The Circle

The scheduled Dream Friday presentation is canceled so that Circlers can instead watch a press conference featuring Senator Williamson, who declares The Circle to be a monopoly that needs to be broken up. However, Circlers don’t seem concerned because she is considered an outsider politician, and The Circle has support from both main political parties. Mae feels that it would be unfair to punish a company for being successful. Annie calls the senator an idiot who just put herself “in a world of shit” (175). She then asks Mae about Kalden, but there is no new information. Annie seems genuinely concerned about this mystery man’s presence on campus.

Near the end of the workday, Dan summons Mae to his office. He voices his concern about Mae’s apparent lack of participation in campus activities and social media. He is critical of her PartiRank, as well as her absence at a semi-mandatory welcome party. He doesn’t understand why she would spend so much time away from campus. Mae is very apologetic, explaining she had to go home because her dad had a seizure. Dan finds this understandable, but he wants to “emphasize the community aspect of this job” (179).

Dan passes off Mae to Josiah and Denise. They explain that they are from HR and are doing a standard check-in. Denise refers to Mae as an “enigma,” which surprises Mae. Denise is baffled that Mae would clock out on Friday evening and not return until Monday when there are “thousands of people here Saturday and Sunday, enjoying the campus, participating in a hundred different activities” (182). Mae explains that her father is ill, but Denise replies that she doesn’t understand why—during an emotionally intense time—Mae wouldn’t reach out to fellow Circlers for support through social media groups. Mae agrees to join the campus’s MS support club.

Denise and Josiah continue to press Mae about her interests. Josiah discovers her interest in kayaking, does a quick search, and finds that Mae hasn’t posted anything online about this hobby. He suggests that it is selfish for her to keep these experiences to herself. After the meeting, Mae immediately gets to work on improving her PartiRank. She works until after three o’clock in the morning to raise her rank from below 9,000 to above 3,000. Finally, she goes to sleep in the campus dorms. By the morning, Mae has received many congratulatory messages. By noon, she is sent over 7,000 smiles. Annie is thrilled with her. Mae aims to crack the top 2,000 and become a member of a celebrated group called T2K. She obsessively ramps up her online participation.

On Thursday night, she closes in on the T2K. While heavily caffeinated, she stays up all night to try to reach her goal. During this time, she considers all the ways she is tracking herself online and starts feeling anxious. She realizes that the true source of her anxiety “[is] internal: it [is] subjective: it [is] not knowing” (195). She is increasingly frustrated by the mystery surrounding Kalden and feels like “she [has] a right to know where he [is]” (196). She notes that she’s been feeling a “black rip” within her a few times a week.

Mae goes to Francis’s dorm room, and he pours them glasses of sake. He tells her that he takes a few shots every night to fall asleep. He compliments her body’s shape, and she hesitantly thanks him. Mae asks about a big “leathery” book, which Francis explains is full of old photographs. Mae recalls his traumatic childhood and apologizes. However, Francis offers for her to look through the photographs. They thumb through the album, and upon seeing him in various foster care settings, Mae feels an impulse to cry. Francis explains that there are intentionally no identifying features in the pictures so that foster children can’t come back later in life to find their foster parents or homes. He explains that he’s using facial recognition technology to try to find matches with the people in the pictures.

They look at each other’s medical bracelets, noting the rapidity of their pulses. She reaches into his pants and attempts to have sex with him, but he finishes before he can get his pants off. Suddenly, a “rogue synapse within her connect[s] this scene to her father, to seeing him on the couch, helpless over his body, and she want[s] badly to be somewhere else” (204). She gets up to leave and sees that Francis’s phone is propped up, filming them. She is livid, but he insists that he has a right to film and that, per The Circle mantra, he cannot delete anything.

Before Stenton gives a talk, Annie tells Mae not to be concerned about the video. However, although it is now a week later, Mae is still worried because the video is in the cloud, accessible to anyone. Mae asks Annie to delete it, but Annie insists that nothing can be deleted at The Circle. She equates such an action to killing babies.

Stenton’s presentation begins with an acknowledgment of Stewart, a Circler known as the Transparent Man. Stewart is the first person to go fully transparent by wearing a web-connected camera that continuously records him. Stenton then discusses his concerns about the lack of transparency in democracy. He notes that public approval of Congress is only 11 percent and mentions that Senator Williamson, in particular, “was just revealed to be involved in some very unsavory business” (207). Annie tells Mae that they found scandalous material on the senator’s computer, for which the senator now faces ethical violations. Stenton introduces Congresswoman Santos, who has agreed to be the first politician to go transparent by always wearing a video device. The crowd of Circlers gives her wild applause.

That night, at the reception for Congresswoman Santos, Ty makes an appearance via video screen. He congratulates everyone on the new development and soon disappears. Mae sees Kalden sitting on the steps of a dark stairwell and is softly accusatory toward him for his disappearance. He manages to avoid concretely answering any of her questions about his identity. They drink wine, and Mae starts to feel tipsy. Kalden offers to show her where they keep “the stuff from Stewart’s camera” (218). She follows him underground, deep below The Circle’s campus. He has fingerprint access to hallways that finally lead to the giant storage units that house the footage and data for Stewart and Santos.

As they listen to the sound of water cooling the giant machines, Mae pulls Kalden close and kisses him. Kalden then leads her to a nearby cave that was originally supposed to be part of the city’s subway system. Kalden makes Mae promise that she won’t tell anyone he brought her here. She agrees. He leads her to a bed in the cave, and they have sex.

In the morning, Mae wakes up in her dorm and thinks about the night before, which seems like a dream. She calls Annie to tell her that she slept with Kalden. Annie is still concerned that he is a corporate spy or a stalker. If she is to continue her relationship with Kalden, Mae knows that she will have to start lying to Annie about him. Mae tells her that they had sex in her dorm room. Annie’s tone turns serious, and she insists that they figure out Kalden’s identity. Mae tries calling the number that Kalden gave her, but it rings endlessly.