These poor children. What is it about people that we find fascination in ruining the innocence of children? Frankly, these kids were messed up. Ender seems to have depression or PTSD as a result of situations that adults forced him into. Adults are meant to protect children in society, as shown by Ender himself when he continues to expects adults to step in and save him in the beginning. However, these adults don’t do so in order to save the world. Objectively, a few children’s innocence seems to be a small price to pay to save the world, but was it even worth it in the end when we discover that the buggers were not a threat anymore? The humans adults were more of a danger to Ender than the buggers.

I don’t mean to be condescending, but are children even capable of thinking at the level that Ender and his toon leaders did? Can children be taught to think like adults so quickly over a couple of years? Throughout the book, every time I received a reminder of what age the children were, I was hit with disbelief. It seemed that they developed much too quickly to be strategizing and carrying out combat the way they did. Or is this simply what happens when children are only taught military tactics instead of arts and crafts and basic math?

I can’t help but wonder how different the book would be if Ender was closer to our age when he started training. Couldn’t he have created the same results? I don’t understand why he had to be so young. Maybe I’m just underestimating the potential of children because our society teaches us that children are meant to be protected because they don’t know how to think for themselves.