There are many aspects to the larger society found in Ender’s Game that strike us as unpleasant, bizarre, or even horrifying. However, not all of these can be considered “dystopian,” that is, resulting from a poorly functioning society. For example, Ender's older brother, Peter, is clearly a sociopath, as can be seen in his frequent death threats against Ender and Valentine and his torture of small animals in the woods. However, that is not necessarily the result of the society as a whole.
That said, there are many more problems that can be traced directly to a society that is formed in large part by the state of perpetual war against the “Buggers.” As is often the case with societies faced with a dangerous external threat, the government has become more authoritarian, with a great trust and power placed in the hands of the International Fleet. Space and supplies are...
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rationed, leading to the restriction to two children per family by the world government. Indeed, the only reason the Wiggans were allowed a third child was by dispensation of the I. F.—and in order to receive that dispensation, Ender’s parents essentially waived all rights to Ender before he was even born.
And why was the I. F. interested in allowing the Wiggan family a third child? Because they use children as soldiers—something we find abhorrent in our world. Children are taken from their families and sent to the Battle School at, in Ender’s case, age six. They graduate and move directly into Fleet command roles at the age of sixteen—two years younger than one is allowed to volunteer for the armed forces in the United States. Even before the military takes a child, they subject them to what we would consider to be a violation of their human right to privacy. In order to decide whether a particular child is worth taking, that child is subjected to “the monitor”—a device that allows the I. F. to see and hear what the child sees and hears, at any time, day or night.
Once in Battle School, Ender is subjected to indoctrination that is decried even by those responsible for its administration as cruel, though guiltily justified by wartime necessity. After many years of such treatment, this leads to the ultimate expression of this society’s disfunction—the genocide of the Buggers by Ender. We are presented with this as a fait accompli—it was either the humans or the bugs —but in a less warped society, might there have been another way? It is only in subsequent books that Ender himself begins to explore the answer to that question.