Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

Hands down, the best way to get to know the characters in The Circle is to watch what they do. Not only do their choices reveal a lot about them, but Dave Eggers also uses their actions to highlight important similarities and differences between them.

Take Francis Garaventa and Ty Gospodinov, alias Kalden, for example. Francis says demeaning things to Mae Holland and gives her unintentionally backhanded compliments, puts her on the spot in a public setting in a way that makes her uncomfortable, records their sexual activity without her consent and refuses to delete the video when she demands that he do so, and consistently prioritizes his sexual needs and desires before hers. This guy sounds like a real winner, right?

Now take Ty, alias Kalden. He saves Mae's life at a circus, makes sure that she gets just as much satisfaction out of their sexual encounters as he does, and does his best to talk her out of some pretty terrible decisions. Sounds pretty good, right? Then again, since he also lies about his identity and is secretive in a way that drives Mae crazy, he may not be 100 percent hero material, either. But still.

Props

Since The Circle is a dystopian novel that critiques our society's reliance—or over-reliance—on digital technologies, it should come as no surprise that the novel makes heavy use of props. Readers can tell a lot about these characters by counting how many gadgets they carry with them as they go about their days.

Take Mae Holland. At the beginning of The Circle, she owns a laptop and a cellphone. It doesn't take long before she's given a tablet and a digital wristband, too, and that digital wristband is connected to a digital chip that's housed inside her body.

By the time the novel's second book gets underway, Mae is wearing a video camera around her neck and is also sporting another digital wristband. Since she now wears a digital bracelet on each wrist, Mae plays with the idea that she's kind of like Wonder Woman (2.1.20), and she admits that she feels "incomplete" without these mandatory accessories (2.3.4).

Mae's wristbands may make her feel like Wonder Woman, but it's pretty clear that Dave Eggers has another image in mind. Unlike Mae, we readers can see that the wristbands look kind of like handcuffs or shackles, not symbols of strength and power.

As Mae's body becomes more and more burdened by digital technologies over the course of the novel, those props show us clearly that her liberty and individuality are being sacrificed in the name of the Circle.

Speech and Dialogue

Just as characters' actions reveal a lot about them in The Circle, so too do their words give us insight into their personalities.

Let's take another look at Mae Holland, seeing as how she's The Circle's protagonist. Mae's actions over the course of the novel show us a young woman whose opinions are easily swayed by the people around her, and her speech and dialogue really help to drive this point home. Take a look at this scene in which Mae echoes Eamon Bailey's ideas without being fully aware of the fact that those ideas have come from him, not her:

Well, when there's something kept secret, two things happen. One is that it makes crime possible. We behave worse when we're not accountable. That goes without saying. And second, secrets inspire speculation. When we don't know what's being hidden, we guess, we make up answers. (1.45.61)

There are dozens of examples just like this one throughout The Circle—scenes in which Mae parrots words and ideas that she herself might once have challenged in her old life before she became a Circler. By giving us Mae's shifting thoughts and opinions straight from the horse's mouth, Dave Eggers shows us just how quickly she's being brainwashed by the groupthink that governs life at the Circle.