Q1 Journal 2

When I finally found the time to read again, I continued more of The Circle by Dave Eggers.  I read forty-five pages within an hour because the book had become very interesting.  Eggers begins this section by introducing us to Mae’s parents who are overjoyed with Mae’s new job.  Mae’s father has an unpredictable, disabling disease known as multiple sclerosis (MS), and her mother is stuck in battles with insurance companies, trying to make sure that her husband continues to have coverage with them.  Of course, this reminded me of what I read about diseases in summer reading.  When applying MS to the disease chapter (Chapter 23) of Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor, I tried to see how MS would fit into the four main criteria of literary diseases.  It certainly looks better than other diseases mentioned in that book, and though it probably isn’t considered picturesque, MS certainly emphasizes the frailty of Mae’s father.  MS is still mysterious in origin, and it likely has symbolic possibilities that can be revealed in the future.

Later that day, Mae decides to go kayaking as a way to relax from the week’s stresses.  Everything in this scene seems peaceful and beautiful in a different way from the Circle’s campus.  She and the reader find pleasure with the simplest glittering pieces of seaweed and the seals that poke their heads out of the water.  Unlike the Circle where everything is human-made and technologically advanced, everything around her except the boats is naturally beautiful.  She finds peace in the bay, which is away from all worldly distractions.  This is the only part of the novel so far that seems incorruptibly perfect and removed from everything else.

When Mae shows up at work on her second Monday, she runs into a man named Kalden who introduces himself and takes a few minutes to watch her work.  As I read further about him in this section, he seemed more and more mysterious and clearly not normal as the two continued to converse.  He refers to Mae’s job title by its old name, and he seems to know much about what the Wise Men like.  The entire experience made Mae and the reader feel awkward and uncomfortable because it raises questions such as “Who is he?” and “Does he even work here?”  After he leaves, another worker named Gina, slightly annoyed that Mae had not done this earlier, appears to help her set up the Circle’s social network on her devices.  As she assists Mae, she stresses the importance of community at the Circle: “If you visit a coworker’s page and write something on the wall, that’s a positive thing.  That’s an act of community.  An act of reaching out.  And of course I don’t have to tell you that this company exists because of the social media you consider ‘extracurricular.’”  To me, this is the second warning sign about the Circle’s gradual invasiveness in people’s lives.  I do not identify with the Circle’s seeing participation in social media as an almost required activity, especially since I myself am not very active in sites such as Facebook (which, by the way, the Circle bought a while ago).  They value social media so much that they are hurt when Mae doesn’t respond to an invitation to a gathering and requiring that they meet up with her so that she can apologize.  This is where I simply roll my eyes and think that these people are idiots.   This part of the story again relates to the theme of privacy vs. transparency because the Circle basically makes participation in social media compulsory.  The company compels its workers to put themselves out in the open when these workers sometimes do not wish to share everything they do.  I was satisfied with this section of the book, and all of my questions and initial reactions kept me wishing for more.