Analysis Of Dave Eggers's 'The Circle'

Throughout the novel The Circle Dave Eggers explores many modern day issues and realistic concerns about how technology has integrated itself into humanity. This is done through the fictional tale of a young woman working her way up through a company and all the hardships she faces along the way. Similar to the way Orwell does this in his novel 1984, Eggers creates a society without privacy and arguably with no freedom. Considering the world today this is a legitimate, but unsettling, possibility. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book for several reasons. These include, but are not limited to the author’s overall satirical standpoint, the way this society is completely different from reality yet still feels eerily similar to how the world today is and is headed, and the excellent and modern writing style with which the author entraps the reader.

An enthralling journey through the life of Mae Holland, The Circle takes you through the young woman’s fictitious experience at the reigning tech enterprise of her world. The story begins with Mae Holland seeing the campus of the company for the first time. She is two years graduated from Carleton, a university, and is just about to begin her career. The campus thoroughly impresses Mae and is a feeling similar to any college graduate’s first experience at a Fortune 500 company in the real world. This sets a tone for the company as a giant, a company big enough that she could only expect to be another cog in the wheel. With that being said, she diligently works her up the ladder of the company. This company made itself through creation of TruYou. This is a way that people can handle every single aspect of their digital life through one identity, known as their TruYou. This is an idea that...

... middle of paper ...

...opment. This society without privacy can be considered a possibility, however I believe that man as a whole would not allow this to happen. People are stubborn and would refuse mandatory policies such as the ones put into action in the novel. With that being said, I do not think the author meant for it as an actual possibility as much as an attention grabbing and purely fictional twist on where technology has come to with humanity that attempts to, and successfully does, make people consider how valuable their privacy is and how much liberty they have left in today’s world. The novel puts you in the situation of the story and makes one ask themselves how they would handle a situation like this. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys observing other people’s views on society without taking any ideas put forth by the author as anything other than just that.