Stenton the Shark

The creatures of the Marianas Trench were very fascinating.  So fascinating that Mae had over one-hundred thousand viewers by the time they were done being put into the same tank.  However, these creatures are very symbolic.  The three Marianas Trench creatures each represent each of the Wise Men, and the plight of the Circle.  This can be seen by Ty/Kalden being the seahorse, Bailey being the octopus, and Stenton being the Shark.

Ty the founder of the Circle is finally seen when the Marianas Trench ecosystem comes together, even though he has been seen all throughout the book by being Kalden.  The secrecy surrounding Ty can be equated to the seahorse.  Immediately when the seahorse was added to the tank, it hid.  This is much like how Ty went into secrecy shortly after creating the Circle.  This seahorse already knew the dangers that could come, which makes me wonder if Ty had already seen the dangers that the Circle poses right after he created it.  The seahorse also had many children, like how Ty has many workers.

The children of the seahorse seemed to just move around mindlessly, without any real direction.  While the see horse moved, knowingly to become hidden, like Ty.  The children of the seahorse are the workers of the Circle, not knowing exactly what is going on or their purpose but still moving around and marveling at the Circle's progress.  This shows just how different the mindsets of the Circle's workers are as compared to its creator.  At this point, Ty needed more help so he turned to Bailey, much like how the octopus was added into the tank.

The octopus is without a shadow of a doubt Bailey.  All the octopus wanted to do was get to know everything, from its new home to all of the other inhabitants.  This is much like Bailey, who wanted to get to know everyone in the Circle.  The octopus also tried not to hurt anything, such as the many seahorses, like how Bailey tried to never hurt anybody's feelings at the Circle.  The idea of the octopus expanding in size can be related to Bailey because his personality grew to try and include everyone.  This can also be seen because Bailey would always be known in any room he enters, like octopus expanding to fill any container it is put in.  Bailey is only the second of the Wise Men, the third came in the form of a shark.

Stenton, the business mind of the Circle, is the shark.  He is completely enthralled by everything the shark does and does not every look away from it.  He is by far the most ruthless of the Wise Men, and the shark is 100% ruthless.  The shark is also very transparent, literally, while Stenton is very straight forward (transparent figuratively).  Stenton was blunt and told people exactly what he thought, like how all of the shark's digestion could be seen.  Also, the shark destroyed everything in the tank.  This could symbolize how Stenton's greed will be the downfall of the Circle.  The Shark destroyed the octopus, much like Stenton could take down Bailey, who is too nice to fight back.  Then, once the octopus is out of the way, the shark went after the seahorse and quickly ate it, like how Ty is quickly incapacitated from trying to stop the completion.   This all leads to the destruction of everything in the tank, or symbolically, the Circle.

The Mariana's trench creatures were very important in showing just what was going on in the book.  Each of the Mariana's trench creatures personified their respective Wise Man and showed just how the destruction of the Circle will come apart.  It seems that once the completion happens, like the completion of the ecosystem, nothing will be safe from the destruction.  

Secrets to Transparency

Mae, the heroine of the story, and new champion of the people, has gone transparent.  With this new life, comes many new rules, mainly that she must wear a camera at all times. The idea of transparency is not as clear and concise as the Circle makes it out to be.  This new system may seem like the best way to keep a person honest, there are still many faults to it and ways of using it misleadingly.

Along with Mae's new transparency comes a new job, to show off the Circle to all the people watch her video stream.  Right as the Book II takes off, Mae is in the middle of one of these tours.  In this case, Mae, along with all of her watchers, are watching the mysterious creatures that Stenton found in the Marianas Trench.  Mae then goes on to talk about how her life is mostly showing her viewers the various parts of the circle.

These tours that Mae gives around the Circle may seem innocent, as a way for people to see what life it like inside the circle, but it also has a dark side to it.  All of Mae's videos around the circle are a form of propaganda.  She is only showing her viewers the best parts of the circle.  If a source outside of the Circle was employing Mae to give these tours, they would not contain this bias.

This bias is only exemplified by the fact that Mae is only walking around the Circle all day because she is told to.  The viewers would believe that everything Mae is doing is just part of her regular day at the Circle, but that is not the case.  Mae is being told what to show people at the Circle, through an earpiece, which the viewers cannot hear.

This earpiece is just one of the many ways that the transparency can be bypassed, to still keep secrets.   This earpiece allows Mae to be told what to do, and say without her viewers being able to know.  That means that even though Mae is "transparent" she can still be told secret information.  This is something that completely goes against the meaning of transparency, that the transparent person can't have secret meetings.

Speaking of secret meetings, there are still plenty of opportunities for Mae to meet people without her viewers knowing.  This can be seen when Mae and Annie go to the bathroom to talk.  Now, the camera was never turned off during this time, it looking only at the stall door, but the sound was.  This means that since, Mae and Annie were in side by side stalls, they could talk without anyone knowing, which could be the case with any meetings made.  This is not the only time when meetings could happen in secret.

Each night, Mae is allowed to turn off her camera at 10:00 PM.  This means that Mae can do whatever she wants after this time, without anyone knowing, at least until the next morning.  This gives ample time, when she could secret meets at night, which is something that would be frowned upon, if she was a government official.  Now, there were still SeeChange cameras in her room, but she could have turned them off if she wanted to, and I'm sure not everyone has SeeChange cameras everywhere.  This shows just how much Mae could get around her transparency.

Now, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that she is able to get some privacy.  I'm just saying that these aspects go against want the Circle says they are doing, by pushing government officials to be transparent.  On the other hand, the officials may have more strict rules for their transparency, but I highly doubt this is the case.  This just shows how much the Circle acts like they are being the champions of openness and knowledge, but their methods can still be walked around.