In 2044, Wade Watts uses a virtual reality game called OASIS to escape the ugly reality of the future. But when the creator dies, a challenge is issued that promises an ultimate prize. The challenge consists of many puzzles based on the creators' passionate affiliation with pop culture. Players across 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 top prize are not his biggest competition. The IOI is a very wealthy organization that plans to ruin the OASIS. Racing against time and his own intense competition, everything falls apart when Wade discovers 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 contradictory personalities. Wade is a young teenager despondent due to his abusive aunt's upbringing and the tractor park where he lives, while Art3mis is confident and determined. In Ready Player One, Ernest Cline describes the contradictory personalities of these two characters through diction and syntax. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As soon as these two characters are established, there is a clear difference in how society views them. Art3mis is a high-class member of the royal family and highly respected in the online scene, where Wade is seen as a peasant due to his personality and upbringing. Wade also sees her at a much higher standard than her self-conscious personality. 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 teenage acne.' Wade demonstrated that he has a self-aware feeling about his personality through the syntax of this quote. Changing his physical appearance online is a coping mechanism he uses to escape his reality. Wade is often conflicted about trying to imitate Art3mis' online font, which is a problem we have in our social media society today. On page 35, Wade is shown admiring his online persona: "His avatar had a beautiful face, but it wasn't unnaturally perfect." In the OASIS you had become accustomed to seeing extraordinarily beautiful faces on everyone. But Art3mis' features didn't look like they were selected from a beauty drop-down menu on some avatar creation template.' Cline uses diction in this quote to show the obsession that Wade has with his online avatar and how disheartening it can be to see someone so perfect through a screen. Wade says he sometimes saves his photos in 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 doesn't even know who Wade is, but he knows every little detail about her. When the two meet for the first time on page 87, she can immediately draw their 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 idea he existed. After the two have a brief argument in which Art3mis insults Wade in a low tone a few times, the two discover that they are very similar. On page 88 Wade says, "We hit it off right away, because we all shared the same interests." After following her avatar for years, Wade finally got the attention from her he'd always wanted, and was rewarded with an immediate connection. Even if itwo are close, Art3mis' confidence still shines as she is not worried about impressing Wade, while Wade is very nervous and fascinated. Towards the end of the story, Wade tries to make progress in their relationship, but Art3mis rejects him, using the contest as an excuse. He's busy trying to make her like him, where he almost wins the contest but can't think about anything else except her, even though things don't always go in his favor. On page 312, Art3mis shouts, "Maybe you've forgotten, but right now I'm homeless and on the run for my life!" ...I can't fight a war, much less try to get past the Third Gate. And I have nowhere to go!' Wade insists on convincing her to attempt the Third Gate with him, but she resists. This is a great example of Wade's personality change, where he is confident enough to beg her to come with him, where at the beginning of the book he would never have been able to. Art3mis' frustration is a clear sign of the pair's heated relationship and is a good example of how their personalities clash but are also very similar in ways. This is also a clear example of how Art3mis has lost confidence in herself due to the discouraging events 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 despondent personality transforms into someone who has confidence and preference, while Art3mis loses confidence in herself. «Over the years, a friendly rivalry had gradually developed between us. We had a lot of chatter about which one of us would get our name on the board first. We were constantly trying to outdo each other with our knowledge of Gunter's dark curiosities.' This quote introduces the competitive relationship that Wade and Aech had due to their similar knowledge of the Gunters, an avatar of the OASIS who seeks Halliday's Easter egg. Unlike Art3mis and Wade's contradictory personalities, they are very similar. They both have so much knowledge about the OASIS that they often try to annoy each other. One outcome they would fight for is getting their name on the board before each other. The scoreboard is a list of names in the OASIS of everyone who has passed a gate. I stared at him, completely speechless. For years the Gunters had speculated that Anorak still roamed the OASIS, now as an autonomous NPC.' One of Wade's goals for completing the race was 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 after his death that his avatar still roamed the OASIS in one way or another. This was a milestone in his research as it was 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 will never find Halliday's egg. Do 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 will lose.'' Nolan Sorrento is the head of IOI, the group competing with Wade to claim Halliday's Easter egg. IOI (Innovative Online Industries) are Wade's only real competition, as they will do everything they can to get in his way and claim the prize first. In this quote, Wade verbally attacks Sorrento, trying to get him to realize that he is ahead of them because he has much more knowledge of pop culture than anyone else. The IOI tries to buy and buy its way through the competition without any knowledge.