Pierce Arnold - The Interior and Exterior Journey of Ender's Game 4/27/2026

 A year or two ago I read through Orson Scott Card’s complete Ender’s Game series. For any hardcore fans, no, I did not read anything past the Children of the Mind, nor did I read Ender in Exile, nor any of the other in-universe books. That said, some of the concepts we covered in this class reminded me of the Ender’s Game series, and especially the first book. Ender’s Game provides an excellent example of an author combining the interior journey with the exterior journey. In the book Ender, the main character, explores his interior journey through a highly sophisticated procedural video game. The game presents a multitude of paths and choices for Ender to take, but he ends up going beyond the usual end of the game into a whole new area. As he continues he faces roadblocks in the game that represent his interior journey. At one point he is repeatedly killed by a serpent with the face of his older brother, the one person who Ender most fears he will become like. When he finds a way to kill the snake his fear is only heightened as he now sees himself as even more violent and murderous than his brother. His journey through the game follows closely his journey in real life, as he finds himself in difficult situations with outside forces pushing him harder and harder to become more violent and destructive.

!!Spoiler alert for anyone who has not yet read the book, and genuinely I would recommend reading it at some point so if you have not yet then please stop reading this post!!


At the end of the book Ender ends up channeling his inner turmoil and self resentment into what he thinks is a simulated space battle against a computer program. In truth he was really piloting real ships and ended up completely wiping out an entire alien species. As you may imagine, this destruction confirms for Ender his worst fear, that he is just as violent and malevolent as his brother and capable of even more destruction. Watching this story play out through the book is truly a wonderful experience because of how well done the balance between Ender’s interior journey and exterior journey is.

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