Ender: Culprit or Innocent Child?

I wanted to respond to Lennea’s blog post. Lennea said that she had “a huge problem with Ender’s killer instinct”, objecting to the claim that his actions were justified because Ender seriously hurt people in order to avoid having to hurt others. She believes that Ender intentionally aimed to kill, or at least seriously maim, his antagonists and was therefore, responsible for his actions.
I disagree with her. I believe that even though Ender knew subconsciously that he had killed Bonzo and intentionally violated the rules of war in hurting Stilson, he is not to be blamed. Remember that Ender was a child. Yes, he was an amazingly perceptive and intelligent child, but he was still a child. I am not saying that children should be completely excused from differentiating between right and wrong, but Ender never even had a complete childhood in which to learn the difference. The first few years of his life were spent living in fear of a manipulative and menacing older brother, who constantly exposed him to numerous violent threats. The next half of his childhood was spent in military school. What do you expect from children that spend their childhoods learning killing techniques, strategizing about how to effectively train the enemy, and essentially, becoming military weapons? Ender was trained as a military weapon and he became one.
I am amazed at the strength of Ender’s conscience. Throughout the novel, Ender constantly battles himself, displaying integrity and possessing the ability to introspect that many adults would envy because of how critically accurate his self-assessment is. Most full-grown adults cannot be that honest with themselves. Ender constantly criticizes himself for his violent actions, realizing that he has a bit of Peter in himself, and tries to crush his Peter-like qualities. Right after the fight in then battle room he tells himself, “I’m doing it again…I’m hurting people again, just to save myself. Why don’t they leave me alone, so I don’t have to hurt them?” (114). The most remarkable action of his, which I think proves Ender’s inherent goodness, is his writing of “The Hive Queen and the Hegemon”. Even though the entire world reveres him as a hero, he disputes this belief. Most people soak in praise, whether it is deserved or not, but Ender puts an end to it because he knows it is misplaced. He establishes himself as a villain to be disdained for all time. That action, above all of his other actions, establishes integrity and goodness of character.