Essay Topics
for
Ender’s Game


1. Why does Orson Scott Card use a young boy as the protagonist in a book about a great war between humanity and aliens?

2. How are good and evil addressed in Ender’s Game?

3. What is Card saying about manipulation in Ender’s Game?

4. Compare the way that Ender treats Bean to the way Graff treats Ender. What does this say about the role of leadership or authority?

5. Ender kills two children while only trying to defend himself. What is Card saying about violence?

6. The buggers can communicate instantaneously and they fought human beings because they thought humans were not sentient beings. Is this a statement about war or about communication?

7. The I.F. has control over Ender because they authorized his birth. Does Card seem to imply that governments be allowed to have such control over individuals?

8. Are the characters in Ender’s Game realistic? What features do they share with real people? What features are unique to the book? What does this say about the way people are? What does it say about the way they should be?



Two pages typed or neatly written in blue or black ink with rough draft. This will be due on the day of the final.