In 562 B.C.E., in The Republic Plato imagined the creation of an ideal society shielded by ultimate warriors called the Guardians, who had been trained since their infancy to recognize evil and injustice so that they could always actively fight against it and defend their perfect world from the damage of the insidious outside forces. In 1985 C.E., Orson Scott Card wrote Ender’s Game, which follows a boy named Ender Wiggin from the recognition of Ender as an ideal potential soldier through his training that makes him the perfect warrior up until the point that he destroys the alien buggers and saves the human race. The methods of selection and training of military commanders in Card’s text is remarkably similar to the means designed by Plato for the creation of the perfect soldier, as though Ender and his compatriots were being designed as the perfect Guardians, just soldiers, philosopher kings. Both texts discuss similar issues involving gender, compassion, violence, and internal balance as the leader of the respective societies attempt to identify and build the military commanders that will save all of their lives. Battle School rejects Ender’s older siblings, Peter and Valentine, for the same reasons that Plato lists to block potential soldiers from becoming Guardians. Battle School accepts Ender, and he meets all of Plato’s requirements for excellence. In his philosophical treatise, Plato theorized how to create the perfect warrior, and in his science fiction novel Orson Scott Card actually did it.
About the presenterKelsey Ridge
Kelsey Ridge received her PhD at the Shakespeare Institute of University of Birmingham. She earned her MA at University College London and her BA at Wellesley College, where she studied English and East Asian Studies. Her research interests include pop Shakespeare, trauma theory, and adaptations. Her book Shakespeare’s Military Spouses and Twenty-First-Century Warfare came out from Routledge in Sept 2021.