According to Psychology Today, on average kids spend 5-7 hours a day looking at screens. This is a staggering amount, accounting for around half of daylight hours. In The Circle, a novel by Dave Eggers, a young girl named Mae in a job with a large technology company spends close to her entire day on a screen, leaving little time for interactions with people. Instead she relies on how others perceive her online, rather than as a real human being. Truman’s entire life is fake in The Truman Show, a movie directed by Peter Weir about a man who doesn’t know his life is on TV. Everyone he has ever met and everything that has ever happened to him was scripted. Never has he had a spontaneous conversation with another person. Both works explore the
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They are similar in personality and motive. Bailey in The Circle is a part of the Three Wise Men, or founders of the company, and takes an interest in Mae. Christof is the director and creator of the show in The Truman Show, he found Truman and watched him grow up in this world he created for him. Without these figures both main characters would not be known or important. When Truman reaches the edge of Seahaven Christof tries to stop him by saying “I know you better than you know yourself”. He is purposefully altering Truman’s thoughts to make him feel not good enough to live in the real world. Bailey is manipulative as well, but in a different manner. He takes advantage of Mae’s low self esteem to make her do things. By shaping her words and actions, he is able to turn her into the spokesperson for the technology that ruins her. This makes her feel important and blinds her from all the negative effects it has on her relationships. When Mae becomes transparent, meaning she wears a camera around her neck all day, she looses her best friend, Annie. Their conversation after Annie is gone for a long time is described as a “faux-visit” (351), because they can no longer discuss what they want to with others watching and listening. Bailey also makes her think that the Circle is the only place she should be, and that she should neglect the outside world, similarly to how Christof believes Truman belongs …show more content…
Truman breaks free and goes on to hopefully lead a real life, but Mae conforms to the Circle and remains where she is. At the end of The Circle Mae is encouraged by Kalden, a lover who ends up being one of the Three Wise Men, to shut down the Circle. Although he created it, he tells her “This idea of Completion, it’s far beyond what I had in mind when I started this, and it’s far beyond what’s right. It has to be brought back to some kind of balance” (485). Kalden knows that this is not the way to live, and when he shares this with Mae the reader is made to think that she will agree with him. Instead of following his lead and ending things like Truman, Mae reports Kalden and ignores his warnings. In the last scene she is sitting beside Annie who is in a coma for unknown reasons, and instead of being concerned about her health, she wonders what she is thinking and believes she deserves to know because it is her right. A screen sits beside Annie with scrolling get well wishes from people all over the world who neither of them have ever met, or will ever meet. This is alarming that Mae is more interested in theses wishes and Annie’s thoughts than having her wake up, and it makes a final statement on how Mae has lost her connection to people. On the contrary, The Truman Show ends on a promising note, with Truman conquering his fears and stepping through the door labeled EXIT out of Seahaven. Weir places this
They are similar in personality and motive. Bailey in The Circle is a part of the Three Wise Men, or founders of the company, and takes an interest in Mae. Christof is the director and creator of the show in The Truman Show, he found Truman and watched him grow up in this world he created for him. Without these figures both main characters would not be known or important. When Truman reaches the edge of Seahaven Christof tries to stop him by saying “I know you better than you know yourself”. He is purposefully altering Truman’s thoughts to make him feel not good enough to live in the real world. Bailey is manipulative as well, but in a different manner. He takes advantage of Mae’s low self esteem to make her do things. By shaping her words and actions, he is able to turn her into the spokesperson for the technology that ruins her. This makes her feel important and blinds her from all the negative effects it has on her relationships. When Mae becomes transparent, meaning she wears a camera around her neck all day, she looses her best friend, Annie. Their conversation after Annie is gone for a long time is described as a “faux-visit” (351), because they can no longer discuss what they want to with others watching and listening. Bailey also makes her think that the Circle is the only place she should be, and that she should neglect the outside world, similarly to how Christof believes Truman belongs …show more content…
Truman breaks free and goes on to hopefully lead a real life, but Mae conforms to the Circle and remains where she is. At the end of The Circle Mae is encouraged by Kalden, a lover who ends up being one of the Three Wise Men, to shut down the Circle. Although he created it, he tells her “This idea of Completion, it’s far beyond what I had in mind when I started this, and it’s far beyond what’s right. It has to be brought back to some kind of balance” (485). Kalden knows that this is not the way to live, and when he shares this with Mae the reader is made to think that she will agree with him. Instead of following his lead and ending things like Truman, Mae reports Kalden and ignores his warnings. In the last scene she is sitting beside Annie who is in a coma for unknown reasons, and instead of being concerned about her health, she wonders what she is thinking and believes she deserves to know because it is her right. A screen sits beside Annie with scrolling get well wishes from people all over the world who neither of them have ever met, or will ever meet. This is alarming that Mae is more interested in theses wishes and Annie’s thoughts than having her wake up, and it makes a final statement on how Mae has lost her connection to people. On the contrary, The Truman Show ends on a promising note, with Truman conquering his fears and stepping through the door labeled EXIT out of Seahaven. Weir places this