Introduction to Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead describe the maturation of a child from six years old to a robust and intelligent agent of interplanetary democracy. In Ender’s Game, Card illustrates a child named Ender who is raised by the military that unwillingly executes genocide on an entire alien species. In Speaker for the Dead, the sequel, Card continues the theme of leadership as he describes Ender as the assertive, wise intellectual disciple of peace. Orson Scott Card’s Ender is a dynamic character imbued with innocence. He challenges the reader to decide whether Ender’s actions were deliberate or accidental. Ender’s character must be thoroughly examined to understand the structure of this dichotomy. This examination will use the hero monomyth as extrapolated by Leeming (1981). How Card uses the science-fiction form must also be examined because it will provide a critical outlook regarding Ender’s orientation. This critical analysis will argue that Ender was portrayed innocently, even though he had committed genocide against the buggers, a sort of innocent genocide.

Narration in Ender’s Game

What provides Ender’s innocence is Card’s narrator’s power. First, the narrator is omniscient, which gives the reader total intrusiveness. The reader’s position is not only an agent of all-knowing capabilities but is later confronted with the realisation that Ender has exterminated an entire species, making it impossible to consider it a ruthless or innocent attack. In the introduction to Ender’s Game, Card explains that “the novel’s very clarity may make it more challenging, simply because the story’s vision of the world is so relentlessly plain” (Ender’s Game, p. xix). Due to the clarity of the narration, the challenge of coming to terms with an innocent genocide is shocking for the reader and Ender.

The level of interrogation is rooted in the ideological level throughout the narrative structure and arrangement of events. Rose (1981) states that “as a genre, science fiction operates within a basic contradiction in modern culture” (p. 44), and Rose concludes that these contradictions form the basis on which science fiction concerns itself with present reality. Likewise, in his introduction, Card challenges the criticism of a counsellor’s stance against Ender’s Game. He states that “it was important to her, and others, to believe that children do not think or speak the way the children in Ender’s Game think and speak. Nevertheless, I knew–I knew–that this was one of the truest things about Ender’s Game” (pg. xix). As a result, science fiction’s structure adequately conveys science’s current contradictions (Parrinder, p. 25) when he describes Ender as a heroic monomyth.

Ender’s Game follows the age-old tradition of the hero monomyth; through the use of the omniscient narrator, the reader is enveloped in Ender’s struggle to realise his ascension and redemption.

Hero Monomyth applied to Speaker for the Dead and Ender’s Game.

Firstly, in Ender’s Game, Card begins Ender’s journey with an unnatural birth (Leeming, 1981), as though Ender was one of the few lucky enough to survive governmental regulations on child-bearing (i.e. the Third). Ender’s character, through narrative devices, was constructed to receive as much sympathy as possible. Readers find that Ender, even though he knew he was only six years old, made an effort to follow warfare rules, as the narrator comments:

Even though he was only six, Ender knew the unspoken rules of manly warfare. It was forbidden to strike an opponent who lay helpless on the ground; only an animal would do that (Ender’s Game, p. 7).

The narrator already creates a problematic situation for the reader to negotiate between Ender’s innocence as a six-year-old or a child with the mentality of an adult, performing barbaric acts on another individual (Stilson and Bonzo) as a simple defence against “them from taking [Ender] in a pack tomorrow” (Ender’s Game, p. 7). The omniscient narrator plots the coming of an innocent hero.

The Relationship between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead

Secondly, he must pass through several initiations to protect himself against evil (Leeming, 1981). Throughout these initiation processes, the narrative structure attributes a level of innocence and patience in Ender; for example, the narrative sides with Ender, although it is supposed to be omniscient and overall neutral when the narrator states, from the perspective of Ender:

Again a blow to the head. It hurt. Where was Graff? Then it became clear. Graff had deliberately caused it (Ender’s Game, p. 32)

Again, like Stilson’s carcass was discovered by Graff, Ender “had meant to hurt him” (ibid, p. 33). From this particular trial, Graff speaks to the “launchies” in admiration of Ender’s ability to exert force when needed: “I tell you Ender Wiggin is the leader in this launch… do not mess with him” (ibid, p. 34). This strategic narrator presents trials emphasising sympathy for Ender. These relentless attempts to construct an isolated character are made through narrative strategy. This is as if the narrator struggles with the overwhelming explanation of the events that unfold once others violently engage Ender. On the other hand, in Speaker for the Dead, Ender is older, wiser, and able to formulate his responses to conflicting arguments against him. His initiations become challenging to maintain a level of understanding with the church that rules the Lusitania colony and Novinha. The church and Novinha’s interests are sacred. Ender is the agent of initiation, forcing the church to resign its powers against him. Otherwise, he will take measures that endanger their future as a church. In this sense, Ender’s role is heightened significantly by being the Speaker. The narrative structure in Speaker for the Dead does not comment heavily on his actions in Ender’s Game. Instead, it develops Ender’s sympathy in a way revered throughout the Lusitania colony.

The third stage of the hero monomyth is withdrawal from the community (Leeming, 1981). This separation from reality, the only reality Ender has ever known, becomes a turning point of complete sympathy for Ender as he is called upon to save humanity. In hero monomyths, the hero has a choice to depart for the fight against evil and protect humanity; however, the narration is constructed to enforce the deception of Ender because Ender feels as though he has the final decision when in fact, his decisions were calculated responses. Thus, with a pre-determined response to Ender’s decision about going to save the world, Ender did not have much of a choice to become a hero. This decision is of central concern to the hero monomyth because the hero must decide to leave their community in a quest to save their community. Ender then leaves everything that is recognisable and related to him. He even leaves his name—the narrator’s method to describe complete isolation from his origins (family) and Earth. The narration is constructed so that Ender realises his role as commander. Card constructs the narrative organisation through Ender’s first relations with the launchies. The launchies first become an opportunity for Ender to experience community, but the notion of community disintegrates quickly, leaving Ender isolated. When Ender develops relations with the launchies, the sense of community introduces a new isolation layer, which means discontent in his leadership role. Ender, having experienced the same isolation that he was exerting on Bean, states that:

Ender could see resentment growing in how the other soldiers shifted their weight and glanced at each other, avoiding Bean. Why am I doing this? What does this have to do with being an effective commander, making one boy the target of all the others? Just because they did it to me, why should I do it to him? Ender wanted to undo his taunting of the boy and tell the others that the little one needed their help and friendship more than anyone else (Ender’s Game, p. 162-163).

It is clear that his self-awareness is one of the defining aspects that produce and reproduce his isolation, and in this way, he constantly reflects on his duties as a soldier and now as a commander. These characteristics are the defining aspects that separate Ender from his community on Earth and further separate his interaction with his teammates and soldiers. Throughout the novel, the narrative structure creates a patterned representation of Ender as an innocent bystander to genocide. These systematic representations in the narrative structure produce and reproduce the concept of innocence. Similarly, in Speaker for the Dead, Ender is again called to save humanity more diplomatically. However, his separation from society is now a choice. The whole sequel serves to imbue Ender with multiple choices, and one of his choices is to withdraw from the community of Trondheim. The narrative structure is still based on innocence because of Ender’s actions in Ender’s Game. His unwillingness to genocide fractured Ender’s identity with guilt, inevitably creating an innocent bystander of genocide. The narrator states, “They had no idea how deeply the question of Ender’s ancient and how he had answered it in a thousand unsatisfactory ways” (Speaker for the Dead, p. 37).

The following stage of the hero monomyth is the trial and quest (Leeming, 1981). This stage of the hero monomyth cycle develops the necessary skills to conquer the foe. Ender’s trials consist of games on his desk and in the battle room. However, the nature of these two trials is different, as one Game (The Giant’s Drink on his Desk) is used to relieve him of his psychological issues (the mirror with Peter), and the other Game (the Battleroom and his role as commander) is used to facilitate his leadership qualities. When Ender becomes comfortable with his Dragons community, Graff creates difficulties and adjusts the game rules because Ender’s team is getting used to the challenges. In a discussion with one of Graff’s colleagues, his colleague says: “I thought we’d give him two years as commander.” We usually give them a battle every two weeks, starting after three months. This is a little extreme” (Ender’s Game, p. 172), emphasising how badly Graff wants to challenge Ender’s role as commander. When Ender resists Graff’s challenges, Graff disintegrates the Dragon Army. This is the final stage of his complete adolescence. The narrative structure enforces intimate sympathy for Ender, fundamental to establishing his innocent genocide.

Similarly, in Speaker for the Dead, Ender’s trials also deal with psychological issues. His major trials are resolved quickly because of his Speaker status. However, Ender’s trials personally are ridding him of his guilt. One of his trials is his relationship with Jane. Once he has shut off his jewel and lost communication with Jane, he feels she is only his friend in bitter isolation.

The Differences in the Experiences of Death in Both Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead

In his games, Ender experiences several deaths (Leeming, 1981), simulations that absorb his senses. In Ender’s Game, Ender’s deaths are psychological because of the games he plays on his desk. He plays them repeatedly, even though he knows his games are rigged. He intends to win those games. The narrative structure consequently imbues Ender’s understanding capabilities to a new level, which surpasses the creator’s understanding of the Game; perplexed, Graff states, “What matters is that he won the game that could not be won” (Ender’s Game, p. 66). Ender’s Game against the Giant is metaphorically his struggle in the futuristic society he is in. He knows that the teachers have every Game he plays rigged, whether as a member of the Dragon Army or by himself in the virtual games against the Giant. The narrator explains that, in the Game Against the Giant, Ender undergoes the following deaths:

Sometimes his head dissolves. Sometimes he caught on fire. In some cases, he fell in and drowned. At times, he fell in, turned green, and rotted away. It was always ghastly, and the Giant always laughed (Ender’s Game, p. 63).

Even in games, Ender is self-aware of his murderous intentions; he says, “This was supposed to be a game. Not a choice between his grisly death and an even worse murder. I am a murderer, even when I play. Peter would be proud of me” (Ender’s Game, p. 65). In Speaker for the Dead, Ender’s deaths consist of revisions of the past, his relationship with his former crewmembers and how he had come to terms with them. Speaker for the Dead does not consist of many deaths, partly because of Ender’s apotheosis and his journey into transcendence when Ender has reached the end of his experience. However, his innocence is constantly put into place. His loneliness and isolation from Ender’s Game become the distinctive formula for the narrator to utilise to position Ender in the position of the Gods.

In Ender’s Game, Ender’s descent into the underworld is accompanied by his obsession to exceed the Giant’s drink level (Leeming, 1981). His descent is marked by his continuation beyond “The End of the World.” Even though Ender knew he had reached the door to the end of the world, he continued regardless, furthering his descent away from community involvement even more. His immersion in the underworld is so severe that, while reviewing what the end of the world would be like, the narrator states: “As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine ‘just living’ might be. He had never done it in his life. But he wanted to do it anyway” (Ender’s Game, p. 74). In Speaker for the Dead, Ender descends into the underworld. The narrator portrayed Ender’s youth concerning Novinha when she was a child. Novinha constantly experiences neglect, love for her children, and brutal isolation from the entire Lusitania colony. Like Ender, Novinha’s character is perpetuated by guilt. She blames herself for Libo and Pipo’s deaths, which she did not control. Like Ender, she feels responsible, and Ender descends into the underworld through her. The narrator explains that “[Ender] would goto minister to the girl Novinha, for in her brilliance, her isolation, her pain, her guilt, he saw his stolen childhood and the seeds of the pain that lived within him still” (Speaker for the Dead, p. 64). The narrative structure in The Speaker for the Dead is entirely omniscient. This positions Ender in a delicate position of innocence, acknowledging his genocide and unforgivable guilt. He constantly visits the underworld as a sign of sympathy created by the narrator to justify Ender’s unwillingness to commit genocide.

The monomyth’s next stage involves resurrection and rebirth (Leeming, 1981). Mazer Rackham’s doctrine justifies his entire role: “Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it” (Ender’s Game, p. 277). Consequently, when Ender adopts this belief, his role as a leader changes — he develops the ability to influence his entire squadrons and fleets with a precision that Mazer Rackham views as particularly alarming. He feels renewed after his illness as he fights the buggers unwillingly. On the other hand, in Speaker for the Dead, Ender’s resurrection and rebirth consist of his relations with Novinha. Through her, he is resurrected and united with Novinha. They created a series of rules between humans and pigs to save Lusitania. Also, he rebirths because of his heightened position against the church. Naturally, they rely heavily on him to store their data. Furthermore, he returns from the underworld with his speaking. He develops importance throughout the novel, yet the narrator remains in a state of innocence.

The final stages of the hero monomyth are ascension, apotheosis, and atonement (Leeming, 1981). In Ender’s Game, Ender develops his reputation for creating buggers on another planet. The Hive Queen moves through Ender’s mind in a series of uplifting motivations that make Ender realise that his role as a leader has now changed to a position of assistance. His apology to the Hive Queen becomes the rebirth of their species and the ability to allow them to live again, an opportunity for Ender to apologise to the Hive Queen. Portrayed in the same manner as in Ender’s Game, Ender saves the Lusitania colony from imminent danger. This could have arisen from the piggies, the Hive Queen, and the humans. Interestingly, the piggies have also developed a relationship with Ender through his genuine speaker role. The wives respect Ender, and his treaties between the wives and the humans become very coordinated, as they can live together without fencing. Ender finally reaches transcendence once he lays the Hive Queen’s egg and restores order to Lusitania.

Conclusion

Through the hero monomyth stages, Leeming (1981) extrapolated that Ender’s genocide was justified through narrative construction to create sympathy. In Ender’s Game, Ender is depicted as experiencing loneliness, misery, and bullying; the parental authorities and his teachers have equally abandoned him. The narrative structure sympathises with Ender and overshadows the bugger genocide, which the reader sees as a mistake. Using the hero monomyth, Ender is granted apotheosis by the Hive Queen and continues his adventure in Speaker for the Dead. His role changes from a military to a diplomatic perspective, unifying the piggies and the buggers, as well as the humans of Lusitania. Ender can then reconcile the differences between Novinha and her children; he can break down the fence, save Miron from electrocution, and resurrect the Hive Queen. In Speaker for the Dead, Ender romantically apologises for his genocide and defends the Lusitania colony.