Techniques and Goals
Wade and Art3mis have developed a sort of romance, but it all topples to the ground in Chapter 19 of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. Wade reveals to Art3mis how much he loves her, and Art3mis decided to cut her ties with him for the benefit of both of them. Wade, understandably, is feeling crushed after his loss. The author uses tone, description, and inner thinking to stir empathy in the reader and to build a mood of depression and uselessness in the novel. The author describes Wade’s sadness in order to show Wade’s love of Art3mis and how much the OASIS impacts Wade’s life.
Throughout the novel, Art3mis has gradually become more and more important. Wade’s connection with Art3mis has also gradually developed, and it leads up to him declaring his love for her. And after Art3mis decides to cut off ties with Wade, he is understandably devastated. Cline uses a sad tone in order to portray Wade’s love of Art3mis and show how Wade is completely crushed by his loss. “In the weeks since Art3mis had dumped me, I’d had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning” (190). This sentence takes place when Wade had just broken up with Art3mis. It portrays Wade’s pain of losing connection with Art3mis. He is feeling defeated, and he is contemplating how he will live his life now. He became so attached to Art3mis, and he doesn’t know what his purpose in life is without her. “Driven by loneliness, curiosity, and raging teen hormones, I’d purchased a midrange ACHD, the Shaptic UberBetty, a few weeks after Art3mis stopped speaking to me” (193). This passage takes place when Wade is feeling down about the break-up. It shows how Wade wanted to fill the hole inside him that broke open from his loss of Art3mis. He wanted to get a new “girlfriend” so that he wouldn’t be in so much pain. The loss of Art3mis has driven Wade into depression, and he is struggling to deal with it.
In Wade’s whole life, the OASIS was very important to him. It is his escape from the real world, and serves as a sort of new “reality” for him. For Wade, the OASIS is also the thing he spent most of his life on. It’s kind of his home away from home in a sense. Even the whole book “Ready Player One” mostly takes place in the OASIS! Author Ernest Cline uses inner thinking and description in order to portray the importance of the OASIS in Wade’s life. “The rest of the room was dominated by my OASIS immersion rig. I’d invested every spare cent I had in it” (191). This passage takes place while Wade is talking about his apartment. It shows how much Wade values the OASIS in his life and how much he is willing to sacrifice in order to use it. Just like his room, Wade’s life is dominated by the OASIS. “The sight of my tiny one-room apartment, my immersion rig, or my reflection in the mirror – they all served as a harsh reminder that the world I spent my days in was not, in fact, the real one” (195). This passage takes place while Wade is thinking about what is actually important in his life. It shows how Wade is contemplating where he really lives his life in. He understands that the OASIS isn’t actually the real deal, and that reality is something completely different than the OASIS. “But over the past few months, I’d come to see my rig for what it was: an elaborate contraption for deceiving my senses, to allow me to live in a world that didn’t exist.” This passage shows Wade realizing what the OASIS really is. Wade has spent a great chunk of his life trying to avoid reality and trying to find a life in the OASIS. He realizes that the world he really lives in isn’t actually a world at all; it’s just a virtual imitation.
This part of the book shows how much Art3mis and the OASIS matter to Wade. The way the author increases both of their importance throughout the book, and it helps lead to Art3mis distracting Wade from the Hunt. Cline implements this development perfectly, allowing the reader to see how much Art3mis and the OASIS impact Wade, and how both of them are so important to him, that their importance clashes in his mind.
