Circle Post 5

Throughout the entirety of The Circle, we are led to believe that Mae is our misguided hero and a victim of The Circle’s brainwashing influence. We so desperately want her to reach that moment of epiphany where she “wakes up” and is finally able to understand The Circle for what it really is: an evil power-seeking corporation with the potential to track and control every person on Earth. However, in the end Eggers breaks with the apparent “happy ending” norm that we’ve grown so accustomed to in literature, television, and film. Instead, Mae does not “wake up” but rather she diligently demonstrated her “strength, resolve, and loyalty” to The Circle and its goals by turning in the main dissident who could have been responsible for its downfall. In a review from The New York Times, it is suggested that, in the end, “Mae, then, is not a victim but a dull villain.” Now I’ll be honest in saying I really was not a fan of The Circle. However, I would have not liked it a whole lot more had Eggers not ended it like this.

The New York Times was astute in its observation on Mae’s character development. As the main character and the only person who’s perspective we are granted access to, we, as an audience, inevitably develop some sort of connection to Mae and we see her as the hero, by default. And this is not unfounded as, in the beginning, we are shown that she is truly a good person with good intentions, and through the events of the book she becomes corrupted by the imposing influence of the mentality of The Circle. But we see this corruption as reversible, especially with the hope that Ty/Kalden will be able to get through to her and convince Mae of why completion will be a disastrous event. Only now we know that as Mae travelled further and further down her path in the book, it became less and less likely for her to come back. This is why I think it was a suitable ending for the book, for had Mae actually listened to Ty/Kalden in the end, I would have found this too unbelievable. For Eggers to say that after all the events of the book, that one speech at the end was enough to sway Mae back would have been to big a leap for me to consider acceptable.

But after completing my reading of The Circle, I can definitely see where along the line Mae was moving from “a victim” to “a dull villain.” As she progressed into and embraced her life as someone who went transparent, and apparent ambassador for The Circle, she began truly shifting into the mentality of a Circle proponent. The first evidence of this was when she introduced her Demoxie idea, as this marked the first time where she actively sought to go above in beyond in attempting to further the purpose of The Circle. From here we see a further progression through her introduction admission of secretly meeting with Annie to her followers and use of SoulSearch. The evidence is clear that, although we may not have realized it at the time, Mae had truly developed into the role of a villain, even if it was a rather “dull” one.

One thought on “Circle Post 5

  1. After reading a couple of your posts, I really do have to commend you on being such an eloquent writer. Your voice shines through your work whether you are writing about a passion of yours and even a book that was mandatory to read. I wasn’t a fan of the Circle neither, but I am glad that the author decided to put a twist to the conclusion. It was very realistic in the fact that people do not always make the right decisions. They support something, even if they might be aware that it is not morally sound, only because it is supported by the majority. From the beginning, Mae yearned to be part of this institution and to be a part of the big picture, It was not likely that she would turn on them. It is unfortunate, but sometimes people put their own interests before those of others. It was clear that she did not have bad intentions, but she allowed the Circle to corrupt her. It was sort of a reflex for the audience to perceive Mae as an innocent pawn of the institution’s hidden agenda, but she was perfectly aware of what was occurring. I didn’t really think of that until reading your post.

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