Dave Eggers’s The Circle is a novel about a same-name web organization that offers innovative products and services to ordinary citizens. Even though the literary piece considers the American context in the present time, it introduces some dystopian principles because the organization, the Circle, has a few features of a communist nation. Thus, Eggers uses many allusions to communism in his novel to criticize this social and political order and highlight the importance of personal freedoms.
The book under analysis presents many features of a communist society. Firstly, the Circle insists on the fact that personal privacy is outdated and even criminal. This statement refers to the case when Mae Holland, the main character, finds that her sexual encounter was uploaded to the Circle’s cloud (Egger 143). Even though Mae is in anger, she is convinced that nothing wrong has happened because personal privacy is not very important. This feature is characteristic of communist societies where people are motivated to disregard their rights and freedoms to achieve common goods. Secondly, another allusion to the political system under analysis is found when Mae suggests that the Circle membership should be mandatory for all citizens (Egger 266). Many communist countries have ruling parties that oblige people to enter them. Finally, the organization itself can be considered an example of such a party that wants to gain control over the masses. The justification of this claim is found when Mae offers to use the organization’s website to provide various government services, including voting and licensing (Egger 267). It demonstrates that the Circle is an example of a communist country.
There is specific reasoning behind providing the Circle with numerous communist features. On the one hand, the novel reveals that this political order can be dangerous for individuals. A suitable example justifies this statement when Mercer, Mae’s ex-boyfriend, decided to commit suicide to escape the Circle’s users and search tools (Egger 315). This situation demonstrates that depriving people of fundamental freedoms and rights can be similar to killing them. On the other hand, the book under analysis reveals that a personal tragedy is not a reason for the communist system to limit its pressure on individuals. When Mae visits her best friend Annie, who is lying in a coma, she decides that the Circle needs to know her thoughts (Egger 335). This decision seems logical for the organization that wants to control everything and everyone, but it means that the Circle does not have any moral or social barriers in achieving this goal. This information demonstrates that Egger uses the given organization to reveal that a communist country subjects individuals to specific threats and limitations.
In conclusion, The Circle by Dave Eggers is a dystopian novel depicting an Internet organization that wants to control everything and everyone. Even though the book describes modern American society, the latter is full of communist allusions. For example, they include the understatement of personal privacy, the implication of mandatory membership in the organization, and the desire of the Circle to provide government’s functions. These details were described in the novel to reveal that communist systems are harmful to individuals. When a person is deprived of their personal freedoms and rights, death can be a possible solution to escape this situation. Egger also concludes that this political order is dangerous because it does not have any moral limitations, implying that real-world societies should refrain from it.
Work Cited
Eggers, Dave. The Circle. Knopf, 2013.