The Circle: Book One, part 5 Summary & Analysis

This passage is a powerful example of why people deserve the right to privacy. Mae wants to spend as much time with her father as possible, and she can’t quite understand why he might want some time alone (rather than humiliating himself in front of his own daughter). All people should have privacy when they want it—they shouldn’t have to beg for it.

The fact that the kayaking system is now digitized is a subtle sign of how the Circle is destroying the right to privacy. Kayaking was a sanctuary for Mae, but now the Circle’s technology is encroaching on that sanctuary. It’s also significant that the digitized system relies on Wi-Fi: the business was more reliable before it upgraded its technology, it seems.

In this surreal scene, Mae encounters an elderly couple who are never named. The couple represents the old, pre-Internet way of life. The couple isn’t glamorous or creepily upbeat like the Circle’s employees, but they exemplify a stoic confidence and compassion that, as we’ll see, the Circle is on the verge of annihilating. The image of an island burning is, itself, a fascinating symbol: perhaps it gestures towards the way that modern technology has ruined individuality and privacy.

Solitude is important for Mae because it represents an escape from the stresses of her life. However, the Circle is on the verge of ending that solitude for good.

Even though Mae has only been working at the company for two weeks, she’s already being treated like an old pro. It’s perplexing that Mae could master her job after only two weeks—surely a company as prestigious and sought-after as the Circle would demand that its employees be savvy, intelligent people who can handle difficult assignments. Instead, Mae’s assignments seem remarkably easy and straightforward—even on a bad day the office nets a 93 out of 100.

Dr. Villalobos is a rather sinister character. She violates her Hippocratic oath within a few minutes of meeting Mae by conning her into ingesting a tracking device that Mae has every right to turn down. Notice that Dr. Villalobos laughs off the ethical implications of her action, much as Eamon Bailey did while introducing SeeChange. Mae seems unperturbed by the ethics of Dr. Villalobos’s behavior—she’s so dazzled by the beauty of her wrist monitor that she doesn’t realize it might as well be a handcuff.

In this disturbing section, Mae prepares to add her parents to her health insurance plan. While such an action will provide Mae’s father with the healthcare he needs, it will also give the Circle a lot of leverage over Mae, allowing them to pressure her into doing their bidding. Also, notice that Annie has to deal with “juicy Russian tax stuff,” which suggests that the Circle’s reach is becoming truly global.

As with so much at the Circle, putting Mae’s parents on Mae’s healthcare plan is a little too easy. Considering what we know already about the Circle’s unethical practices, we might wonder what the Circle will do with Mae’s parents—perhaps monitor them in the way it monitors its employees.

Mae responds to Alistair’s invite, symbolizing the fact that she’s becoming more and more deeply ingrained in her Circle community. The swordsman’s performance could symbolize the escalating sense of danger in the novel—although Mae doesn’t realize it yet, she is at the mercy of a tyrannical company.

Kalden continues to play an unclear role in the plot of the book—it’s not clear what he does for the Circle, if anything, and he doesn’t seem to have any relationship to the other characters. (The fact that Kalden offers Mae sour lemons might symbolize the fact that he’s the only person at the Circle who doesn’t offer Mae a rosy, naïve view of the world.) Kalden’s remark about his parents “loving him a lot” is a strange non sequitur, since it implies that Kalden’s parents hurt him; even later in the book, it’s not entirely clear what he’s talking about (Eggers never gives us information about Kalden’s literal parents). One possible interpretation of the passage, in light of what we later find out about Kalden, is that Kalden’s “parents” are his older partners and mentors, Eamon Bailey and Tom Stenton, who at first collaborate with him, but slowly begin to suppress his ideas. Another possible interpretation is that Kalden’s remarks are meant to emphasize the close relationship between love and destructiveness—an eerily appropriate observation, since the Circle is a dangerous, destructive company that nonetheless professes to love its users.