The Circle Isolation Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Book.Section.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"You know how you finish a bag of chips and you hate yourself? You know you've done nothing good for yourself. That's the same feeling, and you know it is, after some digital binge. You feel wasted and hollow and diminished." (1.19.65)

Whether or not you agree with him, Mercer Medeiros is The Circle's voice of reason—that is, the character whose point of view aligns most closely with the novel's own authorial perspective. Mercer is right: Mae Holland does feel wasted and hollow and diminished when she spends too much time online. Problem is, Mae never recognizes those feelings for what they really are.

Quote #5

Josiah made a sympathetic face, and Denise leaned forward. "But see, here's where it gets especially confusing. We don't know anything about this episode. Did you reach out to any Circlers during this crisis? You know that there are four groups on campus for staffers dealing with MS? Two of them are for children of MS sufferers. Have you sought out one of these groups?" (1.28.74)

Although Josiah and Denise are convinced that Mae Holland would have found it helpful to reach out to her fellow Circlers during her time of crisis, earlier passages in the novel suggest otherwise. The last time Mae encountered an online thread about people living with MS, it didn't comfort her. Instead, it made her feel as though "some darkness [was] opening its wings within her" (1.13.4).

Quote #6

And, with the tools the Circle made available, Mae felt able to influence global events, to save lives even, halfway across the world. That very morning, a message from a college friend, Tania Schwartz, came through, pleading for help with an initiative her brother was spearheading. There was a paramilitary group in Guatemala, some resurrection of the terrorizing forces of the eighties, and they had been attacking villages and taking women captive. (1.33.11)

As The Circle suggests, digital technologies don't just promise to connect us to one another; they can also help us to feel as though we're making a difference in the larger world. But how connected can we really get simply by pushing a button? Shmoop won't pretend to have all the answers. What are your thoughts?