Foreignness and the Other Quotes in Speaker for the Dead

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

"You said you wouldn't try to change us."

"I said I wouldn't try to change you more than is necessary."

"Why is this necessary? It's between us and the other piggies." (17.290-292)

Human has a point, but this time he doesn't win the argument. Note that it's Ender who gets to decide whether and to what extent it's necessary to change the piggies. In this case, he's saying they can't go to war with one another, and it's hard to argue with that. But why does he get to decide? Because he's got better weapons and can tell them what to do? Or, more charitably, you could say that they're all trying to become one community, and so they're not figuring out how much to change the piggies, but how and in what ways to change each other.

Quote #11

Mandachuva told the wives […] That what made humans stronger than piggies was not something inherent in us—our size, our brains, our language—but rather the mere accident that we were a few thousand years ahead of them in learning." (18.209)

Ender is here explaining why Mandachuva was going to be taken to the third life. Basically, he was being honored for recognizing that the piggies could handled the Descolada virus and the humans couldn't, and so humans weren't better than piggies. He's honored for recognizing that racism is false.