Speaker for the Dead

“Was it something unavoidable, when strangers met, that the meeting had to be marked with blood?”

Ender’s internal question reflects the earlier encounter with the formics, during which the hive queen initially killed a few humans, not knowing that each human has a unique and complete consciousness. Humans responded by manipulating Ender into destroying the formics’ planet. The question is also intended to make readers apply the concept to the real world.

“I carry the seeds of death within me and plant them wherever I linger long enough to love.”

Novinha blames herself for her parents’ deaths and for Pipo’s death. Through this emerges her primary character flaw, which is a habit of independently deciding what is best for her loved ones and acting on those decisions regardless of the pain they cause to herself and others. She often welcomes pain because she believes she deserves to be punished.

“When you walk on the face of a world again, then I can be forgiven.”

In the first book of the Ender’s series, Ender is sent to battle school, where he is trained to command a fleet of starships sent to fight the hive queens. After he passes his final stage of training, he discovers that he was not in training but was commanding actual fighters, and he elected to use the Little Doctor to destroy the hive queens’ planet. He blames himself for the Xenocide, as does the rest of humanity, which is why he keeps his identity secret. Like Novinha, Ender’s character development is driven by guilt.

“For he loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow.”

Although Ender has multiple reasons for going to Lusitania—learning about the pequeninos, speaking for Pipo, and potentially re-establishing the hive queens—his love for Novinha is the most significant force compelling him to go. Ender loves Valentine and does not want to leave her, but he is willing to part with Valentine so that he can be with Novinha.

“And then he lost the thread of her thought, felt it seep away like a dream that is forgotten upon waking, even as you try to remember it and keep it alive.”

Card uses a simile comparing the experience of the hive queen’s silence to forgetting a dream. The simile uses sensory language to help readers imagine the unfamiliar concept of telepathic communication. Literary devices such as these can help portray science fiction elements in realistic and relatable ways.

“You are all so sure that the lesser animals are bleeding with envy because they didn’t have the good fortune to be born homo sapiens.”

Jane’s remark serves multiple purposes. It highlights the tension between humans and the other sentient species in the novel, and it develops the theme of The Importance of Cross-Cultural Empathy by criticizing humans’ sense of superiority. The statement also carries satirical tones criticizing, the real-world human tendency to view humans as superior to all other species.

“Everybody pretends that we’re just ordinary children—the grandchildren of Os Venderados, and so brilliant, aren’t we, with a zenador and both biologistas in the family! Such prestige. They just look the other way when Father gets himself raging drunk and comes home and beats Mother until she can’t walk!”

Ela is the first to tell revealing information to Ender. Her character arc centers on her quest for the truth. She recognizes that her mother has many secrets, and she believes that revealing the secrets is the only way to heal her family. Her beliefs impact The Need for Truth and Reconciliation by suggesting truth is a requirement for reconciliation. Her determination also reflects the love that the Ribeiras feel for each other.

“Father and I began doing this because we couldn’t bear to withhold knowledge from the piggies. You will discover, as I have, that it is no less painful to withhold knowledge from your fellow scientists.”

In a letter to Ouanda and Miro, Libo explains why he and Pipo began clandestinely sharing human technology with the pequeninos. The men viewed the pequeninos as equals, and they could not let the pequeninos suffer when they had the power to help. This characterizes Pipo and Libo as benevolent and compassionate.

“Ah, Miro, I’m glad he wasn’t your father. Because then I’d be your sister, and I could never hope to have you for myself.”

Ouanda’s remark is an example of dramatic irony. The reader is aware that Libo is Miro’s father, meaning he and Ouanda are half-siblings; however, the characters are unaware of their biological relationship. This adds tension to the plot, as the characters unknowingly continue to engage in taboo intimacy.

“He was a wild herb growing in the well-tended garden; wherever he stepped, disorder threatened, and many lovely flowers would die if he took root and sucked the life from their soil.”

The Catholic Church on Lusitania views Ender as a threat to the community. This concept is portrayed metaphorically; Ender is compared to a weed, and the Church is compared to the well-tended gardens on the Church grounds. If Ender stays on Lusitania, he may disrupt the Catholic rule over the community.

“She remembered creating herself in response to him. She also remembered how, in the Battle School, he had also changed in response to her.”

Jane’s existence is an integral element in Speaker for the Dead and the two subsequent novels in the series, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. In Speaker for the Dead, Jane understands that Ender has something to do with her birth. Later in the series, the Hive Queen reveals that she helped create Jane to serve as a bridge between herself and Ender so she could communicate with him. Ender and Jane come to view themselves as having a father-child relationship.

“Why would you have a password like that? It’s like having a dirty word for your password, only the system won’t accept any dirty words.”

Ender’s password to get into his bank account is “Ender.” His name is so taboo that Olhado likens it to profanity. The rejection and hatred of Ender’s name reflect the blame that humanity places on Ender for destroying the hive queens. However, society did not reject Ender until he wrote The Hive Queen under the pseudonym The Speaker for the Dead. Thus, he was the catalyst that triggered the widespread hatred of himself.

“No doubt there was some religious ritual involved: Go to their totem tree, ask a leading question, and lie there contemplating the leaves or the bark or something until you get exactly the answer you want.”

Miro and the other humans believe that the pequeninos have a religion in which they worship trees and plant trees inside of sacrificed pequeninos. He is not aware that the pequeninos have three life stages, the last of which they spend as trees. Females become mother trees, some males become non-sentient brother trees, and other males become sentient father trees. His arrogant attitude toward the pequeninos' mention of the trees satirizes real-world judgments of other cultures that are perceived as more primitive. Miro judges the pequeninos instead of believing them because he feels superior. His judgmental attitude is like Ender’s initial judgment of the formics in Ender’s Game and is intended to emphasize the similarities between the two characters.

“It wasn’t a matter of confession, penance, and absolution, like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person. That she had made a mistake, and the mistake had changed her, and now she would not make the mistake again because she had become someone else, someone less afraid, someone more compassionate.”

During her private conversation with Ender, Ela realizes the power of telling the truth. She discusses her past honestly, and doing so helps her see that she has learned and grown as a person. Her realization reflects the role that speakers for the dead serve. It also demonstrates the interrelatedness of truth and redemption: One cannot achieve redemption and growth without acknowledging the truth.

“At that moment Ender saw clearly that the rules governing human contact with the piggies did not really function to protect the piggies at all. They functioned to guarantee human superiority and power.”

Ender’s realization demonstrates The Importance of Cross-Cultural Empathy: By seeing from the pequeninos’ perspective, Ender recognizes the authoritarian nature of the Congress’s rules. From other species’ perspectives, humans can be seen as varelse, meaning they pose a danger to raman, or peaceful and intelligent, species.

“It was enough to know that she was still there, listening. He wasn’t alone.”

Ender often finds himself in situations where he is isolated; he feels isolated from Jane after she stops speaking to him, he feels isolated from the hive queen when she is conversing with the pequenino trees, and he feels isolated from the Ribeiras after his revelations cause them emotional pain. Ender does not function nor feel well when he is isolated, so he feels great relief when Jane makes her presence known.

“I would trade you all your suffering, Novinha, for one child who trusted me like that.”

Ender longs for fatherhood, and this becomes a central character trait throughout The Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. Jane recognizes Ender’s desire for fatherhood, which is one of the reasons that she stops speaking to him. As Ender grows closer with the Ribeiras, he takes on a fatherly role, and the family accepts his paternal behaviors because they want a father figure. Through this portrayal, Card addresses the psychological role of fatherhood for both fathers and children.

“Like a bridge he’ll come between us, not a wall.”

Human connection is one of the strongest themes running through Speaker for the Dead. Ender inserts himself into the Ribeira family and acts as a bridge connecting the family members to each other and to the community; he also acts as a bridge between species. He is able to do this because of his deep empathy, which is one of his primary character traits.

“My oath is to the Starways Congress […] but I’ll perjure myself this minute to save the lives of my people.”

Mayor Bosquinha embodies the theme of Authority and Rebellion. As mayor, she is a figure of governmental authority, yet she is willing to defy Starways Congress to save Miro from dying and to save the entire colony from potentially being killed to suppress the Descolada. Her decision to rebel against Starways Congress emphasizes the idea that morality trumps authority.

“We didn’t come here to attack them at the root of their lives […] We came here to find a way to share a world with them.”

Ender meets with the wives to create a treaty that protects all three sentient species on Lusitania. He believes each species should be able to live according to their needs and values, so he is angry when Ouanda and Ela discuss altering the pequeninos reproductive processes. Recognizing The Importance of Cross-Cultural Empathy, Ender argues that inter-species relationships require mutual understanding, not forcing one group to change to suit the other.

“You humans grow by making us part of you, humans and piggies and buggers, ramen together. Then we are one tribe, and our greatness is your greatness, and yours is ours.”

Ender makes non-violence a condition of the treaty he sets with the pequeninos. Human struggles to grasp the concept at first but comes to see that greatness can be achieved through tolerance and cooperation. The scene carries satirical undertones, implying that real-world humans have yet to embody this concept.

“It was the wooden plow, the scythe, the harrow, the amaranth seed that would make the real changes, that would allow piggy population to increase tenfold wherever they went.”

This remark implies that social advancements must take place in a certain order, and it alludes to notions of human cultural progress. According to a view of history that was widespread at the time this book was published, human culture changed drastically during the Agricultural Revolution: The advent of agriculture created a surplus of supplies which, in turn, allowed the human population to expand and provided humans with the time and resources to practice science. The pequeninos must follow a similar path. Before they can master technology, they must learn to feed a growing population, so they can establish conditions under which they will be able to advance their technology.

“If I asked somebody whether they’d trust Ender with a decision that might affect the future of the human race, they’d say, of course not. But if I asked them whether they’d trust the Speaker for the Dead, they’d say yes, most of them. And they wouldn’t even guess that they were the same person.”

Olhado’s observation demonstrates the idea that humans are naturally judgmental. Ender is judged differently according to his various identities; the judgments people make about him are based on incomplete information and are therefore incorrect. Ender fights against humans’ tendency to judge him through his work as a speaker, as seen through his speaking for Marcão, during which he identified the Lusitanians’ judgments of the Ribeira family and proved them to be inaccurate.