Child Labor Essay, Research Paper

A Tortured Childhood

Imagine having your child hood filled with memories of working 80+ hours a week, instead of playing with your friends. This is the sad reality experienced by many children, which is documented in the article Sweatshops in Honduras . These children work more hours a week then most adults, and get paid wages as low as 43 cents per hour. And the sad truth is that these children are not working for small companies that are barely staying in business, almost all of them are working for multi-billion dollar business such as Nike, and Wall-Mart, who could easily afford to give these people proper working conditions. The massive child labor is practically slave labor, which produces thousands of goods daily from children working 14-hour days in factory conditions that are nearly deadly, and is in direct violation of many current child labor laws. Then many of us in turn purchase these items at over 1000% of what it cost to make them. This article also represents the treatment of Ender Wiggin. He worked almost non-stop for over 5 years while training to fight the Buggers, received no pay, and was treated like an animal during his time with the I.F.

Ender had to work almost everyday for the majority of his childhood. From the time he was first in battle school, the I.F. was pushing Ender to work as many hours as possible, regardless of what Ender thought and completely ignoring his rights. This is much like the situations in the Sweat Shops. Ender had to work many hours daily, to destroy an enemy that he did not want to destroy, and Ender received absolutely no compensation for it. Although Ender, not even a teenager yet, wanted to go home because the work became too overwhelming for him, the I.F. would not allow him to leave until he completely finished his job (Card 285). The I.F. just assumed to turn him into a killing machine and then not do anything else for him after the war was over (Card 201). This type of neglect is common in the sweatshops. If one of the children gets hurt on the job and can no longer work, the companies just assume to let them move on with their lives, and they provide no reparations to them ( Sweatshops in Honduras 3).

The conditions Ender had to work in were horrible, and he was treated more like an animal then a person. Ender was physically and mentally abused by his fellow students many times, and the adults did nothing about. They wanted Ender to be a killing machine, not a human being. Ender rarely had the luxury of making friends, or sharing fun times with others. Also, near the end of his training, Mazer had pushed Ender so hard that he lost his mind, and could not sleep at nights (Card 286). Everyone just assumed to treat Ender like an animal rather than a human. This is also representative of the sweatshops in Honduras. The people are treated like animals, and their working conditions are often worse then the conditions animals live in. The sweatshops are always covered in fumes, which make breathing a chore. Many people wear masks, but it doesn t help. Also, the bathrooms are rarely cleaned and the stench coming from them is intolerable. As if the conditions were not worse enough, many people in the sweatshops are forbidden from making friends for fear that their work quality will decrease, much like the situation with Ender ( Sweatshops in Honduras 2).

Throughout his childhood, Ender was treated like a slave. He worked many hours, endured countless mental abuses, and in return he got nothing. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon for many children working in sweatshops in Honduras. They have their childhood stolen from them, so they can work slave labor for a few cents a day. Also, the sweatshop in Honduras is not an isolated situation, and sadly there are sweatshops all over the world. Despite many child labor laws, child labor still remains a huge problem in this world.