After several grueling weeks, and many dull hours of reading this bland book, I can proudly proclaim that I am finished reading the Circle! Honestly, I am not really a big fan of reading in general, and this book made me realize that to myself once again. It wasn’t the theme or moral that made me dislike The Circle, but rather, his character development, or lack there of. Additionally, I feel that the book was not only very corny and elementary, but also, the novel could have been condensed in 200 pages less. Fortunately, with the free prompt for this last post, I will give my feedback and criticism on Dave Eggers, The Circle.

Like I said, there was a lot that I did not necessarily enjoy about this novel. However, the one thing I did enjoy was the satirical theme throughout. George Orwell’s 1984 is hands down one of my favorite novels of all time. The concept and the theme of the novel was unique at the time of it’s creation, and the satirical and thought provoking concepts throughout made Orwell’s novel one to remember. Being a borderline Libertarian, I am a firm believer of strictly following the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Also, I am definitely in favor of a smaller government, allowing the individuals to freely live their lives, make their own decisions, and create their own destinies. I believe that the only role of the government is to only uphold the laws of the people and that is it. With all of this in mind, the theme behind this novel is right up my alley. Eggers is acting satirically during the entire novel, constantly poking fun of the role of the government.

For example, the idea of privacy, secrets, and personal lives were exposed during this novel. Looking back at the three mantras of the Circle, these are ideas that modern day individuals are completely against. Individuals like to live private lives. Individuals don’t tell everyone about their personal lives. Individuals only share things that they want to. Simply, Eggers is showing ideals of the government in exaggerated ways by having the Circle uphold such drastic ideals.

Additionally, I enjoyed how Eggers shows that a lack of privacy is a detriment to one’s life. Take Mae for instance. She came into her job at the Circle as a “normal” individual, with a private life that not every single person knew about. However, as her tenure at the Circle continued, she slowly became more transparent, which in essence, damaged and effected her life entirely. She was connected through social media. Her health problems and complications were now available for people to see at any moment. She increased her number of followers, just to follow the ideals of the Circle. With these situations that she became more transparent, she also conformed more with what the Circle wanted her to become.

As you can see, Dave Eggers definitely had many aspects in the book that he could have definitely improved upon. However, I do commend him for his unique theme throughout, even though The Circle, is nowhere near as good as Orwell’s 1984.