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.

In the novel, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, the main character, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, is an immigrant of Syria who stays in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and is arrested due to the suspicion of looting, but really is arrested because of his race and how he looks. Zeitoun’s faith and loyalty to his community and home is tested through the many obstacles of Hurricane Katrina and including his religion, racism, and his very own dignity. The author, Dave Eggers who is also the speaker in novel, proves all examples of Zeitoun’s challenges credibly in the text.

Mae’s transparency causes her to discretely modify her behavior until she is no longer herself. She undergoes these slight behavior changes as a result of being watched by thousands every single day. After going transparent, she pays more attention to every little movement and decision she makes - everything from what she eats to how she dresses. She makes these adjustments because being constantly surveilled makes her more self-conscious and sensitive to other people's’ opinions. As a representative of the Circle to the whole entire world, she faces the pressure of presenting an image of perfection. This pressure to appear perfect every moment of every day results in the deterioration of both Mae’s mental health and identity. However, the idealistic beliefs of the Circle prevent her from recognizing her new lifestyle as unhealthy. She convinces herself that being watched is “a good kind of calibration” for her personal habits. Her acceptance of the Circle infringing on every aspect of her life shows how Mae loses her personhood for the sake of

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.

Annie is one of the characters who go through a drastic change involving love. When Anagnos is talking to Annie telling her that she has a job, Annie claims that she will never be able to love again (Gibson 19). Though, throughout the play, Annie seems to be developing some feelings towards Helen. Annie seems to want Helen to succeed in learning, and she almost seems to care for her, like a mother would for her daughter.

Will telling Annie stories allows him to realize all the bad deeds he’s done in the past and she helps him recover to find who he truly is. Will understands that having close relationships with his family is what he needs to survive. Will knows that children “see the world as a mystery” and they “need to grow up with a family.” (pg. 56) His understanding is that he is lost and he needs to stick with his family to learn and develop how to live the right way. Annie gains her self-identity when she realizes that Gordon, her “protector” is who she should really admire at the end other than her uncle. When she says that, “being with Gordon is a release for that I’ve been starving for” she understands that Gordon is her key to knowing who she really is and what she needs to do to serve her purpose (pg. 340). All the times she’s been trying to find her sister caused her in so much harm and it was Gordon who helped Annie escape those dangerous situations. Annie truly knows that her relationship with Gordon is what is actually keeping her strong and alive. When Will wakes up at the end of the novel, he sees how much Annie has changed: “She’s learned some things this last year. She’s becoming what my father believed she would.” (pg. 357) Will finds out that it was him that gave Annie the strength to never give up and survive to find her lost sister. Will, along

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.

The same way a parrot enters its cage with a blank mind, devoid of any calls or phrases, Mae approaches her job at The Circle with an open mind, not influenced by any previous work experiences. When thinking of the occupation she previously held prior to working at The Circle, Mae expresses extreme discontent. “Her final day at the public utility in her hometown had been only three weeks ago-- they’d been stupefied when she gave notice-- but it already seemed impossible that she wasted so much of her life there. Good riddance, Mae thought, to that gulag and all it represented” (pg 4). The passage above indicates that Mae loathed her previous job, considering it a waist of her life and likening it to a “gulag”. This shows that Mae felt little passion or allegiance to her old job, and thus approaches her new job at The Circle with a blank mind, not considering her previous experiences valuable to her in any way.

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,

It seems that the feeling of Grace being gone, possibly forever, gave Annie the opportunity to mature and begin on the road of adulthood. as you near the end of the book, she starts to look at the world in a different way. Like Ted, she has trouble letting go things that have happened in the past as Annie feels more responsible for her sister Grace because Grace was so sick when she was a baby. Annie feels obliged to look after Grace, like she is forced to, pressured to. 'Even though Grace is older than me, half the time I feel like I'm the one who's older, like I'm the one who should be protecting her. It makes me mad, the way I feel I have to take care of her.' When Grace is found, she beings to observe the world around her, rather than just seeing without processing, she has noticed things that may or may not have been there before. 'Mum and dad were watching her I noticed them doing it, maybe they always did it, but I don't feel as if I need to look after Grace

“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we 've got to do it right. We 've got to give those animals a decent life and we 've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” ― Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin brings up a brilliant point, it’s okay to eat meat but it’s not okay to treat these animals throughout their life as just something that you will be killing. They have the right to live healthily and in a property environment. Throughout the novel The Chain by Ted Genoways it brings a light to all the dangerous conditions animals and workers go through and what actually goes into the meat you buy in stores. Although low prices on farm produced meat sound enticing, the abused caused to animals and the dangerous working conditions for workers cause dangerously poor sanitation, and can affect many Americans health.

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

People commonly draw similarities between the relationship of a father and son and that of a man and their shadow. However, this raises several questions. What is one to do if their shadow becomes larger than themselves? Or perhaps the shadow no longer resembles the man? Such questions arise in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel and the graphic novel MAUS by Art Spiegelman. While no definite conclusions can be drawn, they act as guidelines in explaining why the family culture that emerges as a result of Holocaust events deters father-son relationships. The Jews all respond differently, causing such uprooted father-son connections and proving that similar religious beliefs do not necessarily translate to similar decisions in extenuating conditions.

In this world lies darkness, but so does light. Wherever there is there is evil, there is good. Colum McCann‘s Let the Great World Spin is the manifestation of good vs. evil.

The plan crashed The theme of Gary Paulsen’s hatchet is sometimes in life one might be able to survive in the wild. The pilot was suffers a massive heart attack and he dies . Brian mind screamed at the pilot and try’s to fly the plane .Then he turned back in the seat feeling the front and put his hands still on the wheel controlling it.