Dave Egger's The Circle

In Larry Lankton’s text, “Beyond the Boundaries” we gradually enter an unknown world that is frightening yet filled with immense beauty for miles. Due to the copper mining industry, a gradual increase of working class men and their families start to migrate to the unknown world with unsteady emotion, yet hope for a prosperous new life. In “Beyond the Boundaries”, Lankton takes us on a journey on how the “world below” transformed the upper peninsula into a functional and accepted new part of the world.

Imagine a clear summer night, gazing up at the stars when all of a sudden something goes zooming across the sky. A shooting star perhaps or could it be something more. This is how “Monsters are Due on Maple Street” begins and ends, with the unknown. Now, there is no evidence to prove or disprove the existence of alien life forms, but one young boy puts doubt into the minds of everyone on Maple Street. The fear, paranoia, and suspicion the characters’ experience is directly related to real-life events that took place in the nineteen-fifties.

In his essay, “Navigating Genres”, Kerry Dirk describes rhetorical genres in funny layman’s terms which made me want to read more. Dirk states the obvious – that through everyday life, we are familiar with different rhetorical genres because we encounter and use them every day. We may not be conscious of it, but whenever we listen to a particular kind of song, or see a TV advertisement for a product we use, or hear a political commentator on the radio, we are being exposed to various rhetorical genres. When we see a horror flick, we are being exposed to another type. When we “post” on Facebook or Instagram, we are using a relatively new kind of genre which came about in response to the digital age.

Relegated to an underemployed underserved neighborhood by a combination of government policy and inaction, Lauren’s community is required to find a way to be self-sustainable despite lacking wealth and resources. Instead of submitting themselves to the abject poverty, they conceive of new ways to flourish given the few resources they do have, and with the guidance of religion to keep morale up. However, unlike in wealthy gated communities, Lauren’s primary objective is continued survival and perseverance. In her survival planning, she tells Joanne that they need to have a plan to “‘survive and rebuild’” (Butler, 55) so as to not end up impoverished on the streets of the world outside. Despite feeling unsafe and uneasy in their privatopia, she still seeks to recreate a similar community if she was to, as she says,“survive and rebuild” (Butler, 55). She cannot imagine an alternative to that type of living, merely aspiring to have a better, more sustainable version of her walled community. The wall separates Lauren and her psyche from the “pitiful, unwalled residential areas” (Butler, 10) not only physically but also cognitively. Her walled community does not encourage her to feel the pain of those on the outside as she would when empathizing with the members of her own community. It is easier to view the outside as other when physically separated by a wall; they are no longer

Do you think fear can kill? “For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own - for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone” (“Rod”). In 1959, one of the most popular television series was The Twilight Zone, wrote and produced by Rod Serling. The series includes many tales and adventures that are very thought provoking. The Twilight Zone highlights the tragedies during the 1950’s, specifically in the episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”. The Twilight Zone contains five seasons but only thirty-six of the episodes were during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and were based on fear and catastrophe. The later episodes of the 1960’s reflected the catastrophes in the 1950’s. In The Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, the events display tragedies of the 1950’s, like the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and the Space Race.

Former President John F. Kennedy said, “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” Leadership is a quality found in many characters of writer. In Neal Shusterman’s Unwind, Connor is a main character that found direction and became a great leader. Unwind is a story that takes place in future America. The unwinding process takes place from the ages of thirteen to eighteen. During this time, kids are able to be unwound and harvested for their body parts. Kids will not die but they will live in a divided state. Connor is one of the main characters in Unwind. From the moment Connor was introduced, he was a ticking time bomb that could explode at anytime. As the story progressed, however, he learned to control these emotions,

According to Elizabeth Lowell, “Some of us aren't meant to belong. Some of us have to turn the world upside down and shake the hell out of it until we make our own place in it.” Sometimes what every situation needs is an outsider to flip the script and create a new outlook on everything. In Shirley Jackson’s novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” the speaker, Merricat, is an outsider of society on many levels, such as mental health, gender, and that she is an upper class citizen in a poor area. Although Merricat is mentally unstable, her outsider’s perspective criticizes the social standard for women in the 1960s, indicating that social roles, marriage, and the patriarchy are not necessary aspects in life such as it is not necessary to have the same outlook on life as others.

Trauma is an experience of such intensity, that it overwhelms the boundaries of the self. The intensity of trauma might indeed overwhelm psychological resources, fragmenting the idea of the ego and altering the ability to sense self, and distinguish reality from fragmented reality. From such trauma many issues may arise, including psychosis. Psychosis is characterised by an impaired relationship with reality and can be seen through a depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness or paranoia, withdrawal from family and friends, and hallucinations. Psychosis could mean a complete loss in being able to distinguish between truth and reality, and losing a sense of self. Literary works, through different literary elements can shape the meaning of

As kids we didn't know anything we were just learning our way, with the help of our parents they would always be there to help. But we don't really think about what if our parents could really get rid of us. In the novel unwind by Neal Shusterman, he portrays the power the government can have over us and how hurtful that can be to certain people. If we stop people from gaining too much power we can fix us as a society In the society of Unwind by Neal Shusterman, the government allows parents to make the choice to have their children. (99).

Is there a purpose in life or reason certain events occur? In the novel Unwind, Neal Shusterman gives a unique perspective of Levi Calder, a main character in the work that embarks on a journey to find his purpose. Throughout the novel Levi becomes the most important protagonist out of the three main characters and helps lead to the climax of the work. As Levi’s journey continues, the truth of his own life is revealed, and he pushes the boundaries for his future fate. Levi Calder is most important main character out of the three and drives the plot to the climax by being the most dynamic character.

Queer Theory is the best approach by which to examine Angels in America because using Queer Theory allows us to see/ illuminates the difference between socially constructed gender and sexual acts based on sexual identity. Queer theory argues that gender is a cultural construct, that the social norms of men being masculine and women being feminine were manipulated as a culture to be seen as normal. In Angel in America, Roy Cohn is an attorney with power in his work place; he expresses a strong masculine character with “clout”, strong political power. He mentions that he is a powerful man and how with only a few phone calls he is able to get a hold of the president. These are expectations of how a masculine male is supposed to act, with power, confidence, and without fear. Being a man of politics, Roy lives up to the expectations of what society believes a strong man is supposed to be and how he is supposed to behave. When he goes to see his doctor and he is told that he has AIDS, Roy refuses to admit that he has AIDS and Homosexual. Roy tells his doctor, Henry, “You Think these are names that tell you who someone sleeps with, but they don’t tell you that.” (Pg. 51) He argues that his identity is not homosexual because they do not have “clout”; that he is a man of clout and has a lot of it. Roy states, “Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout.”(Pg. 51) An example of Queer Theory, Roy tells his doctor that labels like Homosexual, Gay,

Places where people are left to be shut out, ignored from everywhere else because something is wrong with them or “they are setting a bad example for someone else.” For examples The hospitals where Esther stays, Buddy's hospital where he is sick, and the prison that Esther visits are all places where people are separated off from the rest of society because they are considered in some way dangerous. But these places are also similar to the other, "normal" places in the book, like Esther's mother's home or the hotel Esther stays at in new york. All of these places point to society's need to group and divide people. In the open Ironically like the prisons and the asylum she stayed in

The novel “the circle” is a depiction of the day to day life of an individual. From the incidence of how Mae got a job to the rest of the scenes in the book show a person having a daily routine of life (Eggers 112). However, it is important to note that the book is a string of ideas that mainly concern the social edifice and deconstruction of privacy. Privacy can either be termed to be personal or corporate but has effects to either of them. This therefore means that something that is held to be private can be explained to be that which is disclosed. For instance the fact Mae kept her health condition to be private had its own repercussions (Eggers 199). Therefore, as human beings, we ought to live an open life and not everything can be termed to

The homeless people, the attendant and assaulting smells, machines that did not work, and floors and seats that had not been cleaned, and there was, everywhere, the chaos of the order less world.” (373) Mae is saying that the outside world was chaos meaning that the reality of the “real” world was not Mae’s world and that the Circle. The Circle had completely changed Mae’s perspective on technology and recording people without their permission. The Circle is perfect; it was familiar to Mae and that is why her home is now “madness”. The circle is now her “family”, and that tells the reader that Mae has turned again her biological family and formed a technological

Mae’s parent are basically dead because their every move to recorded and they can’t do anything they used to. They has been brainwashed be their daughter Mae. Mercer was killed because Mae wanted him to become someone he isn’t and he was against the circle. The decision to be made is do you want to be part of the inside or the the outside of the circle and the clear choice is “outside the