51 pages • 1 hour read
Ernest ClineReady Player Two
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
How does Wade resemble his hero James Halliday, and in what ways are they different? What experiences cause Wade to become disillusioned with his hero?
Consider the relationship between empathy and present digital technologies like social media. Would technology like ONI improve people’s empathy or inhibit it?
How does ONI make humanity complacent in the face of global threats? Are there parallels to 21st-century social media and video streaming platforms?
What are the pitfalls of a technocracy? Do similar technocratic dynamics play out in our world?
Consider the scene in which Wade spies on L0hengrin. Does his acceptance of her trans identity represents personal growth for Wade, or is it an expression of voyeurism and fetishism?
Describe three characters’ relationship with nostalgia. How do they reconcile with the difficulties of investing too much in a piece of pop culture?
How does the book deal with racist or misogynistic elements in the pop culture texts it references? Does Cline do enough to engage with these elements?
How does the book incorporate themes of transhumanism and even posthumanism? Does the book endorse or challenge these views?
How does the reveal of digital Wade effect the reliability of the narration? Point to three scenes that may have been described differently had the narrator been the flesh-and-blood Wade.
If Cline wrote a sequel, what might it look like? Who would be the protagonists and antagonists, and what would the central conflict be?
Related Titles
By Ernest Cline
