General Graff’s claim that human beings are not free when humanity requires them to be a tool implies that people must sacrifice themselves for the seemingly greater cause of the survival of the human race. The fallacy of this statement. however, is that humanity is not a being which can determine the necessities of survive; it is a collection of independent entities which have their own needs, wants, and rights. General Graff’s ideology is simply sly manipulation tactics under the pretense of benefiting humanity which ultimately lead to the genocide of an entire sentient and antiwar species. Author Orson Card shows that individuals are not tools to benefit the whole of humanity, but rather the weak individuals used to benefit the strong individuals. …show more content…
“Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people. By people who love you (page 313).” Essentially, Valentine’s dialogue states that we are not singular tools used by the entire society but tools for only the manipulating puppeteers who we can only hope are good people. “It’s the teachers, they’re the enemy. They get us to fight each other, to hate each other. The game is everything. Win win win. It amounts to nothing. (page 108)” Ender’s friend Dink understand how fake everything at the school ,which they are kept in, is. The teachers are the ones deceiving the children in mindless tasks to prepare them for their own usage. This point is further substantiated by the outcome of the story. Looking at the results of the massacre of the bugger’s species, it is apparent that the only ones benefitted are the I.F, the government of this corrupt society. Mazer Rackham reveals how much humans have learned from the buggers, citing gravity manipulation and efficient use of stellar energy (page 270). Annihilating another species who are a tremendous intellectual resource is a detriment to humanity. Furthermore, the bugger’s are revealed to be peaceful. All of Ender’s work ended up not benefiting humanity, but rather benefiting the unethical government by placing them in a stronger position of power now with trained commanders at their will. The entire book heavily centers on justifying many of Ender’s actions and feelings, trying to allow readers to understand and then forgive his crimes.“‘So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.’ ‘If the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you.’”(page 253) General Graff’s reasoning shows the resemblance of the situation to others throughout history.
In an article titled Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, the author Elaine Radford compares the child prodigy and the genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler. Correspondingly, both cases of genocide are caused by the idea that to save our people, we must exterminate the threats of a stranger. This highlights just how malicious the I.F actually is and how the argument of individuals being tools to help the rest survive is just a biased and fraudulent ideology which is comparable to ideas leading to the Holocaust. Just like how Hitler manipulated his followers into thinking they were saving their race from inferior others, Graff manipulated Ender and all the humans into thinking they saved themselves from the buggers. Ultimately, humans are not tools to be used by society, but tools wielded by the powerful under the false justification that their actions are for the greater …show more content…
good. When the command school tricks Ender into genocide of the bugger species for his final evaluation, the question of the morality of such a situation is a prevalent theme in the story. The underlying conflict, however, is if manipulation and trickery of a person is justified as long as the outcome is good. In my opinion, deception of someone into doing something they are opposed to is justified if the result are beneficial and with good intention. After Ender finds out about how he has been tricked, he bursts into an outrage.
“I didn’t want to kill them all! I didn’t want to kill anybody! I’m not a killer! You didn’t want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!(page 297-298)” Ender’s fury underlines his own personal detriments, but when this is weighed against the countless lives that have been saved through these actions, it is clear that this was the most utilitarian choice. Furthermore, Mazer Rackham shows how he was the only one who could eliminate the threat, exclaiming “Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn’t know. We made sure you didn't know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It’s what you were born for.(page 298)” Even at the beginning, it is apparent that Ender’s goal is to save his sister from certain death by the buggers. By eliminating the threat, he has kept what is most important to him safe as well as the rest of
humanity. Another instance of manipulation justified by pure intent is when Valentine is used to encourage Ender back to his studies. “She had talked Ender into going back into his training. And he wouldn’t soon forgive her for that.(page 242)” Valentine's manipulation of Ender to go back to his grueling studies against his will is a congruent situation to the final exam, which would go against Ender’s will but ultimately end up benefitting a greater good. In battle school, trickery is even used by Ender to pull the strings within battle school. As soon as he arrives, he starts by ruining Bernard’s social status with his technological prowess, manipulating others perspective on him. When he is transferred to Salamander army and Bonzo, his captain, forbids him from practicing the game, Ender flips his outlook and he changes his mind. The use of manipulation in this case, although self centered, is morally ok because it is demanded in order to allow Ender to succeed. When the age-old line “do ends justify means” logic is applied to such scenarios we can clearly see that use of manipulation in situations such as the final evaluation and ender’s tricks are justified. Logically, both the intent of the manipulation is good and the outcome is desirable leading to the conclusion that such manipulation is moral. To emphasize, look to the current advertisement environment as an exceptional example of such manipulative strategies. Propaganda used by programs such as weight watchers and anti smoking campaigns uses manipulative persuasion techniques that influence our views immensely but for a good cause. These examples and numerous others highlight how even though manipulation is usually associated with a negative connotation, various times it does more good than it does harm. All in all, it is clear that such actions are justified through their countless benefits to society and its well-being. .
In Orson Scott Card’s novel, Enders Game, at the age of six, Ender is chosen by Colonel Graff and the International Fleet to help save mankind from the buggers. However, through his journey, he experiences manipulation and deception from significant figures that surround his life. This deceit from Colonel Graff, Valentine, and Mazor Rackham is focused on defeating the buggers in the Third Invasion.
Ender did not wish to annihilate bugger species, as he did not like murder in general. He believed killing the buggers were also a crime as to killing people. He believes that there were more to the buggers than what everyone perceived them to be. And since he nearly killed the entire species, he feels like it is his obligation to help find a new location for the buggers to repopulate. Ultimately, the novel is only a little over 300 pages and overall is an easy read. The only issue I had with the novel was the amount of side characters, making it difficult to remember who was who. Finally, I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys fiction novels that pertain to space and defending Earth from a foreign threat.
They wanted Ender to see that it was a game because this would insure that the humans would be victorious over the buggers. Because of this, Ender has suffered a great ordeal of losses in everything such as life, love, family, and friendship. At this point of my explanation, we can clearly see that Ender does suffice enough to be a Christ Figure because he began his journey with a full heart and now he is ending his journey with nothing left but a new world to live in with Valentine, while trying to find a safe place for the Queen Bugger to live. This is his last and most important mission of all. It looks like as if Ender is beginning a whole new journey. Truth be told, Ender is done, but he has that final step to go before he can call out to home and finally live the rest of days free of
Leading up to that he faces enemies and obstacles in the form of bigger kids and the games that he wins thoroughly, to the point where he cannot be beat. He always is one set ahead of whatever is thrown at him. Until Ender finds the Bugger Queen pupa.” Reached into the cavity and took out the cocoon.” (Card 321) Here in this scene Ender is going against what we have come to see as part of who he is. He has the intent to allow the Buggers to rebuild and try to live along side of humans. Normally he destroys something so thoroughly that it can never hurt him or the people he is fighting for again. This is perhaps one of the very best examples of the theme that one’s past does not define them or their
Throughout the Holocaust, the Jews were continuously dehumanized by the Nazis. However, these actions may not have only impacted the Jews, but they may have had the unintended effect of dehumanizing the Nazis as well. What does this say about humanity? Elie Wiesel and Art Spiegelman both acknowledge this commentary in their books, Night and Maus. The authors demonstrate that true dehumanization reveals that the nature of humanity is not quite as structured as one might think.
...ahlquist’s sacrifice highlights Heinlein’s belief, that the same self-sacrificing impulse that Winston had, might facilitate positive social change. Contrastingly, Le Guin highlights the continued anomalies in human morality where society willingly sacrifices its morals to meet selfish needs. Overall, people’s capacity to effect social change is relative to the prevailing social conditions, their ability to impact critical aspects of the prevailing conflict and their capacity to accept self-sacrifice as morally justifiable. Consequently, moral ambiguity prevails.
He is still constantly comparing himself to Peter. In a game Ender played, he had to kill a snake in order to progress which haunts him with thoughts of killing. “‘This game tells filthy lies. I am not like Peter. I don’t have murder in my heart.’ And then a worse fear, that he was the killer, only better at it than Peter ever was.” (Card 115). He is starting to believe that he is not like Peter, however the thought of being no better and maybe even worse than his brother is still in the back of his mind. At this time in the book, Ender seems very opinionated when he compares himself to Peter, and stays that way for quite a while. In chapter eight, Ender is battling a group of boys and ends up hurting them to protect himself. He is later seen questioning why he keeps harming other boys. “I’m doing it again, thought Ender. I’m hurting people again just to save myself. Why don’t they leave me alone, so I don’t have to hurt them.” (Card 115). Now Ender is wondering as to why these people keep attacking him. This causes him to breach his morals and fight back harder so they do not think about coming at him again. Ender’s shame for compromising his morals is starting to turn into
“The only way to end things completely was to hurt him enough that his fear was stronger than his hate (Page 211).” – Andrew “Ender” Wiggin. Fear and the power of fear are very delicate things. If someone has too much fear, it turns to anger. Not enough fear, and they have no respect. The book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is about fear, especially of the unknown, and the controlling power it has.
He uses a combination of Peter’s ruthlessness with Valentine’s compassion. “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” (Card 238). Ender reveals this to Valentine because it is the main reason why he despises himself. Ender first uses his method against Stilson after getting his chip removed. He realizes that with the way Stilson is, the only way to stop him is to cause enough pain to deter retaliation. Learning from his enemies does not only occur on Earth. While being rejected in Salamander Army, Ender studies the good and bad techniques in the battle room. Given that, Ender ultimately beats Bonso once he is in command of his own army. He continues to do this with every person and battle he comes into contact with, making him the best commander at
The pages of history have longed been stained with the works of man written in blood. Wars and conflicts and bloodshed were all too common. But why? What could drive a man to kill another? Many would say it is man’s evil nature, his greed, envy, and wrath. And certainly, they all have a roll in it. But in reality, it is something far less malevolent, at least at first. The sole reason why conflicts grow and spread comes from the individuality that every human cherishes so dearly. This can easily be shown in the story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, in which a society has been created where everyone of talent has been handicapped so they are not better than anyone else, all for the sake of equality. This text will show that Individuality
Life is a valued concept, as are the people and experiences associated with it. However, when one is pushed to the limit of human capacity, they can lose familiarity with the value of their own life. Genocide-- the mass slaughter of a group of people based on their identity-- can have severe effects on the victimized people in a plethora of ways. One can not possibly quantify the grotesque, inhumane treatment witnessed in many genocides. Simultaneously, many victims are vulnerable to their identities being left behind and only their will to survive being left intact. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, recounts his experiences being at the hands of a brutal, systematic killing regime in his award-winning memoir, Night. Wiesel
Steven Pinker implied that, “As long as your ideology identifies the main source of the world's ills as a definable group, it opens the world up to the mass murder of people” (1). Steven Pinker revealed an interesting side to the controversial topic of mass murders and the causes of them. He revealed that as long as people in this world believe that they are better than other due to their race, religion, and everything else that defines a group of people as different from another group of people. People are and have been wrongfully treated differently due to the incompetence of some to realize that everyone is equal. They often believe that they were superior to others because of their physical attributes and beliefs that they had. The Holocaust is a major example of the ignorance of some in history. This ignorance often resulted in the murders and mistreatment of many. Elie Wiesel was one of the six million plus people who were wrongfully mistreated during the Holocaust. Many believe that this sort of event could not occur in the current time period because people have become more civilized and tolerable to the differences of others, but sadly the world is not ready to contain a social utopia. The mass murder, and violence that is occurring in Darfur is one of the many things that shows that the world is far from achieving this social utopia. Throughout history, many occurrences of genocide have occurred due to the diversity of people and even though society has evolved greatly, there are still people and places today that are suffering.
... he commanded his own platoon. Those are phases Ender went through. During one battle he faced, he cheated. Page 218 describes Ender’s men passed through the gate without soldiers before the gate was reversed. He had to cheat because he was exhausted and he needed assistance. Ender was battling two teams at once, never done before at battle school.. Finally every game has a final stage or battle. In Ender’s Game the final battle was against the buggers. Ender fights them on page 297. Ender was actually tricked into fighting them. This point proves how life is a game because games have a final battle/stage and Ender fought in one. Ender as a game piece, cheating and fighting in a final stage/battle prove how life is a game.
We cannot say what any one of us would do in these men’s positions, as Browning makes it perfectly clear, but this book provides insight into how people do lose their humanity as well as their rationality and embodiment in a situation like this (188). One thing we can conclude from Ordinary Men that is certain is, humans are capable of the destruction of other humans and anyone can do it – although, we always have a choice.
Imagine you’re eating dinner with your family on a quiet, normal night in your small town. Suddenly, a seemingly mad man comes to warn your family that millions of people of your race are being slaughtered. He advises that you immediately pack everything you own, and leave the place that has been your home your entire life. You probably wouldn’t take his warning very seriously, would you? Living in the twentieth century it was hard to imagine that such a barbaric act was actually occurring. Not adhering to this warning, however, cost millions of Jews their lives. Night by Elie Wiesel lets us into the minds of the Jews who were victimized, and Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning offers us the point of view of the