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Book I, Part 2

Summary: Book I, Part 2

By Friday, Mae has memorized the basics of her job, and her approval rating is steadily climbing. Every customer gives her a rating, which is carefully tracked. Dan impresses upon her that her goal should be a “100” approval rating and anything below should be addressed with follow-up calls. Mae has lunch with Annie, and two other co-workers, Sabine and Josef. She learns that Francis, the guy she met at the solstice party, has a tragic past. His two sisters were abducted and murdered after his parents died, and he was shuffled through foster homes as a child. This tragedy inspired him to work in child security.

Annie brings Mae to the weekly company-wide meeting called “Dream Friday,” where presenters talk about their current projects. Eamon Bailey presents his new project, “SeeChange,” which aims to get people to post tiny cameras all across the environment. He pitches the program as a useful way to “see” what’s always going on, like local traffic or the waves before heading out to surf, but he quickly transitions into the program’s larger purpose—to monitor civil activity. Bailey explains that the technology will provide a way to track demonstrations and riots and catch criminals on demand, claiming that “all that happens must be known” to make countries, governments, and individuals accountable.

Mae returns to her parents’ house that weekend. She learns that her father has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and that her parents are struggling with their health insurance provider to get proper care and medicines. She leaves her parents dismayed, and heads back home, stopping off at a kayaking rental spot on the bay. Being alone on the water, surrounded by nature and wildlife, including seals, soothes Mae.

Back at work, Mae dives into a huge backload of customer experience questions. She meets up with Francis for lunch. Francis tells her about his child security project, ChildTrack, which aims to plant chips in children’s bones so that they can always be tracked. After lunch, Mae runs into a strange man in the hallways. He says his name is Kalden and he’s a coworker. Claiming he’s curious about her job, he follows her back to her desk where he hovers over her shoulder watching her work. They’re interrupted by Gina, who comes by to give Mae another monitor for her desk. Mae now has three monitors—one for her interactions with customers, one for her interactions with the co-workers at large (the (OuterCircle), and one for her interactions with her InnerCircle at the company, which happens through Zing. Gina tells Mae that anyone in the Circle can monitor any other employee’s location and interactions throughout the day. Any social participation through Zing, including how much you “like,” comment on, or talk to other co-workers is aggregated into a PartiRank which ranks you against other coworkers. That night, Mae goes to sleep, overwhelmed.

Analysis: Book I, Part 2

SeeChange is one of the first signs of tech’s overreaching influence in the novel. Bailey presents the technology, a tiny camera that will be mass-produced and posted across the world by citizen volunteers, to instill order in society by squashing revolutionary uprisings in third-world countries, but as will be demonstrated later, the Circle likely has an ulterior, more sinister motive for creating the technology. In this way, Egger shows how tech’s glossy promises can seem idealistic on the outside, but often hide problematic consequences which are difficult to decipher at first. For instance, Mae doesn’t flinch when she hears Bailey talk about how “all that happens must be known.” She’s too overwhelmed by his power and prestige and how drastically her world has changed since becoming an employee at the Circle, made even more apparent when she visits her parents, who are confused by her new tech jargon, or goes home to her dingy apartment on the outskirts of town.

The only time Mae does bristle is when Francis mentions his plan to put chips in children’s bones to track them and keep them safe from abduction. She’s taken aback for a moment, finding the plan surprising and a bit unsettling. Mae doesn’t question it any further, however. Francis’s tragic life circumstances, and the moral ground it gives him to create his ChildTrack system, seem to supersede the inclination to question the technology. Here, Eggers suggests that one’s critical capability might get lost in the dream-like visions to solve the world’s problems, especially when one has a personal investment. Things seem benign at first but can get complicated when implemented and carried out in the real world.

Mae’s kayaking, a hobby she’ll continue throughout the novel, is her way of relaxing and regaining a sense of control of her life. She visits the kayak rental place after learning of her father’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, which sends her reeling. She feels powerless to help her father and ashamed that she isn’t in a financial position to help him, despite all the money she spent on college. The calm and peace Mae feels out on the water, as she looks across the bay and makes eye contact with seals and other wildlife, is counterpointed by the calm and peace she feels at the Circle, where there are dozens of digital assistants to help her, and her life is streamlined with top-of-the-line care. Both the water and the Circle give Mae a sense of “order” in her world, but as the novel progresses, the types of “order” each provide have subtle, but important differences. The Circle’s help comes at a price, which is not entirely apparent to Mae early on.

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