Violence In Ender'S Game
In the book, Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card and the movie, there is a lot of violence and harassment. This violence seems to be brought on by older figures, like the adults. The forcefulness transfers from the adults over to the children, so that they possess the violence. The violence and disturbed traits run with the military as well. Somehow, this world was able to get a really unstable soldiery. The children in this story go through really intense violence. The book and the movie seem to have a lot in common. There’s only a few differences because this theme runs throughout both of the slightly changed stories.
The government, along with the International Fleet (IF), harasses everyone. This military system makes these little kids train at a very early age. For example, in the book, Ender goes to the battle school when he is only six years old. In the movie he is 12, but he is still a kid. They put all of the children in charge of the fate of the human race, knowing easily, they could die. These kids that are put into the military are denied a natural, regular childhood.
The government had the Wiggins have another child, called a “third”, (which is illegal) because the ones before Ender weren’t good enough. This made it really hard for the parents because they would stand out in the community. Ever since Ender was little, he was called weird because he was a “third”. He also had a monitor put in his neck to watch him constantly. When they took the monitor out, Ender was venerable to the bullies. In the book and the movie, Ender defends himself by killing Stilston. The I. F. also makes Ender’s environment so that he can’t make any friends. He is isolated in order to learn. This messes with his mental health because they are breaking him down, making him numb to compassion. The book explained how, in command school, Ender couldn’t even see his previous friends. In the movie, he was able to work with them while fighting. Ender doesn’t have any free will. They make him believe that he is only playing a game, but he is instead committing genocide by killing the whole colony of the “Buggers”. The government had a huge role of harassing kids, adults, and a whole other colony.
Adults in Ender’s game exploited the children and made them do the unusual. In the beginning, Colonel Graff convinces Ender to leave his family and all he has really ever known. He doesn’t truly have a choice because this is was he was born to do. In other words, he is their property. In chapter three is says, “I know you, Ender. I've been watching the monitor disks for some time. You won't miss your mother and father, not much, not for long. And they won't miss you long, either. ” In the movie Graff talks to Ender, but he doesn’t really talk about his parents. Thousands of miles away from home, Ender is abused by the adults and commanders at battle school. When he first gets there, Graff singles out Ender by saying that he is the best, and he is better than everyone else. He says this in both the movie and the book around the same time. This makes everyone in his launchie group hate him. One boy named Bernard, who disliked him, kept messing with Ender to the point that Ender fought and broke his arm. The adults put Ender with older kids and armies, so he gets bullied because of his age. No matter where he goes, his bunk mates bully him constantly.
The people Ender hurt are the cruelest. For example, with Bonzo, Bernard, and Peter, the adults caused Ender to fight them. Since the adults want Ender, Peter gets jealous. Multiple times in the book and the movie, it states how Peter wants to kill Ender. Throughout the book and the movie, the adults are toxic and make children bully and fight.
During the course of this story, children are put through very violent situations. For example, the battle school that Ender goes to, trains pre-adolescent kids. Their ages go from 6-17 while they’re in battle school. This is all brought on by older figures. The children are put into a fighting ring to train to “fight” the Buggers. In the book and the movie, there are very similar battles they go through. All of which contain floating around in a no gravity zone and shooting each other to make everyone ‘frozen’. This act is very violent because the children cannot control where they go when they’re frozen. Another example is the video games they play. The kids are encouraged to play on their desks (which are kind of like laptops). These desks only have violent games. Ender plays with the giant drink game. In this game he has to choose one of two drinks in order to go on to Fairyland. Here is where the violence comes in. If you drink either of the drinks you die.
The only thing you can do is kill the giant. If little kids the age of six are playing this, then they will grow up to have very violent personas. At the end of chapter six, the book states, “He hadn’t meant to kill the Giant. This was supposed to be a game. Not a choice between his own grisly death and an even worse murder. I’m a murderer, even when I play. Peter would be proud of me. ” This school changes children, and it makes them do very violent and cruel things.
In conclusion, the book, Ender’s Game, and the movie are very similar when it comes to the violence held inside of the story. Kids made for destroying a whole species of aliens is very cruel, and the adults make it happen. This story goes through the messed up mind of a child that was corrupted, yet he could have had a regular childhood if adults wouldn’t have intervened. Ender’s Game is very strong in violence and it shows in the book, and in the movie.
