71 pages • 2 hours read
Ernest ClineReady Player One
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
1980s Popular Culture
Like Anorak’s Almanac within the story, Ready Player One is a love-letter to all things 1980s, and cultural references permeate the novel. Even the title is an allusion to the 80s video game Black Tiger. Almost every chapter contains lists of TV shows or songs, in-depth discussions of movies, or characters having arguments over trivia. Settings within the OASIS either mimic actual 80s locations or imagined locations conceived within 80s popular culture. Wade’s knowledge of the time period is encyclopedic, and he aspires to Halliday’s level of obsession with the decade; by extension, Cline demonstrates his own vast knowledge of 80s pop culture.
Wish Fulfillment
The OASIS provides a place where wishes can come true, so that even a poor young man can eventually become an archetypal hero. Wade yearns for many things in his life, and through his experiences hunting for Halliday’s egg, he obtains all of them—money, success, fame, friendship, and love. In the end, as Anorak’s powers are transferred to his avatar, Wade not only achieves his own dreams inside the OASIS, he also becomes capable of effectively granting wishes to others through his character’s new omnipotence.
Easter Egg
In the prologue, Wade describes the first video game Easter egg from the game Adventure as a way of contextualizing Halliday’s contest. Throughout the story, Wade, his friends, the rest of the gunters, and the Sixers strive towards Halliday’s literal egg hidden somewhere in the OASIS, making the egg the subject of much conversation and speculation. Fittingly, in order to obtain the egg, Wade must complete a game of Adventure. While the egg is an object inside the OASIS, and the ultimate goal of Wade’s quest, searching for the egg is what causes Wade to develop as a person and learn what is important in life outside of the game.
