Kids/Adults Relationship

[rb12345]

I found the contrast between kids and adults in Ender's Game to be one of the most interesting themes. Contrary to most cultures in which adults have all of the influence on children, and rarely the other way around, the main characters in Ender's Game are children in a position of power and influencing adults (e.g. Peter and Valentine dominating the political system by manipulating adults; Ender being the smartest/most powerful human being on the planet as a preteen). On one hand, it was rare and intriguing to read about a world in which children have as much or more power than adults, but at the same time I found a lot of realism in it. In today's tech-savvy society, with internet access and video games, kids are learning and using a higher volume of information at a much earlier age than ever before. Although this doesn't necessarily put children at an advantage over adults, it can often be more difficult for older generations to keep up with the changing world. The younger the generation, the more exposure they have had (and will have throughout life) with the newest technologies and means of intelligence. Therefore, it isn't too farfetched to believe that someday kids will be capable of things we can't even imagine today.

[neo-dragon]

You raise some very good points. Today's youth are truly empowered by technology.

[leex4722]

When I initially began reading this novel, this is the main thing that bothered me and struck me as rather unbelievable. However, as I read more, the idea that geniuses like Ender, Peter, Valentine, and the other kids at the Battle School could exist became more plausible. One frequently hears today of child prodigies who amaze adults when they're young but often don't live up to their promise when they mature into adulthood. With Ender, the instructors at the Battle School had seen genius like his before, but not the drive that he possessed. They were smarter than him for most of his education, and even at the end Mazer Rackham was just as sound a strategist as Ender, but Ender possessed the ability for innovation coupled with his genius intellect that made him a commander that no one could match. One thing I wasn't clear on though was whether or not the government was breeding these genius children since it seemed to me that Ender was allowed to be born as a third because the government knew he would possess a genius intellect like his siblings, but they hoped he would have the leadership abilities to make a great commander that Peter and Valentine didn't have. Regardless, set this far in the future and with so much at stake, it seems to be entirely within the realm of human possibility that children leaders could exist, since what was needed most was not their genius but their ability to innovate to meet new challenges that the older generations lacked.