Why does Orson Scott Card use a young boy as the protagonist in a book about a great war between humanity and aliens?
I am flying through this book because I really like and one of the things that keeps going through my head is a sympathy for these young children. As I read I find myself forgetting how young Ender is...6 when he goes to Battle school! I mean, six! And then he will remind us or he'll have a birthday and I'll remember how little he really is. I think it is smart and interesting of Card to use children in this novel because I feel like the children represent humanity in it's purest, most vulnerable form. Children are easily molded; easily taught. So, when they get to school, they are manipulated into machines. "Society"--or Battle School--changes them. Wow, I am thinking about a lot of things from Freud class I took at BYU-I, but I'll spare you that drivel on here. Anyway, children from the womb are pure and perfect. Society changes them. I'm not sure I answered the question. Hmm, I'm still thinking.
What do you think?
I am flying through this book because I really like and one of the things that keeps going through my head is a sympathy for these young children. As I read I find myself forgetting how young Ender is...6 when he goes to Battle school! I mean, six! And then he will remind us or he'll have a birthday and I'll remember how little he really is. I think it is smart and interesting of Card to use children in this novel because I feel like the children represent humanity in it's purest, most vulnerable form. Children are easily molded; easily taught. So, when they get to school, they are manipulated into machines. "Society"--or Battle School--changes them. Wow, I am thinking about a lot of things from Freud class I took at BYU-I, but I'll spare you that drivel on here. Anyway, children from the womb are pure and perfect. Society changes them. I'm not sure I answered the question. Hmm, I'm still thinking.
What do you think?
2 comments:
randi, I love that you posted a question. I would totally answer it if I had started reading the book yet. And I would totally start reading the book if I had finished Dracula. I'm getting there!
I'm loving this book! I started yesterday on the plane and I'm already almost half way through it. Here are my thoughts on Randi's question:
The fact that Ender is so young helps the me, the reader, understand just how brilliant the children are. Ender is so quick to look at a situation and know exactly why people are doing certain things and how he can respond to them to get the result he wants. It is extremely impressive, especially knowing that it is going on in the mind of a six year old. I agree with Randi, children can be molded and to use a more negative term, manipulated. I think I'm at the point in the book now where Ender is starting to realize he is being manipulated and I'm curious to see if he will play along, or turn the tables and start manipulating the adults.
Last thought, because Ender is so young, I see him as humble, which makes me like him even more.
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