How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"I think you have the heart for what you have to do," she said softly, so that only he could hear.
"Cold and ruthless?" he asked…
"Compassionate enough," she said, "to put the hot iron into the wound when that's the only way to heal it." (17.400-402)
The constant hymns to Ender's empathy are really old by this point in the book. Yes, okay, we get it, he loves everybody. Jeez. By the end of the thing you're willing to forgive Ender anything if he'd stop being so darn compassionate for just a minute.
Quote #11
"That's how I beat her, the Hive Queen, I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her. I didn't want to fight her anymore. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home. So I blew up her planet." (18.126)
This comes up in Ender's Game too—he's supposed to have defeated the Hive Queen because of a kind of weaponized empathy. Genocide is the product of love—which seems like really bad math to Shmoop. Are we supposed to believe the gas chambers in Auschwitz were the product of love? Color Shmoop unconvinced.