Bantol,
Ken
Pessin
English
114A
March
7, 2012
I killed a man, thus I am a man
It is a proud
moment for a father when he realizes that his son has finally become a man.
Throughout history, society has witnessed billions of boys prove that they have
reached manhood. Some prove manhood when they grow their first facial hair,
others prove it when they introduce their first girlfriend, and others prove it
by graduating from high school. But during the 1950s through the 1970s, manhood
was proven in a much more excruciating way. Boys had to show bravery by going
to war and protect their nation from the communists. Many lives were lost and
many families back home grieved for the loss of their sons and a few daughters.
In 1977, Orson Scott Card wrote a novel entitled “Ender’s Game” about a little boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who
was chosen to enter battle school and leave his family at a young age of six
(6). In battle school, he was to learn how to defeat the invading aliens, The
Formics, by using physical and intellectual power. In the novel, Ender learned
techniques and tactics on how to violently kill another race using weapons
provided to him by the government. His brother, Peter, was not chosen by the
government to enter battle school, thus forcing him to stay behind on Earth
leading him to create a conspiracy movement and become the ruler of Earth.
Their sister, Valentine, was also left behind on Earth and helped Peter with
his plan of world domination. Although the lives of these three kids,
especially Ender, are not exactly similar to the lives of the young soldiers
that were drafted or helped to fight for the country in the Vietnam War, the
similar concept of government creating the innocent killer to stop “Charlie”
and prove their manliness to society is present in both situations. Orson Scott
Card’s “Ender’s: Trilogy” portrays
the same situation that every person involved during the Vietnam War was in.
Andrew
“Ender” Wiggin
Ender is the
main protagonist of the story. He is a “third” child meaning he is a rare child
in a time when a family is only allowed two (2) children. While an infant, the
child is injected a monitoring device which allows the government access to
their minds and surroundings. This allows the government to monitor outstanding
children who deem fit as honorary soldiers for humanity. Ender turns six (6)
and his monitor is taken off meaning he is now allowed to live a normal life just
like his brother, Peter, and his sister, Valentine. But everything changes when
Ender badly beats up a bully to prevent future harm from the other kids. The
International Fleet Commander, Hyrum Graff, hears of what Ender has done and
examines how it happened. He meets Ender at the Wiggin’s household and asks him
to explain his actions. Graff is impressed by Ender’s response and is
astonished by his logic. He invites Ender to enter battle school but also tells
him of the consequences he must understand if he does commit. These
consequences include Ender, not being able to see his family for at least 6
years, and not being able to communicate with them. Graff also warns Ender of
the grueling preparations that students go through in the school. Ender, even after
hearing the changes he must make in his life, agrees and enters the school
right away.
Ender entering the battle school is similar to how the
young men who were in the Vietnam War reacted to being drafted. Although they
knew of the harsh consequences of entering the war such as losing their lives
and not being able to see their families, they still agreed with the reasoning
that they were going to save the nation from the communists. The mentality they
had of saving billions of people drove them to reckless abandonment of
reasoning which lead them to disregard of their lives.
Another reason and possibly the most important reason of
why Ender joined Graff’s Army was because of his sister, Valentine. Valentine
is the only person, before entering battle school, who Ender had a deep connection
with. She was the only one he could talk to with his problems and both cared
deeply for each other. When Graff used Valentine as an example of someone The
Formics would kill if they do successfully invade the Earth, Ender was
imprinted a dark image in his mind of losing the most important person in his
life. This image haunted him and was used as his sole purpose for keeping on
with the training even though he was tired and felt nostalgia every day and
night in battle school. He did not want anyone, especially Valentine, to die at
the hands of The Formics so he promised to himself that he was going to be the
best leader in the history of the International Fleet and destroy the entire
Formic race.
Most of the surviving soldiers from the Vietnam War
explained that the reason why they joined the war was to save their loved ones
such as their moms, sisters, and girlfriends. Scott Orson Card successfully
used Valentine as Ender’s main purpose of continuing the training just like how
the soldiers wanted to keep their female loved ones safe back at home.
The
Battle School Students
Unlike Ender,
almost everyone in the Battle School were recruited after showing excellence
through the monitoring devices. The monitoring devices showed how they reacted
to situations similar to the situations people experience in the race war. The
government examines their logical approach to certain events and how their
knowledge allows them to act with others. If the government felt that they were
capable of being officers in the International Fleet Army or decent enough to
physically and intellectually fight against another race, they were recruited
into the fleet and trained their whole childhood to fight The Formics.
Similar to the Vietnam War, the battle school recruits in
the novel were portrayed by Orson Scott Card as the soldiers of the war. The
soldiers, like the recruits, were drafted by the government to prepare for war.
Without their full consent, they were recruited to train and learn skills that
will help them destroy the enemy or “kill Charlie”.
The Battle School was also located outside of Earth
meaning they trained in a surrounding they were not familiar with. The gravity
was changed meaning they had to adapt to new ways of moving and changes that
the school forced on to them. Aside from the strict rules and regulations the
students were to follow, they also had to cope with their emotions. Leaving
their families and loved ones caused them sadness and loneliness. This emotion
is very hard to do as a young man in a new environment. They were in the
battlefield in a country thousands of miles away from home under a weather they
were not immune to. The tall grasses, muddy ground, exotic plants and animals
that they did not know were harmful to them, caused many to die without a
bullet touching their bodies. This is similar to how the new recruits in the
battle school did not know how to protect themselves in the battle room because
they did not know how to use the environment they were in. The force field that
allowed them to bounce off walls were similar to the tall grass. At first, the
soldiers did not know how to use the grasses to their advantage and were
constantly seen by the enemy. The force of gravity inside the battle room was
also a disadvantage for the students at first because they did not know how to
control their bodies and aim for the enemy. Much like the gravity, the soldiers
in the Vietnam War experienced months of continuous raining and sudden change
of weather into sunny weather. This unfamiliarity to a bipolar weather caused
most of them to get sick and prevented them from fighting at full capabilities.
This led to the deaths of many soldiers due to diseases. Some died from being
caught off guard by the enemy because they were not at full power and were not
aware of the situation.
Orson Scott Card portrays many of the people involved in
the Vietnam War in his “Ender’s: Trilogy” novels. The soldiers in the war and
the students were exposed to a new environment, were overwhelmed emotionally,
and were having troubles with all the disadvantages and obstacles they
experienced in the beginning of their respective trainings.
Peter
and Valentine
Those who were
not chosen to participate in the International Fleet Army stayed behind with
their families on Earth. Two prime examples of these types of individuals in
the novel are Peter and Valentine, Ender’s older siblings. Unlike Ender, they
were not deemed fit to become officers of a battalion thus keeping them
grounded on Earth.
These characters are similar to those who were not
drafted in the Vietnam War. Instead, they stayed behind on Earth and continued
their normal life of schooling and/or going to work. Their lifestyles were not
changed and were allowed to grow up and choose their own paths. Unlike their
peers who were in the war, these people did not have to worry about their lives
being endangered.
Although
they were kept away from action, this did not keep Peter and Valentine still
and away from the war. They began writing papers that focused on the
government, giving the people of Earth insights on the ongoing war in outer
space. They became social activists and conveyed a different approach about the
war to the people. Peter’s main purpose of doing this was to gain fame and
power to rise on top of the government and rule the world.
The
Hive Queen
The Formic race
is from a different planet that began terrorizing Earth when the human race started
to explore outer space. They are controlled by the Hive Queen, the central consciousness and physical embodiment of
the group mind of the Formics. During the
Third Invasion, it became evident to the Buggers that they could not survive
the war with the humans. In order to prevent their total destruction, The
Formics prepared a location on one of their colonies for the Hive Queen to be
left dormant as a cocoon. Using a telepathic method of communication,
the Hive Queen accessed the memories of Ender Wiggin, to better
understand him. Using what they learned, the Formics made the landscape on one
of their colonies close to Earth to look like that of Ender's most powerful
memory, Fairyland. Arriving as a colonist to that world, Ender
eventually discovers the Hive Queen and takes her with him while exploring
other colonies.
The Hive Queen can be portrayed as
the known enemy of the U.S., “Charlie”. Although such mind controlling power
was not used during the Vietnam War, Charie was a very smart enemy. Vietnam was
able to gather information from spies and just like the Hive Queen, lured their
enemies into their own game in their own territory. The U.S., just like Ender,
was confused and was not in its right state of mind because of the smart
tactics of the enemy.
The Battle School
The training facility that Ender went to learn combat is
similar to the training camps and bases that the United States had for their
overwhelming new recruits during the Vietnam War. The Battle School provided
shelter, food, clothing, and education. Just like the training camps and bases
during the Vietnam War, there were many facilities that provided the same
amount of great things for the drafted soldiers because of the challenges they
knew the young soldiers were going to face.
Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” portrays the Vietnam War by
basing his setting, characters, and events on the soldiers and the key settings
of the war. From the unknown place of battle, to the young soldiers who fought
for something they were unsure of, and the enemies who used smart tactics to
fight, “Ender’s Game” shows how the war played out. Both the Vietnam War and
Ender’s Game show perfect examples of the concept, “creating an innocent killer”.
Work Cited
Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. United States :
Tor Books, 1977. Print.
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