Card, Ender's Game Ch 1-6 -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"Then he settled down to the serious business of designing a security system for his desk, since the safeguards built into the system were obviously inadequate. If a six-year-old could break them down, they were obviously put there as a plaything, not serious security."
At this point in this story, I found it kind of funny that Card points out that Ender is only six years old. He seems so powerful. He always seems to have the upper hand (well, if not the upper hand, then at least equal footing with) his superiors. He knows exactly why Graff praises him in front of the whole class, and he can calculate how he's expected to react in each situation. He seems to know what lesson the adults are trying to teach him before it's even taught. For all his savvy, though, he still gets upset like a six-year-old would if an adult had befriended him and then did something to betray him. It would be hard to believe Ender is a six-year-old except for his emotional dependency. But this is science fiction, so I'm also willing to accept here that a six-year-old can outsmart computer systems and reason out the motives of all of his teachers as well as beat the crap out of people.
Comments (2)
I totally agree with you. It's so hard to believe that Ender is only 6 years old. As a matter of fact, I feel like I totally forgot his age as I was reading.
Posted by Chera Pupi | April 19, 2007 4:43 PM
Posted on April 19, 2007 16:43
Most of the kids are really like that, though. They all have a high intelligence and a low emotional maturity. I thought Card actually did a pretty descent job of portraying these super intelligent children while still keeping their age in the reader's view. I mean, it's certainly hard to believe, but no harder than "buggers" coming to invade the Earth. So I definitely agree with you: it's a little out there, but probably less than most sci-fi.
Posted by HallieGeary | April 19, 2007 6:40 PM
Posted on April 19, 2007 18:40