Tricked into a Blissful Ignorance

By Brian Ebisuzaki

I want to take some time to discuss the ending of Dave Eggers’s The Circle, as well as some of the similarities between it and the ending of George Orwell’s 1984. In talking about both stories as a class, we seemed to agree that the two realities described were dystopian in nature. A dystopia, by definition, is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic (as defined by Oxford Languages). Oddly enough, the main characters in both stories do not appear to be in a state of apparent suffering—at least not in their minds. The final statements of 1984 are as follows: “But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He [Winston] had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” (298). In The Circle, the completion of the Circle is described as follows: “it would bring peace, and it would bring unity, and all the messiness of humanity until now, all those uncertainties that accompanied the world before the Circle, would be only a memory” (497). Despite the positive tone of these final messages, we still seem to recognize the scenario as something we do not want rather than something to strive towards. Both Winston and Mae are, as far as we know, quite happy at the end. So why do most of us regard the final outcomes of both stories as negative?

I am not sure I know the answer, but maybe part of the reason is because we as readers taking in the story from a third-person perspective can clearly see both where the characters ended up and where they were before. In other words, we understand the truth of their situation, more than the characters themselves understand it. Yes, Winston is happy by the end of 1984, but he seems to have forgotten how his fundamental truths (even a concept as simple as 2 + 2 = 4) were viciously ripped away from him through torture and violent indoctrination within the Ministry of Love. Yes, Mae is happy by the end of The Circle, but we also can see how much at peace she is when she removes herself from all technology on her late-night, illegal kayaking venture. We understand that both characters have been tricked into a blissful ignorance wholly apart from what we perceive as their true selves. Besides this, maybe the overall stories give us clues as to whether the characters’ happiness will persist. Sure, Winston believes in his heart that everything is all right, yet at the same time it seems likely he will eventually be executed like others who stood up to the Party before him. Sure, Mae believes that full transparency across the globe will result in a peaceful, unified global community, but we have seen how her transparency has cost the lives of those close to her such as Annie, her parents, and Mercer. Seeing that Mae no longer has any close friends, I doubt that the support of her followers, people who she hardly even has physical contact with, will be enough to maintain her sanity or happiness.