Most people love the idea of conformity, to a certain point. Feeling accepted and being brought into a group boosts our confidence and moral. Yet, when that ideology becomes forced, it takes away from certain aspects of human life. As Mae becomes more unhealthy involved and devoted to The Circle she loses the typical values and characteristics of a human. By falling into the trap that is the mantras created by the Three Wise Men, she (like many others across the world) is being consumed by the technology all around her. As one can tell from just reading a few, short pages, Mae’s life is controlled by her work and the company itself. And as this continues she loses what makes her unique and transforms more and more into a product of the software.
At the start of the novel, Mae was a bright, energetic soul eager to find the adventure in each new day. However, which new task and additional minute spent at Circle headquarters, another piece of that soul fades to nothingness. It is then replaced by a computable piece of software that is only supposed to run in one certain way. Now, Mae thinks with the company in mind first. She has put aside personal pleasure and has become a robot that serves a single duty. An example of Mae putting work before her actual life is on page 331 where it says, “Normally, she would have grabbed a chilled brownie, but seeing the image of her hand reaching for it, and seeing what everyone else would be seeing, she pulled back” (Eggers 331). This is more than just someone being wary of their calorie count. This is a lack of fun, true substance, and excitement in life. By pulling away from the simply joys she can look forward to, Mae makes the image of The Circle a priority. From this event, she stopped eating other sweets, drinking, and doing bad things. The point of living is to actually live, not waste the time we are given by performing robotic functions.
With this aspect, Mae has cut the diversity from her life and fully embraced becoming one within the Circle. She is fully transparent, works all hours, and never leaves. As a figurehead of the company she must live by its values and ideologies. But even she has relapses where she craves that adventure and uniqueness a life in numbers and data does not give her. “She called her parents. No answer. She wrote to them, nothing. She called Annie. No answer. She wrote to her, nothing”(Eggers 378). At this point in the book Mae is up late on Customer Experience working tirelessly to rid her mind of the what happened at her parents’ house. While looking through inquiries Mae feels a tear inside of her being. I believe that this is a tear due to emptiness. She has so much anxiety from having to keep up with social and company pressures that her body lacks real human values. Like a body due to lack of nutrients can not act properly, her mind and soul are not performing well because it misses what it used to thrive on; adventure, human contact and pure joy. Do you believe that Mae is too involved in The Circle and needs to distance herself? Or is being closely connected to your work helpful? Also, when does the needs of a person outweigh the needs of their job?