Ender's Game - Loneliness

[I'm writing this post in the "stream of consciousness" kind of style, as encouraged by Brian, because I've been wanting to write about these books but don't really have an organized way to present my thoughts. So enjoy my thought jumble.]

I recently heard that Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game was being made into a movie, and because I didn't want the movie to ruin the book, I bought the book and amazingly zipped through it in two days. I absolutely loved the book, so I picked up its sequel Speaker for the Dead which took me considerably more time to read through, but was, in my opinion, much richer in depth.

I don't expect to give away many spoilers here, but please feel free to stop reading this post if you plan on reading the books (which you should). But if you're going to cop out and just watch the movie in lieu of the books, continue reading. I doubt the movie will be able to capture the depth of emotion and insight into human nature as the books will. Also, stop being such a lazy human being.

Anyways, the central theme of the two novels, in my opinion, is loneliness. Most prominent in Ender's Game is the loneliness of genius, which Orson Scott Card magically makes us relate to (or maybe just me, because I know how it feels to be burdened with genius). Not only Ender is alone because of the jealousy and distrust from the other students and eventual physical separation, he is alone because no one has the intellectual capacity to understand him. While this situation is truly applicable only to a few in the world, the feeling that no one understands you runs deep within us. And what sucks even more for Ender is that while he is a truly a super-genius and wise beyond his years, he still experiences many of the emotional hurts as the child that he is.

Living in Fort Wayne, I don't usually feel lonely. I don't sit in my apartment and lament about how lonely I am. But when such a vivid picture of loneliness is painted, those hidden emotions within me start bubbling up. The night before I was going to drive up to Michigan to meet up with my friends for this awesome camping trip, I stayed up later than I should have finishing Ender's Game. I'm not going to spoil the scene here, but if you read the book, you'll know what scene I'm referring to (hint - it's when Ender wakes up).

"Then Ender began to cry and embraced [two of his friends] who were closest. 'I missed you,' he said. 'I wanted to see you so bad.' ...[Someone tells a joke] They all laughed at that. Laughed until tears streamed down their faces."

For some reason, this hit close to home. After the chapter ended, I just laid in bed and sobbed. Because that's exactly what I felt. I've been waiting to hang out with my college buddies, and I just couldn't wait to see my friends! I don't think a novel has ever made me cry before (no, not even ASOIAF), but this desire of relief from loneliness was all too real for me.

Ender's game is a great book. It's a page-turner, which makes it a quick and easy read, so I highly suggest reading it before the movie comes out. I had hoped to talk more about Speaker for the Dead in this post, but this post is already getting kind of long, so I'll save it for next time. Below is one of my favorite Christian rap song and is obviously relevant to the topic of loneliness.