Tjornhom 1

Kristopher Tjornhom

ENG 120

Dr. Stanley

2/28/19

Watch What You Do

There is a basic instinct in every living thing that alerts the organism to the fact that they

are being watched or made to feel as if they are. This feeling is a warning and allows the

organism to be on alert and stay aware of its surroundings. In this state of mind, the ability of the

organism to make decisions changes and it can alter the behavior of the organism. In the novel

The Circle, Dave Eggers presents a scenario where surveillance becomes essential and any and

all secrecy and privacy is seen as a crime to humanity. The characters in the book ridicule Mae

and others for not sharing their experiences with the world and even went as far as almost firing

Mae from the Circle because of it. In a dystopian world such as this, free will would almost cease

to exist and human behavior would undergo a drastic change. This is evident in the novel when:

Mae is talking to Bailey about stealing the kayak, when Mae visits her parents after going

transparent, and when Mae speaks to Annie. There are even some elements of this in the history

of our prisons with the invention of the panopticon prison and even in our society today with the

use of social media as a means for celebrities to document their lives. In all of these instances,

the behavior of a person is changed simply because of the fact that they are being watched.

In the book, Mae is driving from her house back to the Circle late at night. She passes the

place where she used to rent out kayaks and paddle out on the bay to take in the sights and

sounds and serenity. Although it is night and the rental place is closed, Mae decides to stop in

and borrow a kayak without the owner of the establishment knowing therefore committing a
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crime. After she returns, she is stopped by the police and questioned and eventually set free by

Marion, the owner. The police caught her in the act due to a SeeChange camera being placed at

the beach that she launched from. When speaking to Eamon Bailey about this incident, he asks

“Would you have behaved differently if you had known about the SeeChange cameras at the

marina?” to which Mae simply responds “Yes” (Eggers, 282). After speaking with Bailey in

front of an audience, Mae makes the decision to become entirely transparent so that she is under

constant surveillance in everything she does. Immediately after Mae makes this decision, there is

a drastic change in her character and the choices she makes. Eggers notes her changes in

behavior several times throughout the book and intentionally points out that these alterations to

her character are caused by her new transparency. The first time this occurs in the novel is when

Mae was reaching for a brownie in the fridge but hesitated and grabbed a pack of almonds

instead. Eggers wrote, “She did without. Every day she’d done without things she didn’t want to

want. Things she didn’t need… Anything immoderate would provoke a flurry of zings of

concern, so she stayed within the bounds of moderation.” (Eggers, 331). Mae was a celebrity in

the eyes of her followers and therefore she found herself in the position of a role model and

allowed those watching her to influence her decisions.

Eggers used Mae to slyly poke fun at the celebrities who use social media to post pictures

of healthy foods and extraordinary places to please their followers. Having a strong social media

presence is almost essential to success in the world today and many celebrities use their fame as

a way to build their image. Celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Lebron James are iconic

examples of role models that kids look up to. Due to this, many celebrities have to put on a false

identity when online in order to ensure that those who admire them don’t get the wrong idea as to

what’s right and what’s wrong. However, social media is not the only platform on which we
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judge the appearance of some of our most beloved actors, athletes, and icons. Even when not

online, celebrities can still be harassed by paparazzi and other news teams looking for new

scoops to feed the drama that fans crave. Investigative journalists are constantly looking for

blemishes in the “perfect” lives of celebrities and sometimes the false identities of our icons are

shattered by some scandal or crime. These scandals sometimes show the real person behind the

guise that they established when being watched or listened to like on social media and they show

that they behave differently when not in front of an audience.

Surveillance can impact the relationships between people as well as behavior. When Mae

goes to visit her parents after becoming transparent, Eggers makes a point to show their

difference in behavior. When Mae comes into the house she hugs her parents and speaks with

them a little until “As if remembering they were in camera, and that their daughter was now a

more visible and important person, her parents adjusted their behavior.” (Eggers, 365). Mae

notices that her parents were extra cooperative as the night went on and they agreed with all of

Mae’s arguments regarding transparency. There is a very noticeable difference in their attitude

from when Mae visits them in the beginning of the book as opposed to now and Mae sees it as

well. At the dinner table they begin to talk about the letters of support that they are receiving

from all of Mae’s followers and the dynamic changes when her parents mention that they are

unable to respond to all of the letter which Mae finds disrespectful. Her parents begin to look

directly into the camera to talk as if talking to her followers directly because they can’t ignore

the fact that they are being watched anymore. Mae’s transparency impacted not only herself but

also her family and even her friendships.

Mae had said in the novel that she had been friends with Annie Allerton since middle

school and Annie was the one that got Mae the job at the Circle. Annie was a very busy person
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and therefore didn’t have much time to talk the Mae as the book went on so we are only given

very brief snippets of Annie. As the book progresses, her health begins to decrease as she quickly

becomes overworked. After Mae became transparent, she doesn’t see Annie for a while since she

is away on business and caught up in her work. When Mae spots Annie across the campus she

pursues her and eventually stops her after several attempts at calling her name. When she goes to

speak to Annie, her responses are short as if Annie wanted to leave until her attitude changes

when “something came over her, as if finally settling into what was happening – that she was

stuck on camera and had to assume her mantle as company spokesperson.” (Eggers, 351). The

constant surveillance that Mae was under was even affecting people who worked at the Circle, a

company that advocated for complete transparency for all.

Behavior does not only change when the ramifications of some action done while being

watched are put in place, but rather behavior changes as soon as the subject is made aware of the

fact that it is under surveillance like with Mae’s parents or Annie. They couldn’t have been sure

anyone was actually watching them at that point but they behaved as though there was even

though al they could physically see was Mae watching them. This psychological phenomenon

changes the thought process of the individual and they behave as if they are being watched even

if there is no one physically looking at them. This idea was explored by Jeremy Bentham, an

English philosopher in the 1700’s. He was tasked with inventing a prison that would use as few

guards as possible and cut down on security costs. He came up with the idea of the panopticon

prison and was granted permission to build one in 1813 (Brown University). The panopticon

prison consists of a single guard tower surrounded by a ring of prison cells all facing inward. The

prison cells were open faced on the side that faced the guard tower and the tower was made so

that the prisoners could not see who was inside of it or who was looking at them. This allowed
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for the idea that the prisoners would discipline themselves rather than have the guards

disciplining them. This same concept occurs in the world all around us today whether it be

stopping at a stop light even though there’s nobody around or not stealing from a store because

there may be someone watching the monitors. Perhaps Eggers took this into account when

naming the book The Circle and was cleverly paying homage to Bentham.

“Secrets are Lies. Sharing is Caring. Privacy is Theft.” (Eggers, 305) Complete transparency

takes away the freedom of privacy that the people in the Circle consider dangerous. This fear of

being watched and the change in the behavior that comes with it is a natural reaction and living

in a constant state of this fear could take a toll on the lives of those who are being watched. It is

impossible to have both freedom and transparency when transparency is the very thing that

deprives people from the right to behave without judgement.

Works Cited

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. New York City: Vintage Books. 2013. Print.

“Internalized Authority and the Prison of the Mind: Bentham and Foucault's Panopticon.”

Decameron Web Society, Brown University,

www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7121.html.