Reoccurring Themes In Ernest Cline's Ready Player One
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Everyone wants to believe in something, whether it is the Tooth Fairy, global warming, or even religion. Everyone is also afraid of something, whether it is spiders, heights or even tests. The concept of having beliefs and fears have been two reoccurring themes throughout three books we have read this year. Ernest Cline, Robin Sloan, and Philip K. Dick have provided readers with dynamic characters that undoubtedly want to believe in some greater force. In Ernest Cline’s, Ready Player One, the protagonist believes that even a poor boy can win thousands of dollars while living in fear of being killed by his enemies. While in Robin Sloan’s, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, the protagonist wants to believe that the love he has for his girlfriend is enough, while at the same time he fears that it is not. Lastly, in Philip K. Dick’s, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,…show more content… The protagonist, Rick Deckard, posses the occupation of hunting down androids and ultimately “retiring” them. In today’s society this type of situation would be illegal. Individuals living in today’s society would view Rick as an extreme bounty hunter. However, many androids in the novel are retired without reason. Even though Rick’s society views androids as evil, hateful and malicious, he does not always share their point of view. Throughout the book Rick desperately tries to persuade himself into thinking that all androids are bad, even if they do not appear to be. He needs to think this way in order for his job to feel less inhumane and even more so when he falls in love with an android named Rachel. Rick constantly lives in fear of being killed by androids and that he we eventually not be able to handle the insanity of his job. "You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity.” (Pg.