Summary Of Dave Eggers The Circle

The United States was founded on the belief that those with the greatest talent and ability should hold power. Yet, as Dave Eggers points out in his novel The Circle, this concept of meritocracy is still a work in progress. The novel addresses a lot of modern day issues, which the author attempts to solve by means of full technological transparency, the key to achieving meritocracy. The story follows a young girl, Mae Holland, who lands her dream job at an influential technology company called The Circle. Mae serves as an example of someone who is able to achieve great success through hard work. She slowly becomes a prominent figure in the company, partly due to her high PartiRank, a social media program that ranks individuals based on their

The entirety of the company’s philosophy revolves around the idea that everyone and everything has to be ranked. Mae, the novel’s central character, serves as an example of a young girl who quickly moves up the social and political ladder within an influential company. Eggers creates a fictional company in which everything reflects a hierarchy. At the top, there are “The Three Wise Men,” the founders of the company and deemed important by their titles. Mae is first introduced to them when she sees a painting of them together “arranged in a pyramid, each of them dressed in their best-known clothes” (Egger. 19). Eggers repetitively uses geometric shapes like “the circle” and “the pyramid” to highlight the main characteristics of the company: connectedness, as represented by the circle and hierarchical equality, represented by the pyramid. Everything about the company follows a hierarchy with the “Gang of 40,” a team of influential bosses, being of next greatest importance and Customer Experience being the least important job within the company, which is where Mae begins working. Although she is judged by her work ethic in customer relations, she is also judged based on her participation in The Circle community. Not only does the company categorize individuals based on their position in the company, they take it to the extreme by creating the PartiRank, an online generated program that ranks employees based on their social participation. It is typically referred to as the “Popularity Rank” and reflects an extreme version of meritocracy. Rather than simply relying on someone’s looks or personality, people must now work for popularity, a more “fair” system, that is based on your online profile, a more “accurate” and “truthful” version of yourself. While people may be more hesitant to express themselves and their likes in person, they are able to do so online, creating a