Was it worth it?
When I think about our discussion in class last Thursday, I am constantly drawn to the argument we had over whether or not the I.F. had the right to wipe out the entire bugger race without fully understanding their motives for the first two invasions led by the buggers. The people condemning the actions of the I.F. were arguing from the perspective of the reader looking into a world from the viewpoint the author intended. When we discussed the novel, we knew more information about the motives of the buggers after the fact after any human in the story even cared about what the buggers even thought about (except for Ender of course.)
I want you all to think back to the very beginning of Ender's Game when we were first introduced to the main characters and the main problem: the buggers are going to come back and destroy the human race because they tried twice already and we almost got our butts wiped against the celestial ceiling. Without knowing anything else from the end of the novel, you cannot help but feel that the buggers will come back and they will try to destroy Earth again. But, as the story progresses, the author throws in little hints about whether or not the buggers will actually come back through several character's dialogue so only you and Ender even begin to have these doubts.
Later in the novel, we find out that the I.F. actually sent out their ships to counterattack the buggers right after the second invasion so they already assumed moral responsibility for their actions and the men on those ships already gave up any hope of ever seeing their family and friends on Earth again because even though it only takes two-four years to reach bugger space from our perspective 70 years pass before they even reach their destination. There was n oother course of action that could have been taken than destroying the buggers because we had left Earth almost completely defenseless, and we had no idea if the buggers had not already sent another fleet to destroy Earth.
I guess what I'm really trying to get at through all this rambling that I will have to edit when I have time is the I.F. had no way of knowing whether the buggers would attack or what their initials motives were. Even though us, the readers, knew the buggers meant no harm, do you really think the humans would have not try to counterattack after the buggers open fired first and sent a colonization fleet to finish the job.
I want you all to think back to the very beginning of Ender's Game when we were first introduced to the main characters and the main problem: the buggers are going to come back and destroy the human race because they tried twice already and we almost got our butts wiped against the celestial ceiling. Without knowing anything else from the end of the novel, you cannot help but feel that the buggers will come back and they will try to destroy Earth again. But, as the story progresses, the author throws in little hints about whether or not the buggers will actually come back through several character's dialogue so only you and Ender even begin to have these doubts.
Later in the novel, we find out that the I.F. actually sent out their ships to counterattack the buggers right after the second invasion so they already assumed moral responsibility for their actions and the men on those ships already gave up any hope of ever seeing their family and friends on Earth again because even though it only takes two-four years to reach bugger space from our perspective 70 years pass before they even reach their destination. There was n oother course of action that could have been taken than destroying the buggers because we had left Earth almost completely defenseless, and we had no idea if the buggers had not already sent another fleet to destroy Earth.
I guess what I'm really trying to get at through all this rambling that I will have to edit when I have time is the I.F. had no way of knowing whether the buggers would attack or what their initials motives were. Even though us, the readers, knew the buggers meant no harm, do you really think the humans would have not try to counterattack after the buggers open fired first and sent a colonization fleet to finish the job.