Ender's Game Analysis

Why should a child that brutally killed a whole race of buggers be considered a morally righteous hero? John Kessel answered this question by writing Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender’s Game, Intention, and Morality, which was published in 2004. In this essay, Kessel states how Orson Scott Card, the author of the novel Ender’s Game, set Ender up as the victim from the very beginning of the story to create sympathy for him, so when Ender commits genocide, we don’t feel like he did anything wrong, even though Ender did, and doesn’t deserve the sympathy. Kessel’s views on Ender’s Game, where Ender shouldn’t be considered a hero and get any sympathy for committing genocide, are similar to my views of the novel, because Ender’s actions speak louder
Ender should feel remorse, even more than the others, because it was his actions that caused the genocide and the deaths of Bonzo and Stilson. Ender’s crimes “weighed heavy on him, the deaths of Stilson and Bonzo no heavier and no lighter than the rest” (309, Ender’s Game). Ender’s feelings about the genocide are a little bit different from the killings of Stilson and Bonzo, with Ender thinking “I killed ten billion buggers, whose queens, at least, were as alive and wise as any man, who had not even launched a third attack against us, and no one thinks to call it a crime (309, Ender’s Game). Ender knows that he has done something wrong of massive proportion by committing genocide on the buggers, but doesn’t understand why nobody is accusing him of any crime. After the genocide, Ender “is appalled, and only becomes more so when he learns that the Buggers had no further designs on Earth and had been attempting to contact him throughout his training” (‘Ender’s Game,’ Genocide, and Moral Culpability). The buggers tapped into Ender’s dreams to try to understand him, which caused Ender to feel even more sad after the genocide. Ender rightfully feels the remorse that he should for his actions and