Speaker for the Dead

Ender is the protagonist of Speaker for the Dead. Biologically, he is 36 years old, but he has been alive for 3,081 years. Most of those years have passed while Ender was traveling at the speed of light in starflight. Ender’s experiences and age supply him with a unique perspective, as he has witnessed how society has changed over thousands of years.

As a child, Ender was coerced into unknowingly exterminating the formics. Despite his ignorance, Ender blames himself for the xenocide. He knew that using the Little Doctor was morally questionable, which is why he used it in what he thought was a simulation of the Bugger Wars; he hoped that the military leaders would leave him alone if he did something so drastically immoral. As a result of this accidental xenocide, guilt becomes one of Ender’s primary character traits. His other primary characteristic is his empathy: “It was as if he were so familiar with the human mind that he could see, right on your face, the desires so deep, the truths so well-disguised that you didn’t even know yourself that you had them in you” (173).