Marianas...Circle? (Circle Post 5)

In the wonderful world of young adult novels, authors tend to like to use symbolism to get their point across, emphasize an idea or foreshadow.  Dave Eggars in The Circle is no exception to this.  While we can obviously see that the Circle is a dangerous idea and taking away from the beauty of individuality, Eggars goes as far as exquisitely illustrating this point with gruesome murder scene.

When the shark was placed with the other sea creatures, obviously it devoured them immediately, because of the shark's predator instincts.  This scene was teeming with symbolism.  The shark represented The Circle and its ever-growing and ominous presence in the world.  The octopus and seahorses symbolized basically everyone else in the world.  Everyone is unique and special and everyone has their own place in the world.  As the novel progressed, the Circle went from a new and glamorous institute that everyone wanted to be part of to a huge corporation that was slowly taking over the world.  Its totalitarian-like role in the world acted much like the shark did, it sought out the different people in the world and inevitably "destroyed" them.  In Mae's case, the Circle destroyed her individuality and who she was and turned her into a walking Circle advertisement.  While the shark preyed on weaker creatures, the Circle preyed on anyone who was weak enough to succumb to its overwhelming influence or anyone who was a possible threat to the Circle's existence.

On page 480-481, Eggars describes the death of the octopus.  It doesn't go without a fight, but rather it must be ripped apart before it is finally murdered.  This resistance represents Mae from Book I and those like her.  She did not fully commit to the Circle way of life; she didn't post everything on all social media all the time like the Circle wanted her to.  Just as the octopus struggled to stay alive but was inevitably killed, Mae did her best to remain true to herself and her individuality, but was inevitably engulfed by all that the Circle was.

Later on page 481, Eggars described how the shark very easily ate the seahorse because it was defenseless and delicate.  This reminds me of people like Annie.  She was instantly consumed by the glory of the Circle and that she got to work there and blindly followed the Circle way of life without putting up resistance.

In summary, Eggars did a wonderful job of itnertwining the message of The Circle into the Marianas Trench wildlife scene.  He perfectly summed up how totalitarian governments obtain and keep their power without ever actually mentioning the word "totalitarian".  This scene, carefully placed toward the end of the book, is a great way of epitomizing the theme of the book in a not-so-obvious way.