"I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?" (Cline, p. 364)
In Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, a brilliant eccentric, James Donovan Halliday, creates the OASIS as an escape from the reality of a broken society. However, he ultimately realizes that in order to find true happiness, we must forge connections to create a better world. As you embark on your own research, you will have the opportunity to examine our own societal issues and offer potential solutions. You will want to incorporate a variety of sources and perspectives in your research in order to fully examine and understand the issue you are interrogating.
"I don't know, maybe your experience differed from mine. For me, growing up as a human being on the Planet Earth in the twenty-first century was a real kick in the teeth. Existentially speaking." (Cline, p. 16)
"[FIve] hidden keys open [five] secret gates
Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits
And those with the skill to survive these straits
Will reach The End where the prize awaits." (Cline, p. 6)
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Excerpts quoted from Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Crown Publishers, 2011.