Xenocide

“But such a nihilistic act was not in him, not yet. He had not yet despaired, he decided. There might yet me something he could do that might justify his continuing to live in this body. And perhaps it would begin with meeting Andrew’s sister.”

Miro experiences resentment and self-pity after his brain injury, but his defining characteristic is his altruism. He finds meaning by using his knowledge, thoughts, and experiences to help save the Pequeninos and humans. This line also demonstrates the common message in the book that people cannot predict where the solutions to their problems might be found.

“Parents always make their worst mistakes with the oldest children. That’s when parents know the least and care the most, so they’re more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they’re right.”

Parenting is a secondary theme developed in the story. Valentine loves her children, but she considers herself to be a poor mother, as she prioritizes her career over her family. While speaking with Miro, who is the oldest of the Rebeira children, she admits her faults through a universal piece of wisdom. Along with characterizing Valentine, Miro, and Novinha, the line is also intended to be relatable to readers who experience similar difficulties.

“Human beings do metamorphose. They change their identity constantly. However, each new identity thrives on the delusion that it was always in possession of the body it has just conquered.”

The hive queen and the Pequeninos experience physical metamorphoses, and Human and the hive queen are prejudiced against humans and hold conflicting opinions about them because of their biological and mental differences. This line is intended to inspire readers to reflect on their own experiences regarding mental and emotional metamorphoses.

“How could you judge what sort of god he’d be, until his whole life, from beginning to end, was known.”

Path has yet to select a god that represents their world, and the people believe that Han Fei-tzu may become their god when he dies. They do not choose a person to stand as a god while they are still living because a person’s future actions cannot be judged by the actions of their past. The line is an example of logos, or a logical argument.

“At times she thought, Perhaps this is how some religions start. The founder doesn’t ask for disciples; they come and force themselves upon him.”

Valentine uses a metaphor to compare Ender to a religious leader and Plikt, who is fixated on Ender, to a disciple. It suggests that the desire to worship and follow is part of human nature, and it supports The Power of Religion. Ender is also characterized as a wise and humble leader who inspires loyalty rather than demanding obedience.

“Maybe there’s a kind of life you haven’t met.”

Miro prepares Valentine and Jakt so they might better accept Jane as a sentient being. Multiple characters view Jane as a computer program and struggle to accept her as an intelligent entity, which helps develop the theme of Defining Intelligent Life.

“But the more power she used, the more humankind would hate and fear her. Eventually she would be killed.”

This exposition develops the theme of Cross-Species Understanding and Coexistence by suggesting that fear of the unknown and desire for power are part of the human condition. Humans, the author suggests, would assume Jane would use her powers to control them. The fear of losing control is enough to drive them to murder.

“The only way to retrieve a secret, once it is known, is to replace it with a lie; then the knowledge of the truth is once again your secret.”

Han Fei-tzu teaches Qing-jao that Starways Congress lies to protect people, such as when they lied to cover up the secrets Demosthenes has published. This line becomes ironic as the plot unfolds to reveal that Starways Congress has genetically altered the people of Path and generated the idea that some of them are godspoken. Secrecy is a sub-theme used throughout the novel which contributes to the cross-species relationships and to Ethics and Morality in Science.

“Now I no longer tell anyone half of what I know, because if I told the whole truth there would be fear, hatred, brutality, murder, war.”

Ender is characterized as wise and experienced. He has a deep understanding of human nature, and he knows that people often act unethically when they are afraid. His attitude also suggests he is hypocritical, as he is fearful of how humans would react, so he hides information, which can be construed as unethical.

“We scientists are gathering information […] Until we’ve gathered enough, nobody can judge anything. So the secrecy rule goes for everybody here.”

The theme of Ethics and Morality in Science is developed by the juxtaposition of secrecy and transparency. Many of the characters—primarily Ender, Novinha, Ela, and Quara—display conflicting behaviors regarding the communication of scientific data. They keep secrets, thinking that it will advance their research and protect everyone involved. When Quara is transparent with the Pequeninos, she incites extremist violence in Warmaker’s forest; however, when the researchers become more transparent with their information, they start finding solutions. This demonstrates that transparency vs. secrecy in science is a complex topic with no obvious correct answer.

“Until then, we serve the gods by helping the unbelievers deceive themselves into thinking that all things happen because of natural explanations.”

Qing-jao is naturally skeptical, and Han Fei-tzu strives to eliminate her skepticism. He believes he is doing the right thing by upholding his promise to his wife, but Qing-jao’s unquestioning faith ends up controlling her life and causes her to make unethical decisions. In this line and throughout the novel, the author suggests the real-world concept that it is important to question your beliefs and authority figures.

“Maybe xenocide is built into the human psyche as into no other species. Maybe the best think that could happen for the moral good of the universe is for the descolada to get loose, to spread throughout the human universe and break us down to nothing.”

Miro is characterized as angry and pessimistic, and he is biased against humans because of negative events, including the conflict between humans and Pequeninos, Starways Congress attempting to arrest him, and the differences in how people treat him now that he has a disability. He fails to see the good in people, such as the fact that the humans of Lusitania refused to send him to Starways Congress. His attitude proves ironic, for he blames and hates humans when the humans on Lusitania have risked their lives to protect Miro from the judgment of Starways Congress.

“Persuading Wing-jao, a volatile and passionate adolescent who did not yet understand herself at all, would be chancy at best. But Han Fei-tzu was a man of settled character, a rational man, yet a man of deep feeling; he could be persuaded by arguments, especially if Jane could convince him that opposing Congress was for the good of his world and of humanity at large.”

Qing-jao accepts guidance from her father largely for cultural reasons, and Jane hopes to use Han Fei-tzu to convince Qing-jao to stop supporting Starways Congress. While Jane has good intentions, she is purposefully manipulating both Han Fei-tzu and Qing-jao to her advantage. Her behavior is both a sign of her sentience and her survival instinct.

“She was trying to stop needing him. And this silence, if she kept it up, would drive such a wedge between them that their marriage would never recover.”

This line serves multiple functions. First, it places the blame of the strain of Ender and Novinha’s marriage on Novinha. Ender does not yet understand his role in the dissolution of their bond. Secondly, it characterizes Novinha as independent and controlling, which is later supported in Miro’s accusations that Novinha uses her love to control others. Thirdly, it alludes to the importance of vulnerability in intimate relationships. Their marriage is strained, in part, because Novinha does not feel safe enough to be vulnerable with Ender.

“No wonder I heard such sympathy in Demosthenes; she is a woman, and knows what it is to be rules by others every waking minute. She is a woman, and so she dreams of freedom, of an hour in which there is no duty waiting to be done.”

Within the setting of Path, hints of both feminism and sexism are developed through assumptions about Demosthenes’s gender. Before discovering the truth, Qing-jao and Wang-mu assume that Demosthenes is a man because Demosthenes holds great political influence and acclaim. This alludes to the idea that, on Path, men have more influence and women experience more oppression. Feminism is portrayed in Wang-mu’s reaction to the truth. The oppression she experiences as a servant is compared to the oppression she experiences as a female.

“But the higher beings include more and more living beings within their self-story, until at last there is no Other. Until the needs of others are more important than any private desires. The highest beings of all are the ones who are willing to pay any personal cost for the good of those who need them.”

Ender equates intelligence with altruism. By doing so, he supports the idea that Jane is sentient because, although her survival instinct is strong, she is willing to prioritize the safety of Path over herself. The line also demonstrates the importance of altruism in Cross-Species Understanding and Coexistence. If Jane is to be widely accepted as a sentient being, she must demonstrate empathy and altruism, especially since she inherently holds power over communication networks.

“From earliest childhood, they delude themselves into thinking they comprehend the world, while all that’s really going on is that they’re got some primitive assumptions and prejudices.”

Human displays hypocrisy and irony in his assertions that humans are prejudiced and ignorant. His statement about human prejudice is in itself prejudiced. The hive queen, the Pequeninos, and the humans are all prejudiced against each other in both subtle and blatant ways because it is difficult for them to understand each other’s perspectives. Since they cannot inherently empathize with each other, they make faulty assumptions.

“Isn’t it possible, he wondered, for one person to love another without trying to own each other? Or is that buried so deep in our genes that we can never get it out?”

Ender questions human nature because he is frustrated by his own jealousy. He feels jealous that Miro and Jane are as close as Jane and himself. Logically, he understands that there is no reason to feel jealous, but his emotional reaction is driven by evolved emotions. This realization reflects the conversation about free will he has with Miro and Valentine, and it supports the concept that much of human behavior is controlled by predetermined factors, primarily the biological drive to reproduce.

“If you call them by an animal name, does that mean that it’s all right to slaughter them? If you accuse them of lying, does that mean that they’re worthy of extinction?”

Qing-jao refers to the Pequeninos as “pig-men,” and Wang-mu silently questions and resents Qing-jao’s dismissive phrasing. Qing-jao fails to value the Pequeninos as sentient in order to rationalize helping Starways Congress, just as she dismisses Jane for her differences and Wang-mu for her social status. This attitude is not only built on the themes of Defining Intelligent Life and fostering Cross-Species Understanding and Coexistence. It also suggests that it is human nature to dismiss others in order to rationalize unethical behavior toward them.

“He wasn’t telling her what the gods were, he was telling her what goodness was. To want other people to grow. To want other people to have all the good things that you have. And to spare them the bad things if you can. That was goodness.”

Ender helps Wang-mu to accept a new perspective that the gods she has been taught about do not represent goodness. Ender argues that altruism, rather than control, is goodness. Wang-mu, who has been experiencing an internal conflict regarding her culture and her personal beliefs, has an increased sense of self-awareness and acceptance after listening to Ender’s perspective.

“It’s intelligence that makes you unhappy.”

The hive queen argues that her drones are happy because they are not individually intelligent, and that humans are unhappy because they are driven by their intelligence to ask questions. Her assumption that humans are not happy demonstrates prejudice, as she insults a type of intelligence that she does not experience and, thus, does not understand.

“Too many of them think that it’s their right to be acquisitive and oppressive, because the gods speak to them and not to others.”

Along with demonstrating The Power of Religion, Han Fei-tzu’s statement develops the subtheme of power that leads to corruption. Han Fei-tzu’s attitude mirrors Ender’s decision to keep secrets as a way of avoiding violence between the humans, Pequeninos, and the hive queen. Han Fei-tzu’s fears likewise lead him to craft the deceptive public statement that the gods have purified all of Path. His actions further develop the dichotomy between transparency and secrecy in regard to Ethics and Morality in Science.

“And if the one was real enough to remain alive, so must the other be. If harming young Val would be murder, so would harming Peter.”

Ender experiences an ethical dilemma when he creates young Val and Peter. Ender cannot ethically justify killing Peter, who has dangerous psychological tendencies, although he believes it would be better for the world if he did end the boy’s life. He views young Val and Peter both as independent and sentient beings. His behavior aligns with his characterization, as he strives for altruism and nonviolence.