Essay Sample on Ready Player One: A Dystopian Utopia of Realities, Competitions, and Identities

Introduction

Ready Player One is a dystopian novel that reveals a futuristic world set in 2044 that is struggling with many economic and social complications that are similar to the world today. The themes in the novel revolve around multiple types of reality, competition, and identity. Unemployment, global warming, and overpopulation are some of the main characters of the world created in the novel. In this world, individuals try to avert the problems in the real world by seeking a virtual world where they could be whoever or whatever they could be. Different age groups rely on the virtual reality game, OASIS, to escape the real world and its hardships. In this paper, this world created in the novel will be analyzed together with its similarities to the real world today.

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The world created in the normal is overcrowded, and most of the areas are seen to have power shortages. There is not enough food available, and often individuals live in a miserable world that people have to suffer. Regarding the real world today, this is the same case in some regions since hunger and housing issues form significant hurdles to the development of countries today. Furthermore, the dystopian world created in the novel recreates a world in which houses are stacked on each other, and violence creates constant struggle in the region. For instance, Wade's father is killed while looting, and he explains that such a situation is not unusual in the stacks. The only way to deal with such problems is going into the OASIS and spending time there as a way of personal gain.

Apart from the minimal reference of an Earth that is disaster-stricken, over 95% of the novel is in the OASIS. The OASIS is an immersive simulation that uses human senses to create a new virtual existence (Cline, 23). The novel is filled concerning pop culture in the real world. For instance, the OASIS itself is modeled after the Rubix cube, which was first created in the United States. As for the world today, pop culture has played a critical role in the kind of interactions that we have in various environments. Our ability to relate to specific age groups such as the youths is linked to our understanding of pop culture and its integration into various aspects of life. As in the OASIS, the 3x3x3 grid is made up of many words that are simulated that relate to movies, TV shows, and video games. However, some of the aspects of the OASIS are exaggerated. As in the book, every individual has access to every content ever made. This is an exaggerated scenario since the real world is guided by policies and laws that ensure such a situation does not happen. In the OASIS, an individual can have any book in the world, something that is not possible in the real world.

Even though the OASIS is a virtual world, often people get engrossed in the aspects of the platform and get confused. The immense reality that is rendered in real time with graphics makes the world seem very real. Aspects like money making in the OASIS is as genuine as in the real world. Even though the real world has a massive fuel outage, people in OASIS manage to create and sell fake fuel for running virtual spaceships. This is a depiction of the role that the virtual reality world plays in the lives of individuals in the dystopian world created. As in the real world today, many individuals still live in poverty. The little opportunity that is derived from any situation in life is used to the fullest. This is, therefore, a virtual world that closely relates to the way of life of people living with poverty today.

However, the OASIS being a world for any individual, even the rich can access the world. The diverse set of individuals in the world describes what is currently going on in the real world. Social stratification has changed the way the individuals interact, and often, people strive to get coins to improve their lives in the OASIS (Cline, 48). In the novel, the international online industries (OIO) controls the internet. Providing the most extensive internet services in the world in the novel, this organization is seen to control most of the things in the OASIS. The OIO struggles to get control of OASIS so it could monetize the services. In the real world, the capitalistic nature of wanting to monetize services and increase revenue is not a unique aspect. Many cooperations are focused on the monetization of services rather than improving the world.

Individuals in the OASIS were continually searching for an egg that was figuratively laid by Halliday. Whoever acquired this egg would have access and inherit Halliday's fortune. This hunt for this egg drives the novel's whole plot. To find this egg, individuals were obsessively reviewing Halliday's life and in a manner were somehow practicing to be him. This world is, therefore, money driven and individuals were willing to go to inconsiderable height to find the egg that would grant them riches. In the real world, such obsessions are very rare. This is because individuals today are less willing to do anything without motivation. This is somewhat similarity to what is happening in the OASIS. Individuals are motivated by their need to have money to avert the problems that were filled in the real world in 2045. As the world in the novel revolves around finding the egg, so is the real world seeking new ways to make money and develop better lives. The world today revolves around money, and the egg in the novel can be seen to symbolically represent money and its role in deciding life decisions. Since the world outside the Oasis is filled with problems, the only solution is a lump sum of money that would ensure a better life regarding buying a property.

Even when Wade gets the egg and Halliday is reborn through him. He depicts one central unavoidable aspect of the real world that not everyone gets what they want. When Artemis is revealed to be a girl at the end of the novel, Wade has the same qualities as a holiday but will never have. In this manner, the world created in the novel shows that opportunities in the environment never entirely go as expectations and it is the role of any person to make the right decision and live or improve the situation. This is the same in the real world today. Opportunities are not always available, and it is the role of any person to ensure that any chances are well used in life.

Conclusion

In sum, Ready Player One is a dystopian novel that reveals a futuristic world set in 2044 that is struggling with many economic and social complications that are similar to the world today. Much of the novel is based on the virtual reality world but ends in the real world, which shows that the real world occupies a central position in our lives. Many inferences about the real world are depicted in the real world. Social, political, and economic problems are still significant hurdle in many nations around the world. As in the OASIS, individuals strive to make an income as in the real world. Diversification of social classes also promotes differences in need for various needs in society. In general, the world in the novel Ready Player One is closely related to our own, and it gives a vivid insight into the needs in society and how we are shaped by our actions.

Works Cited

Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. , New York: Broadway Books, 2018.