It isn’t until the very end of the novel that Wade truly understands what Halliday had told him. During the final moments of the story, Wade meets his online lover, Samantha Evelyn Cook, for the first time in real life. Wade describes their meeting as, “Some time later, she leaned over and kissed me. It felt just like all those songs and poems had promised it would. It felt wonderful[...]It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS” (Cline 371-372). Wade’s thoughts go to show that everything Halliday had mentioned before was true. It was only when Wade began living his life and truly experiencing reality that he finally uncovers the true beauty of the world. The virtual world that Wade had grown so fond of only presented him with false hope and lies. If Wade had never reached this point of realization, he may never have experienced the pure happiness and unconditional love he now shares with Samantha. This is how Ernest Cline uses the literary device of characterization to establish the complex theme of technology creates an impenetrable barrier between the virtual world and the real