Character Analysis
Despite the fact that Mae Holland is misguided, naïve, and the architect of some truly terrible decisions with far-reaching consequences, we still don't think that she deserves to end up with Francis Garaventa.
This is the guy who says to her, during their first lunch together at the Circle's cafeteria, "I want you on your toes, off-balance, intimidated, handcuffed and willing to prostrate yourself at my command" (1.11.34).
Ugh.
This is also the guy who uses Mae as a test subject during a very public demonstration of one of the Circle's new dating technologies—without permission, natch—and who records their first sexual encounter on his phone—also without permission—and then refuses to delete the video when she asks him to.
Francis is a real piece of work, and although his traumatic childhood may buy him some sympathy points, it's no excuse for his total ignorance about the meaning of consent.
Oh, wait. That's something he shares with a lot of people at the Circle.
Anyway, apart from being a recurring source of frustration in Mae's life—not to mention the lives of The Circle's readers—Francis plays two important roles in the novel.
First, he's the personification of social media saturation, as Eggers sees it. He's accessible all the time, any time, and although Mae can have him whenever she wants, he brings very little real good into her life. Mae reaches out to him whenever she's lonely and desperate, but contact with Francis never gives her the satisfaction that she craves and needs.
Second, Francis has a major hand in enabling the Completion of the Circle. Through his commendable desire to make the world safer for children, Francis develops and promotes a program that will embed digital chips inside the bones of children worldwide. Ostensibly, those chips will track children's movements and locations, thus ensuring their safety, but it doesn't seem to worry him that the same chips will also be used to give the Circle unfettered access to—and, ultimately, control over—the lives of millions of future consumers worldwide.
By the end of The Circle, Mae and Francis are a happy couple. Mae's decision to choose Francis is just one of the many proofs that the values, beliefs, and self-respect that she had before joining the Circle have been totally washed away.