To begin, Eggers shows through characterization that people’s shame leads to the loss of true self. Indeed, when Mae first entered The Circle, her only goal was to please her bosses, to be good at her new job (?????????) Her …show more content…
Indeed, when Mae was convinced to go transparent, she cut out all non-technological activities of her life including Kayaking. This activity represented her only moment of freedom when she could only connect with herself and not being watched. However, the more she got involved with the circle, the more the sense of nature started to disappear as she was actually being watched doing the only activity she found peace in. “I do go sometimes. It’s been a few months” (Eggers, 276) This shows that being transparent and public with everyone stop people from doing what they love. From this moment, she never went kayaking again as she got too busy with sharing everything with everyone and pleasing her viewers. This symbolizes the beginning of her new lifestyle, forgetting how she used to think when she first started the circle. Indeed, kayaking demonstrates that she also loved the relationship with nature and how she could imagine what living things was under water. Eggers used Mae’s thoughts during her last ride of kayak before becoming transparent, to show her honest opinion about privacy. “She thought of the foxes that might be underneath […] She guessed at it all, […] but she did not think too much about any of it. […] and take comfort in knowing she would not, and really could not, know much at all.” (Eggers, 272) This shows the irony between her thoughts on privacy at this moment, compared to when she decides to go completely transparent and says that privacy is theft. In addition, this moment is also the starting point of when she loses her real identity. “Any room she was in was scannable by anyone watching. “(Eggers, 310) Indeed, kayaking was a symbol of her life before the circle and when stopped kayaking, it represented the complete loss of her offline life as she was now filmed 24/7. This shows that the author uses symbolism to demonstrate that the expansion of