Trickery and Deception in Ender's Game

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Deception can involve being tricked by others, or tricking one's self. In Card's novel, trickery and false promises are parts of both games and deadly conflicts. Discuss the ways that deception is figured in the novel.

Deception-the act of deceiving; state of being deceived; artifice practiced; fraud; double-dealing; to mislead the mind of; to impose on; to delude; fraud; guile; cunning (Webster Dictionary). Deception is universal and serves many purposes. Deception can be used to hurt or protect, depending on the motives of the deceptor. In Orson Scott Card's novel, Ender's Game, deception plays many roles. The main use of deception is the adults versus the children. Early on in the novel it is indicated that Ender already realizes adults lie when the subject of the monitor being removed is discussed. The adults are also deceptive when they remove the monitor and allow Ender to think he was not accepted into the program when in fact they just wanted to see how he would behave without the monitor.

Most of the children know about the web of deceit and the manipulation, including Ender who works around it because of his own beliefs of his own purpose. Although he is needed in the mission to save the world, from Ender's point of view he needs to do this for Valentine. Or is he just tricking himself into thinking this? Ender realizes there is deceit by the IF and teachers. They deceived Ender into thinking that Valentine's letter was sincerely written by her. Ender realizes that he is being deceived and manipulated, his thoughts were, "It isn't the real thing because they made her write it. She's written before and they didn't let any of those letters through. Those might have been real, but this was asked fo...

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... and sister, Peter and Valentine, often reverse these roles and through their intelligence and own manipulative manners, seem to gain control over the adults. Ender, on the other hand, does not wish to exercise influence over anyone and is brutally manipulated by the adults, yet even they are aware of his superior intelligence. There really isn't much difference between the children and the adults in this novel. They are the same, if not more advanced in intelligence. Even with the deceit and manipulation, the commanders know that the children must be taken seriously. They are the ones who are capable of not only killing, manipulating and hating, but also of creating and helping.

Works Cited

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. 1991

New Webster's Dictionary: Expanded Edition. Weston, FL: Paradise Press, Inc. 2003

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