A Theme Of Maturity In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card
“Maturity. It doesn’t always come with age, infact its deeper than age. It's about the way you see and understand things. The way you consider others. The way you communicate. The way you react. The things you value. The things you entertain. The way you represent yourself and others as an adult. Everyone grows old, but not everyone is growing up” (Wild Women Sisterhood). One of the major themes in Ender's Game was “Maturity doesn't necessarily depend on age it is reached through experience.” In the novel Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, Ender Wiggin is a Battle School student who obtained maturity at a young age because of the situation and complications he experienced and the challenges he conquer. He is constantly learning each and every day and in the end he finds himself as an older man who is trapped in some child's body. Ender Wiggins is a genius and brilliant child. By the age of nine, he is given his own army to commander. Wherever he goes, he always makes things happen.
Ender does not wish to harm anyone, yet when he confronted with a group of students led by the bully Stilson, Ender knew what he had to do. At age six Ender beats Stilson to death, not intentionally though. Ender can be a killer like his brother Peter, who is really ruthlessness and has no compassion like him and Valentine who is Ender’s older sister and will do anything to protect him. Moreover, Ender hates himself for that quality of Peter he has. There are other people that put him in situations where his negative face emerges, but Ender always wishes for situation and problems to be resolved without violence. In Chapter thirteen Ender was telling Valentine, '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'. Ender loving his enemy, then destroying his enemy is always going to be very painful. This is part of the reason why Ender seems like a sad little child in this book. He has this innocence and dignity that doesn’t fear him to be himself and part of himself is loving his enemy. Enders enemy in this novel is, Graff, Anderson, and Rackham. They are undoubtedly his friends but appear to be his enemy as forced so. The only and biggest enemy that Ender truly fears, are the buggers and they appear to be friendly at the end. Therefore, a possible hold-back for maturity is by your enemies and friends. Card repetitively proves that enemies and friends are not that distinct.
Although Ender the protagonist of the novel shows the obvious development of maturity, he isn’t the only one to act this way. Another character that was outstanding and who seems to already be grown up is Peter. As soon as the author introduced Peter, it is evident that he is a very aggressive and violent character. As the reader keeps reading throughout the book, one thing that the reader realizes is even though Peter is technically a child, he shows no aspects of being childish. He also seemed to have developed his personality, which isn’t something that is common in a child. Peter’s cruel actions are not impulsive, either, like a troubled child may be. For example, when Peter makes Ender play “ buggers and astronauts” with him, he kneels on Ender’s torso, making it hard for him to breath. “I could kill you like this,’Peter whispered. ‘Just press and press until you’re dead. And I could say that I didn't know it would hurt you, that we were just playing, and they’d believe me, and everything would be fine. And you’d be dead. Everything would be fine”. Everything he does is very persistent, organized, planned out, and he is fully aware of what he is doing. His character is shown to be smarter than the average adult in every way except age. This demonstrates the idea that maturity doesn’t rely solely on age for development. Thus, Maturity is constantly being represented as something that is figurative rather than literal, because the most mature people in the book are the children.
Lastly, the greatest impact that maturity has handled well for Ender Wiggins is isolation. Isolation forces him to develop in many different ways. To begin with, when Stilson and group of friends confront Ender, who is isolated, all alone and did not know anyone to call for help, Ender is forced turning to brutal actions. When Colonel Graff asks why Ender barbarously beat Stilson even after he was lying still, Ender responds, “Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they’d leave me alone”. This could be understood of the impact that isolation has on Ender, and the strategy he uses on Stilsion will not be the only time it is used. Another reason is, separation from valentine and his parents. The biggest impact anyone can get is being separated by someone that is loved. As said before, Ender is the closest to Valentine, the only person he shares everything with, the only person he can trust, and the only person that loved him more than anyone. In addition, here's a quote that sums up the plot overall and how part of Enders maturity level makes isolation impact him in a good way. “You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. Staying yourself is part of the battle” (Julian Seifter).
To summarize, Ender Wiggins is a smart and brilliant young child, who is constantly learning each and every day, facing his enemies through bravery and intelligence, and repetitively proves that enemies and friends are not that distinct. As mentioned, Maturity is constantly being represented as something that is figurative rather than literal, because the most mature people in the book are the children. In conclusion, “Maturity does not necessarily depend on age; it is reached through experience”, which has been covered throughout this essay.
