RCL #7: Stenton’s see-through shark symbolizes several significant Circle characteristics.

Transparency inherently makes things less fearsome to us. When we can understand somethings inner workings, we are no longer confused and frightened by its inner mysteries. Part of the reason that humans as a species fear things is due to the fact that we don’t understand how they work – therefore, we can’t predict how they’ll act and how those actions might affect us. However, just because something is transparent doesn’t mean it can’t still inspire fear and terror.

Sharks are normally terrifying – to most people, they’re vicious, unpredictable beasts that would just as soon eat you as swim off into the depths below. When Stenton brings back a shark from the depths of the Mariana Trench, everyone watching Mae’s livestream is  fascinated with it. Normally, the sight of a shark tearing through its food would be enough to send most people recoiling in shock and horror. However, because Stenton’s shark is transparent, people are instead fascinated with its inner workings and watch in awe as it digests everything in its path and extrudes gray ash in its wake.

Stenton’s see-through shark symbolizes several significant Circle characteristics.

The shark devours indiscriminately devours everything that gets thrown into its tank, much to the delight of the millions of people watching Mae’s live stream. Under the guidance of Bailey and Stenton, The Circle is slowly expanding to cover all forms of life. At first, it started with online payments and making sure that you were who you said you were online. Then, it expands to social media, child tracking, and constant video streaming. Later on, The Circle even delves into the world of politics with politicians agreeing to “go transparent” and the unveiling of Demoxie, a voting system that also happens to track how its users vote. In Eggers’ imaginary universe, The Circle has expanded to cover nearly every facet of life – imagine if Google, Amazon, and Facebook all merged together and decided to publicly track every action made by their users.

The transparent yet mysterious qualities of the shark are also indicative of The Circle’s modus operandi. The Circle claims to be open and transparent, with employees sharing nearly everything about their lives and their careers with the rest of the world. Similarly, the shark gives its observers an unrestricted view into its inner workings. However, some things still remain shrouded in mystery. Within The Circle, many are wondering about the closing of The Circle, what it means, and what possible impacts it could have on society. Similarly, though Mae and her audience are allowed an unrestricted view of the shark’s inner workings, they remain ignorant of the processes that allow the shark to function as it does.

Finally, the method in which the shark processes its food is how Eggers’ attempts to make his point about the dangers of technology and over-connectivity. After eating its food, the shark processes it into an indistinguishable gray ash-like substance which it then extrudes. Much like the shark, which takes a wide variety of interesting sea creatures and leaves behind essentially nothingness, The Circle takes people’s lives and chews up and digests the interesting parts, leaving only boring, meaningless drivel for others to look at. Though The Circle is possibly the largest collective of human knowledge ever, the extreme openness essentially causes this knowledge to become worthless.

Within The Circle, author Dave Eggers uses Stenton’s transparent shark as a metaphor for The Circle and how overusing technology can be dangerous for society. Ultimately, he makes the point that if we know everything, it is the same as knowing nothing.

4 thoughts on “RCL #7: Stenton’s see-through shark symbolizes several significant Circle characteristics.”

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