The Protagonist Does Not Always Save People

Typically we are familiar with plot which the protagonist eventually saves others and becomes a hero. We are looking forward to a happy ending that the protagonist becomes better and repels the evil force. We expect that because we desire the fantasy to fulfill the pity of tragedy in our life. As society is advancing rapidly, the righteousness and hopefulness of the character are in great need to satisfy us with that the world would be bright and beautiful. However, Dave Eggers surprised us by depicting the main character, Mae, as a villain at the end of the book The Circle. As the New York Times argues, "Mae, then, is not a victim but a dull villain.", I consent with it because Mae has no longer sustained the ability to maintain humanity. 

Ordinarily, Eggers developed the personal change of Mae through the novel. When Mae was in the Customer Experience. she was merely an innocent intern who strove to perform the best of herself in her work. With shallow knowledge of the meaning of the Circle, she did not embrace the idea of frequent interaction with others by social media. For example, she enjoyed go kayaking by herself just to spend time being alone. However, her belief altered as soon as she attained applaud for her sharing experience online and became recognizable everywhere. This situation aggravated severely after the death of Mercer and the collapse of Annie since Mae remained an ironically stable condition of the loss of two of her closest relations from her life before working at the Circle. That she was promoted to believe in the distorted concept of social media made her a victim, while her decision to not intervene in the progress of the Completion of the Circle made her "a dull villain".

When Mae discovered that Kalden has been Ty, one of the Three Wise Men, the entire time, she confronted him about his concealed identity. As Ty believed in that Mae had the influence to slow down the Completion by giving a message to her viewers, Mae protested that she wanted everything to be seen and known because she was brainwashed with the idea that transparency made people significant even after they die. Ty attempted to convince her by saying that there would be more people like Mercer if Mae did not prevent the Circle from being completed. She refused him because she gained identity and satisfaction through the Circle and was not prepared to give up all of these even though Mae had enough power to stop the Completion. Therefore her betrayal of Ty led to an unusual ending of the novel.

Instead of portraying a heroic character who is expected to rescue the tragic situation, Eggers crafts an immoral protagonist. The realistic world is becoming similar to the world in the Circle as generations rely on social media life constantly, and the majority of us are aware of this controversial environment. Technology benefits our life but does transmit our life into transparency. Moreover, another large segment of the population is trying to separate personal and public life and to find a balance between them. Eggers' description of the main character Mae as a villain is not only a shocking but also a warning to the readers that the protagonist does not always save people, yet characters in the real life can choose to make a change or not.

Make Your Own Decision

Finally, Mae has eventually become transparent as a Circler. This did not surprise me at all. I has been waiting for this moment since Bailey asked her to share her experience with kayaking as an example of how SeeChange benefits her life. Wearing the tiny camera on her chest every day, Mae got used to her transparency in her life. In the mean time, the Circle was accelerating on the procedure of Completion, to complete the circle. However, I can't help myself wandering the utopia empire the Circle attempts to create, the world of transparency, is truly helping Circlers or even people outside achieve the perfect of themselves.

It has been convinced that living a life under the observation of public can improve our behavior since Bailey illustrated the usefulness of SeeChange. As one of the two participants in SeeChange, Mae was acquired to wear the camera every day at the Circle which as I recognized her daily life was not humane any more. "She did without. Every day she'd done without things she didn't want to want. Things she didn't need. She'd given up soda, energy drinks, processed foods"(331). Things she gave up may not have benefits to her health, but she also gave up the chance to enjoy her life. Life would be dull and plain if she had to consider others' opinions on her deeds every second in her life. Mae "selected a packet of almonds" instead of  "a chilled brownie" because everyone else would see what she ate. It is our personal decision to choose what we want to eat, not what others want to see us eat. An immoderate life should be avoided, nevertheless, we should become better only for us, not for other individuals. 

Mae's transparency amended her unhealthy habits, however eliminated her opportunities to make her individual choices. She was striving strenuously to maintain her image of a role model. This did not trigger her to be the genuine herself but to be the one that satisfies others' expectation. As the Circle was promoting the process of Completion, not only staffers were asked to enroll in the developments but also everyone outside the Circle. "With 90 percent of Washington transparent, and the remaining 10 percent wilting under the suspicion of their colleagues and constituents, the question bear down on them like an angry sun: What are you hiding?"(313) The 10 percent of people were not hiding any malevolent plans, instead, they were attempting to reserve their right to make their own decisions. Transparency departs people from living their own life, and even prevents the minority from keeping themselves.  

The essence of SeeChange is that transparency brings out the best of ourselves in order to make us perfect and make the world perfect. What is the meaning of perfect? To my understanding it is the antonym of imperfect. Perfect and imperfect coexist just like moral and immoral, legal and illegal. The police is demanded by the society because of the crime; the protagonist is essential for a novel because of the antagonist; the truth is required because of false. The perfection exists because of imperfection. We should embrace the imperfection because the procedure of becoming perfect is the most meaningful part which is all about deciding what to do or not by ourselves. Therefore, we have to make our own decision in order to enjoy our life.