Tremblaye’s Weblog

The second section of the book “Ender’s Game” gave a lot more informantion about the world that is the Battle school. Through out the entire novel, the reader is always reminded that Ender and his fellow launchies are only six years old. Also that the “older” boys are only ten or twelve. This brings up the point that these young boys are not living regular, or what is considered in today’s society,childhoods. Then what is a regular childhood? I know that living in a school that teaches killing and violence at the young age of six is not regular but what is? The men in charge even forget that these boys are this young. When General Graff and Anderson talk about moving Ender to the Salamander army they have this conversation. “‘I suppose you’ll move him now.’ ‘We were waiting to see how he handled the thing with Bernard. He handled it perfectly.’ ‘So as soon as he can cope with a situation, you move him to one he can’t cope with. Doesn’t he get a rest?’ ‘He’ll have a month or two, maybe three, with his launch group. That’s really quite a long time in a child’s life.’ Does it ever seem to you that these boys aren’t children? I look at what they do, the way they walk, and they don’t seem like little kids” (66). This brings up that these little children are being treated like adults because the men in command even forget that they are still children. The laguage in the passage that i thought supported this was when the general says he will be fine because a few months is ” a long time in a child’s life” (66). This is a little ironic because he is saying that two months are enough time with the other launch kids but then why not move all the children when they are ready? The standard is to move children up at eight but aren’t other children ready before that?
I think this passage really made me worry about the fate of many of the characters. If the men in charge have a hard time remebering these little chidlren are little children then they will treat them like adults. These children are not getting play time like children should get. These kids are playing war games and video games that they have to kill in. I think the author put this passage in the book to stress that these little “warriors” were not being treated as children anymore. I think that book has many of the same opinions that i feel, that these poor children are not having a childhood and there will be serious consequencse in their mental state. The children are absorbed by this game and this becomes their lives.