Reading Response #3: Ender's Game

             In the near future, a hostile alien race has invaded Earth. The International Military is actively searching for the commander that could save the Earth from a likely second invasion. Ender Wiggin is recruited to join the force that trains him to be strategically brilliant. Ender and his fellow soldiers determine the fate of the earth.

            In Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, there is a constant debate on whether or not killing the buggers is acceptable. The reason why the buggers attacked the Earth is unclear, but the fact still stands that the buggers attacked first.

            Communication between the buggers comes easily, but it was proved impossible to reach the humans. Without knowing the buggers’ intentions, and not having the means to find out, the humans could not verify whether the buggers were a threat or not. The humans decided it was safer to assume that the attack was a hostile action and so prepared to eliminate the buggers before they were annihilated first.

            Colonel Graff stated,

“When it comes down to it, though, the real decision in inevitable: if one of us has to be destroyed, let’s make sure we’re the ones alive at the end. Our genes won’t let us decide any other way. Nature can’t evolve a species that hasn’t a will to survive. Individuals might be bred to sacrifice themselves, but the race as a whole can never decide to cease to exist. So if we can we’ll kill every last one of the buggers, and if they can they’ll kill every last one of us” (253-254).

 

 

In this quote, we learn that the humans are set on protecting what they care about. Humans will sacrifice anything to protect the rights that they set up for themselves. A species is born with the will to survive, and will not settle for living under the threat of a hostile force.

 

            On the bottom of the movie poster for Ender's Game it states: “the future must be won”. I feel like this summarizes the book in the simplest way. The future is not set in stone, and can be easily shifted in a good way or a bad way. The best type of future must be earned, and that is exactly what the humans decide on when they are forced with the decision of overlooking the invasion or the destruction of their enemies.

            Enders Game is very well put together and thought out. It’s a book that makes a person think about the state of the Earth, and what type of things humans are capable of. I learn something new  every time I read it.