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Bill Cosby once said, “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure”. This explains the mindset of each of the protagonists in the three novels chosen. Science fiction is an interesting literary genre; the protagonists all desire success, but for different reasons. It is important to understand why each of the novels focus on succeeding and achieving an important goal, and how the protagonist achieves it. In the three sci-fi novels, A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Martian Chronicles, and Ready Player One, the main themes often revolve around the idea of desire or reward, these are most effectively portrayed in Ready Player One through its use of character development, setting, and conflict.
When addressing success in a novel, the main character’s development is often the key components in achieving their goals. In Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Wade Watts is just a regular user of the OASIS— a virtual reality world utilized by most people on Earth. Wade’s goal in the OASIS is to beat Halliday’s puzzles for a large cash prize, and control of the OASIS. Character development plays a fairly large role in the success of Wade Watts. In Ready Player One, Wade is an antisocial teenage boy, and like most boys that fit that description, he prefers to immerse himself in the OASIS rather than in reality. Throughout the novel, Wade realizes the importance of real life interaction and relationships. Wade’s life changes drastically throughout the novel; he is faced with new, dangerous situations, forms new relationships, and unveils the danger of leaving reality. With his constant personal development, and newfound knowledge, he is able to overcome his obstacles and achieve success in ...

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...y a Martian that fails to understand the ways of humans. In Verne’s novel, characters are faced with dilemmas such as hunger, heat, and the inability to distinguish their surroundings. This makes their goals challenging to accomplish. Many conflicts arise for the characters along their journey(s) in these two novels.
The three novels chosen to be read throughout the course, A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Martian Chronicles, and Ready Player One, contain many themes involving dreams, desire, and success; all of which are predominantly portrayed in Ready Player One through the use of character development, setting, and conflict. Conflicts in the novels provide a considerable challenge to accomplishing the characters’ goals; the use of setting indicates success in the novels, and character development shows the characters’ progression in achieving success.

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