The Circle: Book Two, part 1 Summary & Analysis

At Book Two opens, Stenton has returned from his expedition to the Marianas Trench, and he brought with him a hitherto undiscovered species of shark, which he displays in a tank at the Circle campus. Mae’s new job at the Circle is to show her watchers the shark, along with the other attractions on the campus, and talk about her experience of “going clear.” A voice in her headset tells her where to go. Anyone on the planet can watch her, whenever they want.

Mae has been at the Circle for nearly a year, and during this time, there have been some major changes in the company. People talk about the concept of Completion—the idea of everyone on the planet having a Circle account. 90 percent of the government is transparent, and most of the Circle’s employees are either transparent or in process of becoming so. Mae loves the experience of being watched by millions of people every day—as a result, she’s always ranked in the top ten for company popularity.

Mae walks back to the shark tank, where she greets a marine biologist named Georgia who has come to feed the shark. Georgia throws various sea creatures—including many creatures the shark has never experienced before—into the tank. At one point, the shark leaps out of the water and snatches a lobster from Georgia’s hand, nearly biting her. Georgia holds out a sea turtle for the shark—it occurs to Mae that sharks might not be able to digest turtles’ shells. But a voice in her headset says that she should allow Georgia to proceed with the feeding. The shark unhooks its jaw and swallows the turtle.

As Mae watches the shark, she sees a figure standing by the aquarium—it’s Kalden. Mae hasn’t heard from Kalden since she went transparent. Mae tries to follow Kalden—she walks by the aquarium tank, outside to the lawn, and she sees Kalden heading to a building. The voice in her headset asks where she’s going, and Mae says she’s just wandering. Suddenly, her phone rings—it’s Kalden, who says, “we have to meet.” He explains that her watchers can hear her, but not him. He says “The Circle is almost complete, and Mae, you have to believe that this will be bad for you, for me, for humanity.” He hangs up. When the voice in her headset comes in, Mae says the call was from “some lunatic babbling about the end of the world.” Mae realizes that she wants to see Kalden. She wonders if Kalden’s call is some kind of test, to see if she’d do anything to prevent the Circle’s “Completion.”

Later in the afternoon, Mae goes to her Customer Experience office. After going clear, Bailey asked her to remain working in Customer Experience for a few hours a week, to prove to her watchers that she’s “humble.” In Customer Experience, Mae feels totally relaxed—her office is the only place where there are “no unknowns.” She works there for a few hours, and one of the people who messages her with questions about using the Circle adds, “I’m watching you!” This Circle user proceeds to message Mae other questions—she asks Mae to join her professional network, professes to feel “devalued” when Mae doesn’t respond to her message immediately, and then—when Mae joins her professional network—writes a message on Mae’s professional profile. Mae thinks, “the customers made her better”—she feels happier and more generous because she knows that people are watching.

Mae also finds that being watched changes her behavior on a second-by-second level. She doesn’t eat as many fattening foods or take as many aspirins because she can see that she’d look like an unhealthy person to her watchers. Going transparent, she thinks, liberates her from “bad behavior.” As she works, Mae’s headset asks her survey questions. When she doesn’t answer them immediately, she hears her own voice, saying her name as a reminder. Mae no longer finds hearing her own voice to be weird: on the contrary, she finds this voice to represent “a better, more indomitable version of herself.”

In the evening, Mae attends an improv show and participates in a fundraiser for schools in Pakistan, which amasses millions of “smiles” for the school. Afterwards, she goes to her dorm where she’s been living for more than a month—it no longer makes sense to drive to and from work every day. After ten pm, transparency is optional, so that night, Mae turns off her camera and says goodnight to her watchers. As soon as the camera is off, Mae feels a deep “tear” inside her. She messages Annie, but gets no response, so she tries to entertain herself by watching footage from SeeChange cameras around the world. She also tries to find Kalden online, but, as usual, she can’t, since she doesn't know his name.

The next day, Mae wakes up and greets her watchers. She sees a news notification about how the world’s foremost health agencies and companies will now be sharing all data with each other, and with the Circle. She recalls that today is the day that Annie returns from her months in Europe and Asia where she was “ironing out some regulatory wrinkles.” Mae notes that, since becoming transparent, Annie has become less communicative with her—she claims to be busy at all times.

Mae proceeds with her touring of the campus. She greets a man named Terry who is working on the Circle’s upcoming educational program—he explains that the Circle will be responsible for developing a new testing system for all students. The Circle has also developed a program that counts the number of words a child hears every day in order to predict children’s success in the classroom. Mae also speaks with a Circle employee named Jackie who demonstrates a new program for ranking students across the country to determine their chances of getting into a good college. The voice in Mae’s headset instructs her to ask Jackie about how the program “intersects with TruYou,” so Mae asks and Jackie leads her to speak with Francis. Francis, whom Mae hasn’t seen in weeks, greets Jackie and Mae and explains that he’s been working on a program to track children. By combining his program with Jackie’s, parents will be able to measure their children’s total knowledge: every fact, word, and date they’ve ever learned. As Mae watches Francis and Jackie talking flirtatiously, Mae realizes that Francis and Jackie have been rehearsing their conversation—suddenly, she feels sick.

Later in the afternoon, Mae thinks about Francis. He’s unattractive, and she knows that he has problems with premature ejaculations. However, Mae suddenly finds him attractive again because she senses that Jackie is attracted to him. As she thinks about Francis, Mae continues leading tours: she shows her watchers a sculpture by a Chinese dissident. Mae thanks watchers who have sent frowns to the Chinese government and she adds, “You can bet that has an effect on the regime.” The sculpture, commissioned by Eamon Bailey, is uncharacteristically earnest, optimistic, and monumental—it’s altogether unlike the artist’s early, sardonic work. It seems to resemble a human hand reaching for a computer screen.

Mae remembers that she has to see Dr. Villalobos in ten minutes. Suddenly, she sees Annie walking by in the distance and calls after her. Annie turns and smiles a “practiced, exhausted smile.” Mae asks Annie about her trip and Annie (who, Mae can tell, isn’t enjoying talking to Mae’s watchers) says that it was great. She adds that she’s working on a program to digitize every photograph and newsreel in history. Annie asks Mae to go to the bathroom with her.

In the bathroom, Mae is allowed to turn off her microphone, though she leaves her camera on—the “rules” give her up to three minutes of silence. In the bathroom, Annie compliments Mae for “killing it,” but Mae detects a note of envy in her voice. Annie explains that she’s jetlagged, and that she needs a few nights to herself before she spends time with Mae. She mentions that the Circle is nearing Completion, and that the Wise Men are trying to find a guinea pig for a secret program, preferably someone whose family has been in the U.S. for hundreds of years (since the Circle will need historical records dating back a long time). With these words, she walks out of the bathroom without saying goodbye. Mae walks out, then walks back into the bathroom, turns off her audio, and cries.

Mae walks to Dr. Villalobos. Because she’s so beautiful, Dr. Villalobos has become popular with Mae’s watchers, and Villalobos seems to enjoy her popularity. Mae notices that she’s wearing a blouse that displays her ample cleavage. Villalobos begins by talking about a program called CHAD, designed to measure the health of its users so that the Circle can isolate people who have the flu in order to prevent outbreaks. Villalobos tells Mae that, based on comments a user has sent in, Mae should stop eating so many nitrates.

Dr. Villalobos next tells Mae that there’s a problem with her parents. The Circle has installed cameras in Mae’s parents’ home, but her parents have placed covers over most of these cameras. Mae is appalled by her parents’ rudeness, and she promises to speak to them personally. Dr. Villalobos points out that Mae hasn’t seen her parents in over a week and she advises Mae to visit them as soon as possible.

At five, Mae drives to visit her parents, furious that they’ve disrespected the Circle. She begins to wonder what Annie—who, she’s convinced, is jealous of Mae—will do to use Mae’s embarrassment about her family to her advantage. She remembers that Annie’s family has been in the U.S. for a very long time. She also remembers an unpleasant dinner at Annie’s house, during which Annie’s aunt taunted Mae for living near Fresno and derided Annie’s freshman year roommates for being Pakistani.

Mae thinks back on her first days of living transparently. Her watchers sent her thousands of messages providing advice for how to interact with loved ones suffering from MS. Tonight, as she greets her parents in their home, she notices that they’re adjusting their behavior to reflect the fact that people are watching them from around the world. She asks her parents if there’s been a problem with their cameras; they laugh and say, stiffly, “we’ll get them fixed right away.” Mae’s mother notes that she has received thousands of messages since Mae went transparent—far too many for her to answer. Mae’s father points out that some “neurotic” watchers have begun complaining that he and his wife aren’t responding to their messages.

After dinner, Mae’s parents request that Mae watch a movie with them. They do, and afterwards Mae says that she should get back to the Circle. Mae’s mother gives her an odd look, which Mae interprets to mean, “finally.” She also gives Mae a letter from Mercer. In her car, Mae opens the letter, in which Mercer explains that he wants Mae to read his letter on camera. From now on, Mercer explains, he can’t see Mae. He says that the Circle has exhausted Mae’s parents and harassed them with constant messages. He helped Mae’s parents cover the cameras with fabric because “They want to be alone. And not watched.” Mercer predicts that, “if things continue this way,” the world will split into a society of people who live under constant surveillance and a society that refuses to play along. Mae refuses to read any more of the letter. Her watchers send thousands of messages about Mercer being a “zero.”

Mae decides to drive back to her parents’ house to talk to them. She walks inside, but she doesn’t see her parents. Upstairs, she walks into their bedroom, where she sees her mother holding her father’s penis in her hand. Mae turns away, but it’s too late—people around the world have seen her father naked. Horrified, Mae calls Bailey and begs him to erase the footage from the Circle’ cloud. On the phone, Bailey casually tells Mae that it’s impossible to delete the footage. He assures Mae that everybody will forget about the footage within a few days.

Mae drives back to the Circle, thinking, “home was madness.” She finds it difficult to be off-campus—there are homeless people, smelly people, ugly machines, ugly buildings, etc. The outside world seems more and more like the Third World every time she sets foot there. Mae checks her desk and finds a message from her parents: “Please, no more.” Mae ignores the message and proceeds with customer questions. Her customers recognize her as “THE Mae,” and seem very excited. One customer begs Mae to recommend his daughter for work at the Circle: “No pressure, but we’re counting on you.”

Mae feels a tear deep within her. She can’t stop thinking about Mercer—his sanctimonious letter, and his “disgusting” fat body. She tries to distract herself by answering survey questions and responding to customers, but she continues to feel the tear. When she pauses, she hears her own voice in her headset, prompting her to answer the questions. The voice sounds calming—indeed, “it felt like home.”

After leaving her office, Mae “found herself” in Francis’s room. She goes to Francis because everyone else in her life has abandoned her. Francis listens to Mae’s complaints about her family and friends and tells her he’s sorry. He explains that he has scanned all of his old photographs and used Circle technology to track down everyone who appears in the photographs. Mae and Francis act out a sexual fantasy, in which Francis pretends to be a lost teenager and Mae pretends to be a lonely housewife. Francis become so excited during the course of the fantasy that he throws Mae to the bed and, a few seconds later, ejaculates in his pants, “emitting a brief squeal.”

Afterwards, Francis asks Mae for a second fantasy: he wants her to rate him from 1 to 100. Impatient, Mae says that he’s “fine,” and Francis finds this offensive. Mae corrects herself: Francis is “great,” a perfect 100. Francis smiles, kisses Mae, and goes to sleep.

The next day, Mae goes to a large glass building, where she greets the Gang of 40, the group that approves new Circle projects. Eamon Bailey greets her warmly, but Annie does not greet her at all. Previously, Mae has been told that the meeting must seem natural and unrehearsed to Mae’s watchers, so she tries to act casual. Bailey calls the meeting to order and announces that thousands of leaders around the world have gone transparent. He admits that there have been some problems with the political transparency project: instead of making the political world more ethical, transparently elected leaders have become mere “figureheads,” shielding the backroom from view”. However, Bailey insists that this problem will change soon.

Bailey announces his next major project: automatically registering all Circle users to vote. Mae raises her hand and suggests that Bailey take this idea one step further: require every voting-age citizen to have a Circle account. A few people at the meeting seem to find this a bad idea, but Mae insists that it’s not so different from requiring adults to send their children to school. As Mae speaks, other members of the Gang of 40 murmur their agreement. Encouraged, Mae suggests that Circle users be required to pay their taxes online, too.

Annie disagrees with Mae’s point: why bother building a “wraparound service” when the government could do so? The Gang of 40 snickers; condescendingly, Stenton explains that the Circle is in a much better position to build a good, user-friendly online voting service. Annie nods, her expression a mixture of anger and fear. Mae continues: using an online voting system would allow politicians to know how their constituents feel about their political positions at all times. Stenton agrees—if the Circle makes voting online, Congress could become irrelevant.