Internal Destruction

As The Circle goes on to explain Mae's life at the Circle and the progress it is making towards completion, we see that Mae is like a ticking time bomb: she will eventually explode. We see that Mae's mind is deteriorating from the inside-out due to all of the Circle's interests in transparency. This is evident in her presentation of SoulSearch.

The presentation of SoulSearch was Mae's first presentation. Although she expected to have a great, unexpected turn out, the presentation was in fact unexpected but not so much great. The purpose of SoulSearch is obvious in its' title; it is a tool that is used to find anyone through facial recognition and the help of millions of viewers who are willing to help with the search. Mae successfully tested out the tool so find a fugitive, but the next person she tested was not so successful. Her second soul being searched as Mercer. Previously, Mercer had sent a letter to Mae stating that he was going off the grid to be hidden from the Circle and it's tools to find people. Mae took advantage of her presentation and decided she would find Mercer with the use of SoulSearch. In doing so, Mae bluntly disrespected Mercer's wishes to not be found. She displayed a narcissistic attitude being that she was only focused on looking good in front of the Circle family. However, along with wanting to look good, she wanted to seek revenge on Mercer for his comments on the Circles' actions, forgetting that this could have a huge effect on Mercer.

It is evident that the Circle has completely taken over Mae's mind and not for her own good. Throughout the presentation, Mae eventually found Mercer despite his attempts to disappear, but she did not receive the reaction she thought she would get. Mercer was furious and outraged by Mae's actions. She had disregarded any advice he had given. Some of which included "Please tell her she should cease her participation in that experiment, which I assure you and her will end badly" (Eggers 434) in reference to Annie's PastPerfect project and "We are not meant to know everything" (Eggers 434). It seemed as though Mae had no intention of reevaluating her actions and, at the least, taking to moment to think, "what if Mercer is right"? After realizing Mercer was not the least bit interested in anything Mae was doing, Mae, along with hundreds of other viewers, continued to harass Mercer into giving up and "surrendering". Mae was blinded by the positive reactions of her viewers to see that Mercer was in the process of committing absurd behaviors, resulting in his death.

The result of Mae's actions was the death of someone who, even though she refused to admit, she still cared about. Often times we get entwined with our wants and desires that we forget the impact it can have on others. Mae's internal destruction was a direct effect of her work at the Circle and to heighten the severity of it, this destruction has not yet been completed.