Mae the...Villain?

Mae is not a hero. Mae is not a victim. As the New York Times argues, and I contend to, "Mae, then , is not a victim but a dull villain." While reading the novel, I had a consistently optimistic and somewhat naive outlook that Mae would realize the direness of her circumstances, the impending evilness that will manifest from a completely transparent totalitarian regime. Somewhere towards the end of the novel, which is admittedly a little late and tragically hopeful, I had to let go of this fantasy. Mae was eager to fit in, obsessed with the lure of societal approval, and completely engulfed in quantification as opposed to actual interaction. She shifted from a normal life with normal family relationships, to complete indifference to her roots and established relationships prior to her employment at the Circle. She was able to track down Mercer and lead him to his eventual suicide, and have the audacity to note that it was almost like a game. Killing one of the most important people in her life was like a game. 

In my interpretation of the claim by the New York Times, the truth in the statement is derived from the idea that Mae is simply in no way shape or form a victim of the circle. She is a willing and submissive pawn in the totalitarian and completely transparent manifesto, and that takes away any claim to say she fell victim to it. While it may not appear this way until the novel comes to a chilling end, Mae is essentially the villain if anything at all to the novel. Her character is not anything compelling or contrasting in terms to the norm of the totalitarian regime. In reality, Mae's character stories just one experience of someone completely and totally submissive to the controlling environment that is being molded. If Mae is to be referred to as a dull villain, that namesake comes from the idea that she had the chance to make a change, and denied the opportunity by instead cultivating more support for the Circle.

In the last portion of the novel, the plot becomes a haunting display of the power of the Circle and the terrifying future in store. A twist occurs as we learn that Kalden has been Ty, the third Wise Men, all along. This adds such a powerful contradiction to the aspect of the novel that has been advising Mae to think of the affects of what she is doing. Kalden attempts one last time to help Mae see the detrimental affects of completing the Circle, and Mae shreds the last bit of hope for humanity to pieces without ever considering the troubles of this. She is so deep in the false reality of knowledge and approval that she divulges the Kalden scenario to her viewers and informs the world that he has tried to take down the powerful circle. Mae is the villain by her failure to uphold humanity. Her obsession with knowledge and complete rejection of any of the relations she has made in her life boils down to the last thought Mae leaves us with regarding Annie in a coma: " What was going on in that head of hers? It was exasperating, really, Mae thought, not knowing. It was an affront, a deprivation, to herself and to the world. She would bring this up with Stenton and Baily, with the Gang of 40, at the earliest opportunity. They needed to talk about Annie, the thoughts she was thinking. Why shouldn't they know them? the world deserved nothing less and would not wait" (497).

Transparency

With Mae now completely transparent as a social experiment, and the momentum of The Circle as a company reaching a peak, talk of "completing the circle" is abounding. And despite the faults in this idea to an outsider, no variables are slowing down the process at this point. While completing the circle, enduring total transparency, was deemed inevitable, the progress of this is expedited as the factors align. Timing is tragically on the Circle's side at this stage and the power is too strong to be subdued. With over 90 percent of Washington transparent, the others that are not are simply outliers subject to conformity without the to resist. This is the all too real truth: rampant totalitarianism and unchecked technology does indeed have an immeasurable strength with such overwhelming support. 

The ultimate goal is to make all Circlers transparent, but for now, Mae and one other are testing the idea and modeling the implementation in a way that seems to be appealing to many people despite obvious intrusion on day to day activities. Mae went from being quietly weary of everyone knowing everything about her, to being completely transparent for millions of followers and completely loving it. This jump is troubling, but not surprising. In the process of getting used to wearing a constant camera on her chest and endlessly making appeals to her viewers, she begins to eerily internalize the viewers praise for her point of view as affection. The reality is, the idea that followers and online respect and interaction is not affection of any kind, and this reality is also one that people in todays society are loosing touch with. Mae puts so much value on her image and her transparency that she has completely lost herself. The scariest part, however, is her utter indifference. 

Mae is equipped with a multitude of tools that keep record of all bodily phenomenons, but most importantly her point of view. The point of view which she gives her viewers is what has attracted such a following and allows her to meet statistical standards demanded by the Circle. "At that moment, standing before the octopus, Mae had 441,762 watchers, which was a little above her average, but still less than what she's hoped for while revealing Stenton's deep-sea discoveries. The other numbers displayed were unsurprising. She was averaging 845,029 unique visitors to her live footage in any given day, and had 2.1 million followers to her Zing feed" (314). These massive statics and numbers attest to the absolute transparency and the reality that every single Mae makes is watched, and she pays no mind to it. This complacency threatens the standards of todays society, and is a precursor to the reality of completing the circle.