Tremblaye’s Weblog

“The Battle School is much like a parallel universe where the children are allowed to participate in violence while the adults not only allow it, but also encourage it. These young, impressionable minds are being shaped by men who want power and war– not exactly the proper influences on children as young as six. In fact, the adults in this novel are the polar opposites of what “normal” adults are expected to be”(Anna’s post).

I agree with your points. I also think that these adults are using their powers to shape these young people for their own purpose. The people in power think they are doing it for the greater good but sometimes I question their motives. I feel that they are using them against each other for their sick and twisted games. Ender uses violence to solve his fights with bullies and never gets into to trouble. This is obviously sending messages to Ender saying that solving your own problems with violence is fine. This is exactly the opposite things that my mother taught me while I was growing up. These games are supposed to get the children ready for the battle, but I feel it is just making the kids slowly go crazy. These six year old kids are so little their values and moral codes are still being shaped. I think this is one of the reasons that home is not brought up. The idea of other moral codes could conflict with the new values these crazy old men are instilling in these little soldiers. You can see when the parents are very different from the generals when Ender’s mom prays over him out of love for him and General Graff wants him to feel isolated and moves Ender into commander of the Dragon troop. This shows the parallels between the two worlds of regular earth than the Battle School. In the real world there are many teachers that do not deserve to be called this. There are teachers that belittle children but there are also teachers caught for being inappropriate with students. I think this is the same concept, people believe they are shaping their young kids minds into better individuals but inside are warping the children’s morals and values.