How we cite our quotes: (Book.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There wasn't any limit, no boundary at all, to the future. And it would be so a man wouldn't have room to store his happiness. (Epigraph)
This passage comes from John Steinbeck's epic novel East of Eden, but Dave Eggers gives it to us secondhand by presenting it as The Circle's epigraph. By giving a nod to Steinbeck's sweeping study of Californian settlers breaking ground at the turn of the 20th century, Eggers reminds us that our generation isn't the first to believe that technological progress can create a heaven on earth.
Quote #2
The campus was vast and rambling, wild with Pacific color, and yet the smallest detail had been carefully considered, shaped by the most eloquent hands. On land that had once been a shipyard, then a drive-in movie theater, then a flea market, then blight, there were now soft green hills and a Calatrava fountain. And a picnic area, with tables arranged in concentric circles. And tennis courts, clay and grass. […] Amid all this was a workplace, too, four hundred acres of brushed steel and glass on the headquarters of the most influential company in the world. (1.1.2)
To Mae Holland, the Circle's main campus in San Vincenzo, California, may as well be the center of the universe. From her point of view, it's certainly the pinnacle of all that's pure and innovative and progressive in the world. This tiny little corner of America is a utopia, and it's going to grow and envelop the whole world if Mae has anything to say about it.
Quote #3
After six or so years of loathing her hometown, of cursing her parents for moving there and subjecting her to it, its limitations and scarcity of everything—diversion, restaurants, enlightened minds—Mae had recently come to remember Longfield with something like tenderness. It was a small town between Fresno and Tranquility, incorporated and named by a literal-minded farmer in 1866. One hundred and fifty years later, its population had peaked at just under two thousand souls, most of them working in Fresno, twenty miles away. (1.2.2)
Although The Circle doesn't dwell at length on this theme, the novel definitely taps into the age-old conflicts between the rural and urban in America.
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?
Quote #7
He had come from Omaha, from an exceedingly normal family of six, and had more or less nothing remarkable in his past. He'd gone to Notre Dame and married his girlfriend, who'd gone to Saint Mary's down the road, and now they had four children of their own, three girls and finally a boy, though that boy had been born with cerebral palsy. (1.3.64)
Whereas Tom Stenton is the exemplar of American wealth and power, Eamon Bailey is the exemplar of all-American values. Whereas Stenton owns homes all over the world, Bailey is a country boy who lives with his family in "a modest three-bedroom home" just down the street (1.3.63).
Quote #8
"Mae, now that you're aboard, I wanted to get across some of the core beliefs here at the company. And chief among them is that just as important as the work we do here—and that work is very important—we want to make sure that you can be a human being here, too. We want this to be a workplace, sure, but it should also be a humanplace. And that means the fostering of community. In fact, it must be a community. That's one of our slogans, as you probably know: Community First. And you've seen the signs that say Humans Work Here—I insist on those." (1.6.90)
The Circle claims to be a company that values the rights and dignities of its workers, and, as such, it sets itself apart from unjust sweatshops and factories around the globe—and even from your more usual white-collar office buildings. To Mae Holland, this is proof of the company's innovativeness and progressivism. But how deeply does the Circle really value the American ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy?
Quote #9
"We are here today to insist that the Senate's Antitrust Task Force begin an investigation into whether or not the Circle acts as a monopoly. We believe that the Justice Department will see the Circle for what it is, a monopoly in its purest sense, and move to break it up, just as they did with Standard Oil, AT&T and every other demonstrated monopoly in our history. The dominance of the Circle stifles competition and is dangerous to our way of free-market capitalism." (1.27.3)
It's interesting to note that when Senator Williamson presents her opposition to the Circle, she does so on the basis of the threat that the company poses to free-market capitalism, not to things like, oh, we don't know, human rights and constitutional freedoms. Is Dave Eggers implying something here?
Quote #10
"It would eliminate the guesswork," Stenton said, now standing at the head of the table. "Eliminate lobbyists. Eliminate polls. It might even eliminate Congress. If we can know the will of the people at any time, without filter, without misinterpretation or bastardization, wouldn't it eliminate much of Washington?" (2.12.66)
What are your thoughts about this, Shmoopers? Mae Holland and her fellow Circlers (particularly the young ones in their early 20s) are convinced that America's democracy would work better without government representatives acting as middlemen. Why does The Circle think this is a problem, and what's your own take on the issue?