Book Review: "Ender's Game"

I have read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card twice now. The first time was about 10 years ago. I just recently re-read this book with my son. What a difference ten years can make! My perspective now is so different than it was then.

First of all, I am more appalled this time by the language and nudity than I was then. I read the book the first time with a book club in my ward. The book was chosen by a man in our ward who was attending ASU as a graduate student. He was highly insightful in all the books he chose and I loved every single one of them. I was reading this book for me and no one else. The ending was so sudden and shocking that I re-read the ending three times to make sure I understood it perfectly. His plight resonated with me, but I did not fully understand why. I was just beginning my own path to a healthier outlook on my life and the changes I need to make were just beginning to peak out.

Fast forward ten years - I read the book this time with a much deeper understanding of the evils of bad parenting, government manipulations, poor educational techniques, and harmful psychological practices. I read this with my son and felt sick as I was more personally attached to Ender and the effects of what his upbringing did to him. He was in all ways a product of his environment. An unwilling product who comes out the other side and decides to change his life. He refuses to BE that product anymore. Ender becomes "himself" and works to undo all the educational and psychological training to create a better more balanced person as an adult.

I can relate to Ender in so many ways. I am becoming the person I am meant to be, coming out the other side of some damaging practices to overcome and be better...Dr. Groft would say "virtuous". Virtue meaning to be as God intended us to be.

How often do books change us? How does reading about fictional people like Ender bring us to a deeper understanding of ourselves? How does a book bring us to our own personal truth?