Every story had a main character. In science fiction the main character is most often classified as the hero. Orson Scott Card, in his novel Speaker for the Dead, gives his hero a different background along with different traits then the average science fiction author.
            
             In the introduction of this novel, we learn that Card's prospective hero is different than the heroes we have seen in other works. The typical science fiction hero is an adolescent who bears no commitment, just does his good deeds, then moves onward (xvii). In this novel, our hero is a responsible adult who transforms a troubled family, along with other things (xvii).
            
             Ender Wiggin is a character who has experienced many tragic events. As a child, he was placed in a military school and raised there. While in school he played a game, which was very difficult and required certain intellectual skills. He won the game by killing off an entire alien race, only to find out it really wasn't a game at all, but reality (64). As a result, the entire human population labeled him monstrous (xxvii).
            
             As a result of all the discrimination Ender has faced in his life, he has an incredible ability to emphasize with others. When a person experiences a lot of sadness and aloneness in their life, they gain strength in over coming it. This strength helps Ender see and understand truth. These abilities are what make Ender the "Speaker for the Dead." He speaks about the deceased using only truth and explains intentions, instead of a usual eulogy where only positive aspects of the life are expressed (x).
             Ender meets a woman named Novinha. Novinha made the original call for the "Speaker" when her parents died. Novinha is a very troubled woman, full of shame. Her parents died when she was very young and she took over their roles as xenobiologist. Instead of marrying the man she loved, she married a different man who was not only abusive, but also infertil...