Compassion and Forgiveness Quotes in Speaker for the Dead

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

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.