How we cite our quotes: (Book.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It was sickening, all of it. The green cinderblocks. An actual water cooler. Actual punch cards. The actual certificates of merit when someone had done something special. And the hours! Actually nine to five! All of it felt like something from another time, a rightfully forgotten time, and made Mae feel that she was not only wasting her life but that this entire company was wasting life, wasting human potential and holding back the turning of the globe. (1.2.8)
In Mae Holland's view, America has progressed far beyond the work styles of the mid-20th century. What's past is in the past, and anyone who holds on to the past is slowing down the progress of us all. No wonder Mae hates Mercer Medeiros and his deer antlers so much.
Quote #5
"We book them a year ahead. We have to fight them off."
The singer-songwriter was singing passionately, his head tilted, hair covering his eyes, his fingers strumming feverishly, but the vast majority of the cafeteria was paying little to no attention.
"I can't imagine the budget for that," Mae said.
"Oh god, we don't pay them." (1.3.30-33)
One of the more subtle themes in The Circle has to do with the way that art and artists are treated in the Circle's brave new world. Although Dave Eggers doesn't dive into the subject in detail, there's more than a hint of suggestion that he wants us to ask ourselves if open-access, digital cultures can foster the nation's arts and cultures.
Quote #6
To the lower left of Ty was Tom Stenton, the world-striding CEO and self-described Capitalist Prime—he loved the Transformers—wearing an Italian suit and grinning like the wolf that ate Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother. His hair was dark, at the temples striped in grey, his eyes flat, unreadable. He was more in the mold of the eighties Wall Street traders, unabashed about being wealthy, about being single and aggressive and possibly dangerous. (1.3.62)
The Circle's narrator describes Tom Stenton as an "anachronism at the Circle" and suggests that his presence inspires "conflicted feelings among many of the utopian young Circlers" (1.3.62). But is he really that anachronistic? Or, as the novel itself suggests, is Stenton actually the truest representation of the Circle's real nature?