Must Read "Ender's Game"

 

The novel Ender’s Game , by  Orson Scott Card, should be a must-read book. This is because  it teaches the reader important life lessons about power, challenges the reader’s beliefs and morals, and undertakes controversial themes.  

     Challenges to the reader’s beliefs are shown in Ender’s view point on what an enemy is. Ender explains to his sister, Valentine, why he is beginning to hate himself. He tells her that before he destroys his enemy, he loves him. He tells her that he is distressed because he keeps destroying the ones he loves. He says, "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… And in that very moment I love them…I destroy them” (Card127.)   Ender states that in in the instance you defeat your enemy, you establish a relationship with them. According to Ender, he begins to “love” his adversaries. He does this by learning enough about them as a whole being, their “want[s]”and their “[beliefs]”. We see him do this in the way he tirelessly strives to exceed in Battle School and Command School. When Ender is faced with enemies in simulations, he overcomes them. By doing so, he instills a relationship you can only form with a loved one, showing that to truly have an enemy, you must love them. The word “enemy” takes a whole new meaning due to this quote, and one’s beliefs are called into question. People generally view enemies as one that you can’t establish a relationship with or one that you are at odds with, not one that you connect with. However, according to Ender, his adversaries are the ones he loves the closest.