Ender's Game Free Will Essay

Fate determines our lives. All species on Earth are set on a path towards an end goal from their first breaths. In the novel, Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card attempts to convey the reality of how every person’s fate is predetermined from the beginning. This idea is showcased through the experiences of a young character, referred to as Ender Wiggins, who is the third child of the family with one sister, Valentine, and one brother, Peter. He is used by the adults to become a soldier at a remote facility called Battle School to save the human race from the buggers. Ender is faced with many social challenges since most older students often pick on him as they envy his talents and skills. Ender gets rapidly moved up the ranks by the officials to

This novel reveals the non-existence of free will by showing how as a result of the adults, children are separated from their childhood desires, their true personality is oppressed and their path of life is significantly altered.

Through this novel, Orson Scott Card evinces the reality of how children are no longer in control of how they choose to live their childhoods. This is proven when Ender argues with Colonel Graff, “Colonel Graff, I just want to go back and swim in the lake...We’ll keep you under armed guard at all times. The military knows how to handle these things” (293). It is clear that the ones in charge do not care about how children want to spend their time and their only priority is doing the action that benefits them the most. Even when Ender’s duty is done, he would still not be free to do what he desires and his every move would be noted by armed guards. Ender has been so greatly isolated from the ordinary society that he cannot think of anything else to do on his spare time. This is seen when the author writes, “Then he went into the simulator room for practice. Even though he was free, he could not think of anything else to do” (332). Since he has never been an ordinary child and has never been allowed to explore on his own to figure

The I.F. Selective Service chooses Ender’s destiny without even letting him pursue his interests. When Colonel Graff comes to take Ender to Battle School, he states, “Of course we already have your consent, granted in time of writing at the time conception was confirmed, or he could not have been born. He has been ours from then” (50). This further enhances the idea of how it is known that Ender is going to become a soldier and save the planet from the buggers if he qualifies. The level of manipulation from the adults towards the children is at such a great degree that even Ender with his young age is able to recognize what they have done to him. When he is no longer eager to continue, the author expresses Ender’s emotions, “This was part of their manipulation. And the despair filled him again. Now he knew why… He had no control over his own life. They ran everything” (187). His entire days are structured by the commanders. He is never able to think of what he wants to do and pursue. When the I.F. believed that Ender should become a commander, he is never consulted on whether this would interest him. While he is fighting against the buggers, he believes that it is solely another game to challenge his strategies. After Ender is victorious against them, he voices his emotions,