Foreignness and the Other Quotes in Speaker for the Dead

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Five days later they realized that the little forest-dwelling animals that they had called porquinhoes—piggies—were not animals at all. (Prologue.2)

The moment when the colonists realize the piggies are intelligent could be seen as the moment when they stop being foreign; they're not animals anymore. But it could also be the moment where they are foreign. Animals aren't foreigners, after all—they're animals. It's only somebody else who can be somebody else though, so you've got to be human to be alien.

Quote #2

"The Nordic language recognizes four orders of foreignness. The first is the otherlander, or 'utlanning', the stranger that we recognize as being a human of our world, but of another city or country. The second is the 'framling' [...]. This is the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another world. The third is the 'raman', the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another species. The fourth is the true alien, the 'varelse', which includes all the animals, for with them no conversation is possible. They live, but we cannot guess what purposes or causes make them act. They might be intelligent, they might be self-aware, but we cannot know it." (2.19)

The characters use these categories throughout the book. Varelse, or true aliens, is an important category, but Shmoop wonders how much sense it makes. Varelse is supposed to include all animals, but dogs and cats aren't strangers and we definitely know what causes make them act (food and ear scratches, namely). In fact, often you can understand animals better than people, really. Maybe the truth is that categorizing your ethical and personal relations with others like this may not be quite as good an idea as Demosthenes thinks it is.

Quote #3

"Speaker, I know you're thinking that we're afraid of the piggies. And perhaps some of us are. But the feeling most of us have, most of the time, isn't fear at all. It's hatred. Loathing. (6.100)

This is when Ender first meets Bosquinha. As a Speaker, Ender is greeted by the Lusitanians with both fear and loathing, so Ender is right away associated with the piggies—a stranger, even if he doesn't have a snout.