How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"It is another chance God has give us," declared Archcardinal Pio of Baia. "We can be redeemed for the destruction of the buggers." (Prologue.3)
The piggies are often figured as a second chance, a way for humans to make up for having wiped out the buggers. That seems to reduce the piggies to being a kind of trope or plot twist for humans; they're there to help people get over their unhappiness, rather than there for themselves. Who is compassion there for—the object of the compassion, or the person who feels bad?
Quote #2
For he loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow. (5.89)
Ender is in love with Novinha before he even meets her because she reminds him of himself and his own sorrows. Compassion here seems like a form of self-pity. Also, Novinha is like thirteen, and Ender flies off to marry her. Shmoop is not sure Shmoop approves.
Quote #3
"Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins." (8.49-50)
Ender is talking about Marcao here, but he's also talking about himself, since Ender's the one who committed über-genocide. In general, Marcao is a stand in for Ender—both are sinners, both seek love, both marry Novinha. When Ender speaks for Marcao, you could argue he's speaking for himself.
Quote #4
He was not prepared to deal with my mistake, thought Jane, and he did not understand the suffering his response would cause me. He is innocent of wrong doing, and so am I. We shall forgive each other and go on. (11.39)
Oddly, the one act that Speaker has trouble forgiving, or making whole, is when Ender turns off the earpiece, cutting Jane off. The Hive Queen forgives Ender for killing all her people, but Jane (and the novel) never quite forgive Ender for not wanting to talk to Jane for a minute. Shmoop is not sure what the deal is with that, especially since Jane is such a thoroughly annoying character who Shmoop wishes wasn't there to begin with.
Quote #5
A strange thing happened then. The Speaker agreed with her that she had made a mistake that night, and she knew when he said the words that it was true, that his judgment was correct. And yet she felt strangely healed, as if simply speaking her mistake were enough to purge some of the pain of it. 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. (13.160)
Telling stories is figured in Speaker as healing. You are your story, so telling your story right makes you whole. Speaker is itself in this sense a speaking: it tells the story of who Ender is, so that his past evils can be seen as not belonging to the same person. Orson Scott Card is maybe healing Ender the way Ender heals Ela.
Quote #6
Ender smiled "What man among you, if his son asks for bread, gives him a stone?"
"Ouanda nodded. "That's it. The Congressional rules say we have to give them stones. Even though we have so much bread." (14.59-60)
Ouanda and Miro see the piggies as kin, and therefore morality applies. And morality says that need and compassion have to be more important than the law.
Quote #7
"I think you can't possibly know the truth about somebody unless you love them. I think the speaker loved Father, Marcao, I mean. I think he understood him and loved him before he spoke."
Mother didn't answer, because she knew it was true.
"And I think he loves Grego, and Quara, and Olhado. And Miro, and even Quim. And me. I know he loves me. And when he shows me that he loves me, I know it's true because he never lies to anybody." (16.120-122)
This isn't actually true—the Speaker lies all the time, at least by omission. He misleads Olhado into helping him, for example, because Olhado doesn't know that he's going to use the information to break into Novinha's files. If compassion is built on truth, then Ela's case for the Speaker's universal compassion seems dubious. For that matter, the book itself is a lie—after all, there is no Ender, no Ela, no Lusitania. Does that mean the book isn't compassionate? Or does it mean that truth and love don't go together in quite the way Ela (and the novel) seem to want them to?
Quote #8
"My oath is to the Starways Congress," said Bosquinha, "but I'll perjure myself this minute to save the lives of my people. I say the fence comes down and we try to make the most of our rebellion." (16.374)
Community here is the incubator of compassion, and maybe the other way around too. Bosquinha is willing to break rules because she feels her first commitment is to the people there who she loves. And who she loves determines how the community works—in part by taking down the fence and including the piggies.
Quote #9
"I cut him with these hands, " he cried. "I tried to honor him, and I killed his tree forever!"
"No," said Ender. He took Mandachuva's hands, held them. "You both thought you were saving each other's life. He hurt you, and you—hurt him, yes, killed him, but you both believed you were doing good. That's enough, until now." (17.375-376)
This is another round of I am guilty, you didn't mean it, so forgive. The last bit, though suggests that this isn't quite enough—you also have to go on and try to change things. You can't just keep planting humans willy-nilly. Two dead humans is an error; three or more starts to look like carelessness.
Quote #10
"I think you have the heart for what you have to do," she said softly, so that only he could hear.
"Cold and ruthless?" he asked…
"Compassionate enough," she said, "to put the hot iron into the wound when that's the only way to heal it." (17.400-402)
The constant hymns to Ender's empathy are really old by this point in the book. Yes, okay, we get it, he loves everybody. Jeez. By the end of the thing you're willing to forgive Ender anything if he'd stop being so darn compassionate for just a minute.
Quote #11
"That's how I beat her, the Hive Queen, I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her. I didn't want to fight her anymore. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home. So I blew up her planet." (18.126)
This comes up in Ender's Game too—he's supposed to have defeated the Hive Queen because of a kind of weaponized empathy. Genocide is the product of love—which seems like really bad math to Shmoop. Are we supposed to believe the gas chambers in Auschwitz were the product of love? Color Shmoop unconvinced.