The Increase in Self-Confidence with Self-Development in Ready Player One

In 2044, Wade Watts uses a virtual reality game called the OASIS to escape the ugly reality of the future. But when the creator dies, a challenge is released promising an ultimate prize. The challenge consists of many puzzles based on the creators' avid affiliation with pop culture. Players throughout the real world are willing to kill for the grand prize, and if Wade wants to survive, he'll have to face reality. The millions of people fighting for the grand prize is not his biggest competition. IOI is a very wealthy organization who plans to ruin the OASIS. Racing against time and his intense competition, everything falls apart when Wade finds that IOI is willing to do anything to get to the prize before him.From the beginning of the novel, Wade and Art3mis are shown as completely different people with contradicting personalities. Wade is a discouraged young teen due to his upbringing of his abusive aunt and the tractor park where he lives, whereas Art3mis is confident and determined. Throughout Ready Player One, Ernest Cline depicts the contradicting personalities of these two characters through diction and syntax.

As soon as these two characters are established, there is a clear difference in how society views them. Art3mis is a high class, well-respected royalty in the online scene, where Wade is viewed as a peasant because of his personality and upbringing. Even Wade sees her at a much higher standard compared his self conscious persona. This can be seen on page 28 where Wade describes his online avatar as having, '... a slightly smaller nose than me, and he was taller. And thinner. And more muscular. And he didn't have any teenage acne.' Wade is shown to have a self-conscious feel about his personality through the syntax of this quote. Changing his physical appearance online is a coping mechanism he uses to escape his own reality. Wade is often conflicted with trying to mimic Art3mis's online character, which is a problem we have in our society today on social media. On page 35, Wade is shown admiring her online character, 'Her avatar had a pretty face, but it wasn't unnaturally perfect. In the OASIS, you got used to seeing freakishly beautiful faces on everyone. But Art3mis's features didn't look as though they'd been selected from a beauty drop-down menu on some avatar creation template.' Cline uses diction in this quote to show the obsession Wade has with her online avatar and how discouraging it can be to see someone so perfect through a screen. Wade says that he sometimes saves her pictures to a folder. This is an accurate example of Wade's obsession with Art3mis. Since she is seen as a celebrity in the online realm, she does not even know who Wade is, yet he knows every little detail about her. When the two first meet on page 87, he is able to immediately depict her features, even though she can barely be seen in the dark. The first thing Art3mis says when they meet is, 'Who the hell are you?', which shows that she truly had no clue of his existence. After the two have a brief discussion where Art3mis is low key insulting Wade a few times, the two discover that they are very much alike. On page 88 Wade says, 'We hit it off immediately, because we shared all of the same interests.' After following her avatar for years, Wade finally got the attention from her he had always been wanting, and was rewarded with an immediate bond. Even though the two are close, Art3mis's confidence still shines since she isn't worried about impressing Wade, whereas Wade is very nervous and starstruck.

Towards the end of the story, Wade tries to make advances in their relationship, but Art3mis rejects him, using the contest as an excuse. He is committed to trying to make her like him, where is almost about to win the contest but can't think about anything else but her, although things don't always play out in his favor. On page 312, Art3mis cries, 'Maybe you've forgotten, but I'm homeless and on the run for my life right now! ... I can't fight a war, much less try to clear the Third Gate. And I don't have anywhere to go!' Wade is persistent to convince her to attempt the Third Gate with him but she is resistant. This is a big example of Wade's shift in personality, where he is confident enough to beg her to come with him, where at the beginning of the book, he wouldn't have ever been able to do that. Art3mis's frustration is an obvious sign of the couple's heated relationship and is a good example of how their personalities collide but are also very similar in ways. This is also a clear example of Art3mis losing confidence in herself due to the discouraging events that are happening in her life.

Overall, Ernest Cline does an extreme job of showing the contradictory personalities of Wade and Art3mis throughout the novel using diction and syntax. Wade's self conscious and discouraged personality into someone with confidence and preference, while Art3mis loses confidence in herself. 'Over the years, a friendly rivalry had gradually had gradually developed between us. We did a lot of trash-talking about which one of us would get his name up on the Scoreboard first. We were constantly trying to out-geek each other with our knowledge of obscure gunter trivia.' (Cline 39)

This quote introduces the competitive relationship Wade and Aech had because of their similar knowledge of gunters - an avatar in the OASIS who searches for Halliday's Easter Egg. Unlike the contradicting personalities of Art3mis and Wade, they are very much alike. Both have so much knowledge of the OASIS that they often try to 1-up each other. One accomplishment that they would fight over is getting their name on the scoreboard before one another. The scoreboard is a list of names in the OASIS of everyone that had passed a gate.

'I stared at him, utterly speechless. For years gunters had speculated that Anorak still roamed the OASIS, now as an autonomous NPC.' (Cline 84) One of Wade's objectives to completing the contest was that he had to obtain a key from a lich in a dark tomb. After beating him in an old jousting video game, he was given the key. In this scene, the lich transforms into Anorak, a holographic, ghost type version of Halliday's player. Many gunters had speculated since his death that his avatar still roamed the OASIS in one way or another. This was a huge milestone in his quest as it being his first encounter with the pop culture legend. ''Sorrento,' I said, trying to hide the fear in my voice, 'I want you and your bosses to know something. You're never going to find Halliday's egg. You know why? Because he was smarter than all of you put together. It doesn't matter how much money you have or who you try to blackmail. You're going to lose.'' (Cline 145)

Nolan Sorrento is the head of the IOI, the group competing with Wade to claim Halliday's Easter Egg. The IOI (Innovative Online Industries) are Wade's only real competition, as they will do anything they can to get in his way and claim the prize first. In this quote, Wade verbally attacks Sorrento, trying to lead him to the realization that he is ahead of them because he has much more knowledge of pop culture than any of them do. IOI tries to buy and fight their way through the contest with no actual knowledge of how to get through the gates. This is due to greed and hunger for power. 'After I disabled their engines, I boarded the ship and proceeded to kill every avatar there. The captain tried to apologize when he saw who I was, but I wasn't in a forgiving mood.' (Cline 214).

After thorough progression through the Easter Egg Hunt, Wade has begun to make a name for himself. He has shied away from his former unconfident self and is now well respected throughout the OASIS. On part of his quest, he invades and destroys multiple ships (or X-wings). As he invades one of the final ships, he kills all the avatars on the ship. The captain realizes who he is and tries to beg for mercy, but Wade kills him anyways. This shows a shift in his personality as he shows a sort of ruthlessness that he hasn't showed before.