Humanity And Inhumanity In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

Humanity and Inhumanity in Ender’s Game

Nelson Mandela once said, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity. Mandela brings up the important concepts of humanity and inhumanity when he states this. These concepts are reviewed in depth when Orson Scott Card shows how people change under inhumane conditions in his book Ender’s game. People may become hostile, silent, paranoid, submissive, standoffish, or a wide range of other traits. Or they can be influenced (by their superiors, friends, family, etc.) to change for the better, becoming more intelligent or more powerful in other ways in order to accelerate the advancement of mankind. This happens in Card’s book, Ender’s Game, when Andrew Wiggin (“Ender”) the

Firstly, People who give up personal goals to become tools that benefit the rest of mankind are often manipulated, mistreated, or subject to inhumane conditions, which violates their sense of humanity. Graff spoke to Ender when he was entering the battle school about the nature of humanity and the sacrifices people have to make to benefit humanity. He explains to Ender, “Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me - to find out what you’re good for. We both might do desperate things, Ender, but if humankind survives, then we were good tools” (Card 26). Graff explains how he and Ender are both tools because humanity needs them to advance. Thus, they gave up their freedom to work for the benefit of mankind. However, giving up one’s own freedom is ultimately subjecting oneself to inhumanity. Because freedom is a key component of being humane, the absence of freedom is therefore an inhumane condition. More evidence of this is found on page 194, when Mazer speaks to Ender about