Theme Of Fate In Ernest Cline's Ready Player One

A famous quote says, “Fate decides who comes into your life. Your heart decides who stays.” There is no changing the people that are put in your path. Meeting them is inevitable, maybe even destiny. However, it is only by choice whether or not those people remain in that path. In many examples of literature, this view of fate and destiny can be seen and applied. Other pieces may argue that personal choice guides the human way of living. In Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, Cline shows that fate plays a role through the isolation of Wade’s life, Halliday’s egg hunt, and the serendipitous meeting of Parzival and Art3mis. It was only by fate that Wade Watts, the protagonist of the novel, lived in isolation for his entire life. During the exposition at the beginning of the story, Wade said, “[Mom] was depressed

Halliday informs the gamers of the world using these words, “Before I died, I created my own easter egg, and hid it inside my most popular video game, the OASIS. The first person to find my easter egg will inherit my entire fortune” (p. 5). As before stated, Wade’s childhood was more than enough preparation for the difficult hunt ahead. It was almost as if Wade’s life had been created in anticipation of Halliday’s easter egg hunt. It was also fate that Wade was such an intelligent person in the first place. While Wade is in his OASIS Studies class, he says, “Today he was reading excerpts from The Egg Man, a bestselling Halliday biography that I’d already read four times” (p. 52). Wade devotes his time to learning all about the life of James Halliday. His intelligence and curiosity allows him to know what he needs to know in school, get good grades, and almost never pay attention during class. Because of his extra time during school, Wade can put even more time towards Halliday’s easter egg hunt. Fate was the number one factor in the genius abilities of Wade