Summary: “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card is often hailed as a great science fiction book, but the reviewer finds it disturbing rather than uplifting. The story follows Ender Wiggin, a gifted child who becomes a violent leader in a war against aliens, ultimately committing genocide. The reviewer interprets the book as a cautionary tale about how a violent world shapes children into violent individuals, with Ender later seeking redemption for his actions.
The thesis, then, is that children are a blank canvas — that a violent world makes them into violent people. As soon as Ender is mature enough to realize who the world has made him, he chooses to be someone else. (View Highlight)