and leader the government wants. Ender gets moved through the program fast. He gets to the command school at age 9, a school no one can go to until they are sixteen. The adults tell him he will be doing simulations to practice the attacks on the buggers, but after the last simulation he finds out he killed the entire bugger species. The novel shows Ender to be morally innocent throughout his story, but he takes on the guilt of xenocide of the buggers. He is shocked at what he did, even when he didn’t know what he’s doing. Ender loses his innocence at this moment. He knew he was being manipulated by the adults throughout his career at the battle schools, but he had no idea he was being manipulated into exterminating a whole race. When he realizes what he did he goes into another depression slump and does not come out of his room for days. He doesn’t understand why he was manipulated into what he

did.

Ender's game relates to To Kill a Mockingbird because they both demonstrate the theme of loss of innocence. They both show character coming to the illumination that the world is not all good. Much like Jem and Scout finding out that even though Tom is innocent, and the jurors know it, he is still ruled at guilty, Ender realizes the adults are not all good and have manipulated him into killing an entire race. He sees the evil in the world just as Jem and Scout do. While both Ender’s Game and To Kill a Mockingbird have completely different plots, they both accurately convey the theme of loss of innocence.