Speaker for the Dead

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1986

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Themes

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Empathy

Throughout Speaker for the Dead and the other books in the Ender’s series, Ender seeks to atone for his accidental genocide against the formics by cultivating empathy for cultures that others regard as irreconcilably alien. The importance of cross-cultural empathy is portrayed through the complex relationships between humans and other sentient species they encounter—the formics, pequeninos, and Jane—and it demonstrates that while humans are naturally judgmental, they can overcome their biases by deliberately seeking to understand other groups.

The formics were the first intelligent alien species that humans encountered, and humans nearly destroyed them because they could not communicate with the foreign species. Formics are biologically different than humans; one hive queen provides the consciousness for thousands of drones, and they communicate through the philotic system in a process that can be likened to telepathy. These biological differences led to the xenocide during the Bugger War, for which Ender blames himself. Ender feels that the only way he can atone is to care for the last hive queen’s cocoon and restore her population, but first he has to create the conditions in which killing formics in the future would be deemed unethical. He does this by writing The Hive Queen and the Hegemon, a book so popular and influential that it changes the way humans think about formics. Now that the species can communicate and understand each other, they can interact ethically.

Similarly, the pequeninos are different from humans. On the surface, pequeninos appear to be pig-like humanoid organisms, but biologically they are radically different from either pigs or humans, as pequenino lifecycles occur in multiple stages, including a plant stage. While their technology is primitive compared to human technology, pequeninos are as intelligent as humans. Their intelligence combined with the interaction limitations placed by Congress creates an ethical dilemma: on one hand, it can be argued that it is unethical to contaminate another species’ culture, but on the other hand, it can be viewed as unethical not to share knowledge that could help another species’ development. While Congress represents the first interpretation, Card emphasizes the latter, suggesting that knowledge should be shared. This is further supported by the fact that humans learned starflight from studying the formics’ technology. Jane, having witnessed how humans treat alien species, refuses to reveal herself to humanity. However, she knows Ender and has seen that humans can overcome their biases and live peaceably with a diverse population.

Pipo and Libo die from a lack of cross-cultural understanding. According to Pequenino tradition, they are expected to kill Leaf-eater and Mandachuva and plant their organs, thus ushering them into the third life. Not understanding this, Pipo and Libo refuse to participate in what they see as murder, forfeiting their own lives instead. Because the pequeninos at this point in the narrative also fail to understand that there is no third life for humans, the result is a tragedy that could have been avoided if the two cultures had known more about each other.

Ender’s treaty with the pequeninos demonstrates the value of cross-cultural empathy. Humans have never met the pequenino wives, and Ender has only recently met the pequeninos, but Ender does not need to know the pequeninos well to respect them. He understands that each species is unique and that no one species is superior to another. He also argues that the species must compromise equally: “[W]e’ll ask them to change enough that we can live with them, and no more. We’ll change ourselves only enough that they can bear to live with us” (239). The treaty is the first step in multiple sentient species sharing a planet, again showing that humans can overcome their biases.

The Need for Truth and Reconciliation

Truth and reconciliation are shown throughout the novel as necessary for the healing of old wounds. Some characters, like Novinha and Ender, surround themselves with lies to keep themselves safe, while others, like Ela, search for the truth, understanding that it may bring pain but that the pain of truth is more bearable than the pain of lies.

Novinha and Ender are characterized similarly in that they blame themselves for deaths and they lie to keep themselves or others safe. Novinha keeps her Descolada research secret to keep Libo, and later Miro, safe from being killed by the pequeninos. She lies about the paternity of her children to protect herself and her children from the harsh judgment of their conservative community. While she has good intentions, her secrets cause trauma: The children must endure Marcão’s abuse, and Miro and Ouanda unwittingly enter an incestuous courtship.

Ender’s characterization is ironic: As a speaker, his role is to disseminate truth; however, he is not truthful himself. He is dishonest when he asks Olhado to help him learn how to use the terminals so that he can break into Novinha’s files, he hides his identities, and he does not tell the pequeninos the full truth before asking if they consent to hiding the ansible connection and shutting off the fence. The different portrayals of Novinha and Ender demonstrate the complicated nature of truth. In many of these instances, telling the truth would have led to severe consequences or even death—for instance, Ender the Xenocide is so hated that, if Ender were to expose his identity, he would be hated, ostracized, and perhaps even killed.

While the truth is dangerous at times, it is also necessary, particularly for reconciliation. With time, the truth can become less painful and damaging than lies or secrets. This notion is represented first through the concept of speaking for the dead. Typically, Ender speaks years or even decades after an individual dies, when emotions are less raw and new revelations are likely to meet less hostility. However, he speaks Marcão’s death only weeks after Marcão dies. Though this makes the truth more painful initially, the Ribeira family benefits from the knowledge Ender offers. During the speaking, Ender emphasizes the pain that the community has caused the Ribeiras, and in doing so he encourages the Lusitanians to stop ostracizing Novinha, who, as a xenobiologist, is objectively one of the most important humans on the planet. The pequeninos also benefit from the truth. In Ender’s research for Marcão’s speaking, he discovers critical details, including those regarding the third life, which helps to reconcile the human and pequenino species, allowing them to band together and help one another. Truth and reconciliation, Card demonstrates, are essential for understanding, tolerance, and love, which in turn are imperative for peace.

Authority and Rebellion

At numerous points in Speaker for the Dead, characters have to choose whether to obey authority or follow their own moral judgment. In choosing to defy authority, Ender, Novinha, and others place themselves in jeopardy, but they do so for the benefit of the whole community.

The xenologers’ of Lusitania put themselves at odds with the Starways Congress by engaging in what they term “Questionable Activities,”—actions that violate the strict code of ethics imposed on xenologers by the interstellar government. This rebellion is motivated by a sincere desire to help the pequeninos. By sharing human technologies, the xenologers enable the pequeninos to survive. Libo gave the pequeninos amaranth and taught them how to farm it when the pequeninos did not have enough food, and Miro and Ouanda taught them how to eat roots, make and use bows and arrows, and process cabra milk into products like butter. The xenologers defy authority because they do not fully agree with Starways Congress’s demands of minimal interaction and because they have grown emotionally close to the pequeninos. They defy authority in order to help their friends survive and thrive.

Ender’s early experience in the Bugger Wars (the subject of Ender’s Game) taught him that those in power are capable of monstrous behavior and that unquestioningly following authority can lead to terrible consequences. That early lesson serves him well in the complex moral and political terrain he encounters on Lusitania. Ender supports the Questionable Activities of the xenologers, but he offers a slightly different perspective. He naturally has empathy for the pequeninos without having to know them, and he is immediately skeptical of Starways Congress: “Ender saw clearly that the rules governing human contact with the piggies did not really function to protect the piggies at all. They functioned to guarantee human superiority and power” (170). Ender is willing to defy Starways Congress because he knows Congress is acting unethically.

Starways Congress’s unethical behavior is the catalyst for Lusitania’s decision to rebel. Bosquinha is immediately upset by Congress’s authoritarian methods, including their decision to classify Lusitania as an experiment, leaving the colony and its inhabitants without legal rights. Congress’s demand that Miro and Ouanda be arrested and sent by starflight to Trondheim is also unethical. The trip would rob the xenologers of 22 years of their lives, and it suggests that Congress has already deemed them guilty without a fair trial. The tipping point triggering the final decision to rebel is Miro. The Lusitanian leaders agree that it is worth it to defy Congress to save Miro’s life. Bosquinha declares, “I’ll perjure myself this minute to save the lives of my people” (226). The portrayal of Authority and Rebellion suggests that it is moral to defy authority when that authority is behaving immorally. By defying Congress’s orders—first through Questionable Activities and later through hiding the ansible connection—the xenologers and Lusitanian leaders demonstrate that moral integrity is more valuable than compliance with authority.