No Mercy for Mercer: Circle Blog #5 (analysis of own topic)

Mercer represents every last true human quality left standing in the world of The Circle. David Eggers utilizes Mercer's almost eclectic qualities to showcase the embedded necessities of people to retain a sense of privacy and individuality.  It is important to note that Mercer used to be seen as the antagonist of Mae, always pulling against the trend towards technology.  However, he begins to represent the rejection of so much change towards the end of the story.  Driven to insanity, Mercer exemplifies the effects that reduced privacy can have on individuals through his running, rejection of logic, and ultimate suicide.

The fight or flight instinct of all living things helps save lives.  During the novel, Mercer accepts the instinctual quality of running away from a force too large to defeat himself.  As everyone becomes enthralled in the Circle, Mercer remains skeptical of so much globalization and interconnection.  To him, the only logical thing to do is to run away.  During the scene where Mae and her coworkers search for Mercer, they showcase the extreme excitement a predator may feel when it finds its prey through the exclamation: "There he is! Driveway!" (Eggers 460).

As Mercer continues to run by driving his truck as fast as he could away from his compromised position, he begins the next stage of degradation.  In this scene, Mercer can be seen throwing logic aside as he rejects Mae's pleas to stop driving and instead responds with a more intense fear of the unknown.  Even though he recognizes Mae's voice, her shear lack of individuality maker her non-human in Mercer's eyes, and he connects her solely to the circle.

Finally, Mercer's suicide represents one of the most pivotal and eye opening emotional destructions of the entire novel. When he drives off the bridge, he cements the idea that privacy no longer exists and that all human qualities that used to thrive off individuality and intimate moments is dead.  Mercer has been violated beyond repair and his brain cannot handle being hunted in a society when interconnection is valued more than human experiences.  The concept of being dead is more appealing than dealing with a world like this.

In the end, it is evident that Mercer truly does represent the average human in today's day and age.  Few people toady would be willing to give up true human interactions with others for solely online relationships with other.  On the other hand, there is a modern trend where people live vicariously through their social media profiles and forget to put their phones down instead of making real life memories.  It is important to recognize the importance of pure human interactions, and Egger's usage of Mercer losing his mind fully completes the idea that privacy is necessary to truly remain human.

Image Credits:

Image provided by Marcy Leigh

The Invisible is only Visible to the Invisible: Circle Blog #4

To be completely honest, the shark in the fish tank portion of The Circle was beyond creepy.  This menacing, mysterious, monster invades the habitat of all the other sea creatures and generates massive amounts of panic as it consumes every living thing in sight.  The other ocean life, most originating from the Mariana Trench, are no match for the nightmarish fish and seek shelter in the container they are held in before being fed to the shark.  The entire scene, as viewed by Mae's transparency cameras, represents an overgeneralized version of the Circle and its impacts on individuals in society through connections to privacy, greed, and total annihilation.

The Circle kills privacy.  Perhaps not on purpose, the Circle views privacy as a dark place secrets can hide and eat away at society.  This idea is exemplified by the victim sea creatures' apparent clinging to their tub habitat before being fed into the tank (Eggers 320).  In their perspective, the privacy is all that is left to protect them from the jaws of death.  Similarly, in society during the novel, the privacy of the individual is being sacrificed as people begin to put all of their information online and visible to everyone.  There is no more metaphorical "tub" to protect people from one another.

The Circle is just as much a greedy monster as the shark in the tank.  Stopping at nothing, the three wise men have the vision to "complete the circle" and to finally get everything connected and online under one platform.  In this way, the shark in the tank begins to replicate the actions of the Circle through is ravenous hunger.  One obstacle at a time is consumed and disposed of and the hunger is still not satisfied.  The problem with the Circle is that, with their amount of wealth and influence, an infinite amount of social "improvements" can be found.  The shark has a relatively supreme sense of power in the tank and cannot be stopped, just like the company.

In addition to being extremely greedy, the sea monster in the tank also showcases the idea of total annihilation.  Even though the Circle supports the idea that nothing should be able to be deleted anymore, they indirectly delete any real-life interactions from being genuine. Everything the Circle attacks has been destroyed or dismantled and then displayed for the world.  For example, when Mae breaks the law, they utilize their transparent cameras to showcase to everyone how they can correct an individual's wrongs.  The shark in the tank also shows the world its ability to do the same by being slightly translucent and allowing viewers to see its digestive track process its food while it defecates ash (Eggers318).

In the end, the shark in the fish tank is mostly a forced metaphor set up by Eggers that represents the idea of the circle.  In my opinion, the relationship between the monster and the innocent fish around it it is too close to the interaction between the Circle and society. Although it creates a clear similarity between the two, the shark appears asa random symbol created to establish the metaphor.  Regardless, the shark form the Mariana Trench is an accurate representation of the Circle in that it invades the privacy of other living things, it knows no limits, and it totally destroys anything without leaving a recognizable trace behind. Hopefully, Mae can realize this negative trend in society and move to action.

Image Credits:

Image provided by Klaus Stiefel