Stenton abuses the animals by isolating them or showing them off for his entertainment or for purposes of experiments. He took these creatures from their habitat in the Marianas Trench and put them in an aquarium where he can view them all he wants and show them off to the public. And he shows them off every time Mae gives a virtually tour of the Circle she is told to show of the different creatures in the aquarium and make people want to see them. Hey are Stenton’s to parade around like he owns them but in reality how can one man own a piece of nature. He uses the excuse that they have ever been seen before and/or captured alive for people to see as his excuse for trapping them in tanks for his pleasure.
Look at how they describe the poor seahorse for example. It’s not even around its own offspring and is isolated from everything. It was hiding when Mae first went to go look at it and it seemed amused. It was not happy with its living conditions and didn’t care what happened to its offspring. And it looked and seemed sad when Mae had to walk away and it looked out as if it knew that Mae was there. It wanted company from outside of the tank but it couldn’t have that because Strenton wanted to take it from its home.
Then we have this stupid shark that that Stenton’s cares about so much and is his pride and joy. Taking it from its mysterious home of undiscovered creatures and yet to be discovered knowledge. Now this shark is really the only one of the animals that Strenton really gives a crap about because it is the one that is the most mysterious. He is so concerned about knowing everything there is about this shark that it is actually concerning. Feeding all kinds of animals just to see how they can get digested by the shark and whether the shark can even eat the different types of animals. And he wants everyone to know whether this shark can do it that is why he always has Mae go to the shark during its feeding time so the viewers can see the shark do its thing. But that is like treating the shark like a slave in a sense because you are now stripping the freedom of when the shark can eat, what it can it, and where it can go. Before when it was out in the wild it had all these freedoms and no one could say whether it can or can’t do something besides itself.
Now isn’t the stripping of one’s freedom and claiming to own them the definition of slavery. Whether you think it is just an animal or not it is still a valid question to think about. Strenton using this shark for experimentation instead of just letting it live its live like normal out in the wild. But it is the Circle and you never know what you are going to getting or stumble upon.
This section of the book just goes to show that The Circle has no exceptions to its transparency beliefs. The company strictly believes that all information should be available and doing so will actually benefit society. Yes, by using all available information The Circle can make experiences more personable, but there comes a point when it goes too far. Just as with Stenton and his fish, living things need their privacy to actually live. By this point in the book, people are becoming slaves to the company itself. There are plans of The Circle making it mandatory to have a TruYou account and to vote. By doing this, they are making people live a certain way and taking away from the uniqueness of life.
Stenton’s fish can be easily compared to the rest of the humans effected by The Circle. They (the humans) are being viewed through a glass barrier where everything they do is being watched by the company. As they are at the control of the executives (feeders), the humans are attached to the company and need it to operate. Like you said the fish are slaves, citizens can be seen as the same. The Circle is slowly stripping away peoples’ rights in their quest to be the most influential company, with control of most markets. While in a basic sense, the Wise Men are on a search for all information, their means are not morally sound.