What Is Bullying In The Novel Ender's Game?

“Bullying is also not an action flick, it’s a psychodrama. It’s not going to glide naturally toward a happy ending; both perpetrator and victim have deep psychological needs to heap, abuse or absorb it” (Gale Student Resources in Context). This quote is sating that bullying is not based on a hero overcoming physical feats and violence, but it is where the main interest is psychological elements. This ties into the novel because it exhibits the psychological effects of the victim and the psychological issues the bullies have. In the novel, Ender’s Game, a boy named Andrew Wiggin, also known as Ender, is the third child in his family. The government only allows people to have two children but in this case the Wiggin’s first two children, Peter and Valentine, were not qualified to go to battle school. Peter is too vicious and Valentine is too compassionate. The government lets the Wiggin’s have a third child hoping that the third will be a mixture of both Peter and Valentine. Ender qualifies to go to battle school and leaves Earth to go into military training to fight the enemies, the buggers. Throughout the book Ender gets physically and mentally bullied. While Ender is gone, Peter comes up with the idea to dominate the world. When Ender finally went back home, he realized that battle school was not a game. It was a reality. He actually killed people, destroyed ships and a world. Ender was relieved to be home. Valentine goes with Ender into space and Peter ends up in charge and he eventually dominates the world. Ender wins the third invasion, and then helps the buggers find a new home. The novel, Ender’s Game integrates with American history because it shows the presence of bullying in the schoolyard, the workplace, and even in gove...

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... have over you” (Card 60). The same goes for government and military power. The more the American people let the government get away with violating rights, the more they will violate rights.

Bullying is defined as to physically or mentally intimidate one in order to get what the said bully wants. Obviously bullying takes a psychological toll on the victim. But bullying not only exists in the schoolyard and workplace; bullying also takes place through the government. The government intimidates American citizens to get what the government wants. The government would do almost anything, even violate rights. Understanding this will help American citizens stand up for their rights and realize that government is controlling their lives. As Thomas Jefferson said, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government” (Jefferson).