The Performing Wiggin Siblings: Reading Ender’s Game Through Disability Theory

This chapter seeks to bring a new perspective to Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game (1985) by way of disability theory. The majority of scholarship on Card’s novel has approached the text as war allegory, pedagogical inspiration, or, more recently, as problematic due to Orson Scott Card’s own political and religious views. Although the author acknowledges that these readings are valid, they posit that the application of a disability studies lens increases the significance of two central aspects of the text that have been previously overlooked: foremost, Ender’s status as a Third, and, second, his siblings’ use of avatars to incite social change. Ultimately, the author argues that Ender’s Game invites readers to perceive how simulation technology can be an especially important platform for marginalized identities, as well as for the fostering of empathy.