Ender's Game 3

In the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, a young boy, Ender, is always lied and cheated to do things the way the commanders that look over him want them to be done. The most devious commander out of the bunch is Colonel Graff. Colonel Graff is always playing mind games with Ender, convincing or even forcing Ender to accomplish impossible assignments, proving that he is worthy to lead the humans to battle.

“I didn't want to kill them all. I didn't want to kill anybody! I'm not a killer! You didn't want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!” He was crying. He was out of control. “Of course we tricked you into it. That's the whole point, “ said Graff. “It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it. It's the bind we were in. We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, understand them and anticipate them. But somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed. Could never go into battle willing to win at all costs.”

This quote is the part where Ender learns that instead of beating a his teacher in a computer simulation, he destroyed the entire Bugger planet. He found out that he had wiped out the whole Bugger race, and that the whole time that he was deploying ships that had actual pilots in them into battle. He felt supremely guilty that he had sacrificed many lives just so he could win a battle. Even thought Ender thinks he is a killer and acts like Peter, he is the opposite. Peter would enjoy killing, but Ender, on the other hand, hates killing. Ender doesn't realize this, and hates himself for being such a bad person. The way that Ender is taking on the news about him killing the Bugger race is the exact opposite of what he thinks of himself. He also doesn't see that by destroying the Bugger race, he had what seemed to be eliminating the change of to Buggers to attack planet Earth.

This quote also shows how deceptive Graff is. Graff lies and cheats Ender just so he could be a strong enough commander to defeat the Buggers. Little did he know that the Buggers didn't even plan on attacking the humans after the Second Invasion. The Buggers were actually peaceful creatures, and every invasion was made by the humans. Graff and all of other commanders lied to Earth about the Buggers being violent and terrorizing, but the invasion by the Buggers was actually just them colonizing. Graff had to keep isolating and challenging Ender so he could be more independent. Even Ender admitted it worked in the book, but these near-impossible tasks destroyed and depressed Ender's life permanently.