Throughout the novel The Circle, Eggers proves that intimacy and privacy go hand in hand. Intimacy, which is a sense of togetherness, is one the most important things a person can have in their lives. Privacy allows people to be secluded in their own world and ignores any attention that may come from the outside. Intimacy and privacy is seen within Mae's relationship with her parents and Francis.
The close relationship between parents and their children is one of the most important things an adult can have within their lives. Mae's parents are extremely intimate with her, not sparring her the details of her father's health struggles and their problems with the health insurance. When Mae had asked how things had been going with their health insurance, her mom and dad had responded with telling her every detail of how their company would not cover each and every problem that had arisen for them. The idea of privacy had been lost at this point, being that her parents had dropped their problems onto Mae. The idea of intimacy, though, was alive; they feel that they can tell her anything and that she can be there to help them through the times of need and struggle since she is in a better position than they now are. It had put undue stress on Mae - "it tortured her" (page 76) - but she would do anything to help her parents.
Intimacy curates trust and privacy curates intimacy, each is lost without one another. Intimacy includes opening up to others and allowing people into one's life, giving people a glimpse of one's world, and how one functions from day to day. Mae allowed Francis into her personal bubble, her private world that she felt she could trust him with. After Francis and her had gone out to dinner "she [had] kiss[ed] Francis on the street." (page 116); she opened herself up and brought him into her intimate world by making the first move. Her privacy was broken by no longer caring who saw her kiss him in public and a new bond of intimacy was brought into the strange dynamic the two of them had.
Intimacy and Privacy go together and have the ability to be broken together. The intimacy Mae felt she had once held with Francis was broken when Francis had gotten on stage with Gus. It had embarrassed her to see him act in such a way and the Francis that she had known in her private life had been so different to the one that had been up on the stage in front of her coworkers at the Circle. Francis had managed to break the easy going intimacy and privacy the two of them had shared over a game-show like meeting; it made it seem like their romance was more of a game to Mae than anything else.
Without these two elements within a persons life, it is difficult to have a strong relationship with others. Mae has a good relationship with her parents, but ends up having a hard time making ends meet with the man she can see herself having an intimate relationship with in the future.
I found it very interesting how you said that intimacy and privacy go hand and hand. I also liked how you pointed out how the connection between the two can be so easily broken, like in the case of Francis and Mae. Overall, I really liked your post.
ReplyDeleteYour introduction is clear and really orients me to where you'll be going in the post. I chose the same topics, but was not as easy to follow. I think it may have been helpful to use more examples. Nice conclusion.
ReplyDeleteYour introduction is clear and really orients me to where you'll be going in the post. I chose the same topics, but was not as easy to follow. I think it may have been helpful to use more examples. Nice conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI never would of thought about the way intimacy and privacy fit together. I also liked how you used these two words to relate them to the relationships we have with people. And you provided vaild details and examples to back your claim. All in all, I really enjoyed reading your post.
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