Love Your Enemy by River

Love Your Enemy by River - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

The humans didn’t forgive us, she thought. We will surely die.”

Take a moment and think about this statement.

Nothing? Perhaps some background information will strengthen the impact. The speaker is an alien queen; the humans call them Buggers. A hundred years prior to this moment, the Buggers had invaded Earth for basic resources and were beaten back in an all-out war with the humans. The Buggers left and never returned to Earth, however, the humans could see that the Buggers were strengthening their numbers and strove to do the same. Somewhere along the way, the humans surpassed the Buggers in terms of technology and weaponry and were determined to destroy the perceived threat to their existence.

Remember, the Buggers had never returned to Earth nor were they planning to. Yet, at this moment, the queen is watching a beam of death shoot towards her home planet and her people, quietly accepting the genocide as punishment for her past wrong-doings. She doesn’t fight back now. She doesn’t curse the humans or find fault in their decision. She just waits for death to come.

“The humans didn’t forgive us, she thought. We will surely die.”

Now, take another moment and think about this statement.

The book is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and every time I read this, my heart breaks a little more because I realize that at this very moment, similar acts are happening all over the world. It may not be Buggers, but people of different religions and ethnicities are suffering losses around the Earth due to the unforgiving nature of humanity as a whole.

Humans hold nothing back, and neither does this book. This novel opens up the darkest foundations of humanity and exposes them in the most complex ways. Yet, the language is easy to follow and the story line is extremely interesting.

Why should high school students read Ender’s Game? Look at what teenagers are exposed to. Most movies and books written now have a sugar-coated idea of what the real world is like. Every student has an ideal picture painted about the world around them and most of the time, there is no true conflict or issue to deal with.

Ender’s Game forces readers to confront the dark side of humans and to think for themselves. They are exposed to what the world truly is: people searching to advance only their own interests. Through the novel, we see how some people will use outright force while others use scheming and mind tricks to get what they want. Students would be able to spot these ploys more easily and save themselves from dangerous circumstances.

The reader also learns how to view opinions from the opposite side of an argument. While most have compassion for the children and would agree that they are the victims of the story, you also understand events from the adults’ point of view. The ability to see beyond one’s own beliefs and create an argument for the very opposite is one that very few possess and would open students to more possibilities in college and future careers.

In my mind’s eye, I can already see many parents who would try to ban this book from any curriculum. Not due to graphic nature or truly controversial ideas, but because they would want to protect their children from the horrors this world contains.

Yet, this is the exact reason why students should read this book. By exposing students to this kind of information is such a way that Card does – by making the readers care about the characters and their lives – you build a foundation to slow the cruelty that continues at this very moment. The best way to make the violence stop is to make students care about those who it is effecting and to encourage them to find ways end it. Pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away, it makes it stronger.

“The [Germans] didn’t forgive us…We will surely die.”

“The [Hutu] didn’t forgive us…We will surely die.”

“The [Guji] didn’t forgive us…We will surely die.”
Take a moment and think.

“…it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”

Now stop thinking. Act.