Warfare Quotes in Ender's Game

This is Ender’s justification for wrecking Stilson – to send a message to all the bullies in school. (He has practically the same thought with Bonzo and his gang: “If I'm to walk away from here, I have to win quickly, and permanently” (12.92).) Although Ender doesn’t plan to kill these boys, he has a notion of winning “for all time” that seems more like war than, say, like a game. So we see pretty early on how war is a part of Ender’s life.

Here Ender comes out and says it: when he’s beating Stilson, he’s engaged in “warfare.” (Eh, haven’t we all felt that way about other people at school?) What’s also curious is that Ender realizes he’s acting in a way that will isolate him. By conducting war in this way, he’s making himself look like a monster or an animal. This leads him to question over and over whether or not he is a monster.

Here’s Ender fighting that internal battle with himself. Check out the argument he’s having with himself: I didn’t mean to hurt him… well, yes, I did. And we also see one of the effects of this war: Ender doesn’t like the dangerous, Peter-ish part of himself, so he feels sick when he acts that way. In other words, Ender has lost this little battle against that part of himself, and he’s his own casualty.