Bridget Manown
UNIV 112
Murray MWF 1pm
Essay – Arrangement Revision
How can you become most at peace with the universe? Do humans need a degree of
connection to nature so they can feel truly peaceful? This is a question that has been asked and
answered by many, and will be explored in this essay. In The Circle by Dave Eggers, The Circle
itself is a campus filled with the most technologically (technological and) innovative minds of
the century and it is a place constantly buzzing with activity. The scenes within the book that are
the most strongly contrasted to those in The Circle, are when Mae goes out on the ocean on a
kayak, and is at peace with herself. But why are these scenes so important crucial to compare to
that of the hustle and bustle of the Circle? Eggers makes a commentary on the human condition
by choosing Mae’s moment of peace as being within nature, that coincides with my own
personal moment of peace. To be truly at peace with the universe, one has to embrace their place
within nature.
My setting of universal peace and Mae’s setting of universal peace are similar in
multiple aspects. The fundamental similarity, is that we feel a sense of calm and peace when we
take in vast expanses of nature, her vast expanse is the ocean and mine is the night sky. Both of
our experiences make us reflect on our place within nature, and they both also at least
temporarily shed the expectations and duties of the rest of the world. The main difference is that
Mae needs to feel a sense of disconnectedness to the outside world, while I feel a sense of unity
and connected-ness with the greater universe in my moment of peace. To truly feel a sense of
inner peace and peace with the universe, human beings need to feel a connection to nature.
Human beings are biological organisms that have evolved through the course of nature. We are
not artificially manufactured, we are made from organic material, and so therefore it makes sense
that we should as often as possible, allow ourselves to be one to be peaceful with other organic
material.
Human beings People shouldn’t surround themselves with technology for too long at a
time, social media included. There are links between there is evidence that there is a correlation
between Facebook use and feelings of depression and jealousy, studies have found. In The Circle,
Mae is calm and at peace when she is surrounded by nature, and she is the most distressed and
upset, and stressed out when she is working at The Circle, and surrounded by technology. When
one is immersed in social media, one can get a sense of where they exist in a technological and
sociological context amongst their peers, which sometimes can be fulfilling but also it can be
distressing anxiety inducing. For true peace with the universe, a person needs to feel their place
within nature, such as taking a moment to appreciate nature in front of you or partaking in an
activity within nature, and therefor can feel connected to the universe.
The scenes in which Mae is depicted kayaking are calm and slow paced. Out on the water
she describes herself as being very alone on the water, “she saw no one. There were no jetskis
here. Few casual fishermen, no waterskiers, the occasional motorboat” (80). She does however,
see a seal in the water, “they were locked in mutual regard, and the moment, the way it stretched
and luxuriated itself, asked for continuation” (81). The next time she goes kayaking she describes
that there “were leopard sharks, and bat rays, and jellyfish, and the occasional harbor porpoise,
but she could see none of them. They were hidden in the dark water, and knowing they were
there, but not knowing where, or really anything else, felt, at that moment, strangely right” (8384). In these passages the main elements of the scene that are described are the natural, organic
ones, the elements of the climate such as the cold sea water splashing on her face, the sun drying
her, and all of the aquatic life, even the ones she can’t see. The fact that Mae is finding comfort
in being isolated and not having knowledge of all living beings at all times is a striking
difference in mentality than the one that Mae develops throughout The Circle. While Mae was
out on the water “she was calm and felt strong” (83). On her second kayaking trip she reflects on
“how long she’d been free of thoughts of her parents, of Mercer, of the pressures at work” (145).
When she is kayaking, she feels that “There was no path, a fact that gave her great pleasure- no
one, or almost no one, had ever been where she was” (270), it’s clear that Mae feels at peace
when she is alone and isolated in nature. While she is at the Circle, Mae often has negative selfdeprecating thoughts and emotions when she isn’t living up to what the Circle expects of her,
when she neglected to post about her love of kayaking, Josiah and Denise questioned her about
the situation so she left thinking “she was ashamed, she’d been doing the bare minimum. She
disgusted herself” (190), and to try and correct her misdoings, “she embarked on a flurry of
activity” (191). This is dramatically different from how empowered she feels when she’s out on
the ocean alone. Mae feels so at peace with herself on the kayaking trips because she is
separated from the constant activity that the Circle demands, and feels connected to nature
without having to be directly interacting with it. The fact that these elements of kayaking are so
peaceful to Mae, which is the antithesis of what the Circle expects from people, is a clear
commentary from Eggers that the connection to nature is a much more accurate representation of
the human condition, and that the constant activity of the Circle and the interconnected-ness is
unnatural, and that human beings need slow moments of silence from time to time.
My ideal moment of being at peace with myself in nature is on a completely clear night
in August before school has started, I’m living with both of my parents at the same time, and we
still lived in our townhouse where my bedroom didn’t feel like a shoebox. When the day has
sweltering hot but the night feels like a cool release and the air is just humid enough that I feel
loosely embraced by it. The night smells like cut grass, wet pavement, and it feels like I have no
obligations for tomorrow, and that time has temporarily stood still. After spending an evening of
laughter with a small group of people that make me feel like I’m wanted, that I managed to
somehow collect accumulate during my time in high school, I get dropped off on the sidewalk in
front of my house by a car full of close friends that tell me they love me before driving off into
the night. These people might not be perfect, but we are all happy currently coexisting in the
same circle and enjoying small snippets of life together. Once the sound of the whirring,
pavement crunching car has disappeared out of the cul-de-sac, I look at my empty street,
illuminated in warm yellow light by tall, black, streetlamps, and I revel in the silence and how
alone I feel. The light from the streetlamps gives everything the light touches an orange-yellow
amber tint, that are contrasted to the dark, cool ones of the night, my favorite colors are emerging
with me at this time of night. It’s one in the morning and the sky is completely clear, the deep
blueness is so dark that it’s black, the limitless color is unobstructed by clouds or fog, and I lean
back and sit on the rough pavement to look up at the sky at the huge expanse of thousands of
twinkling stars and I feel like I am a part of those heavens that I can see. The only things awake
on this street are the grass, the trees, the sky, and I. I am a part of the natural landscape of that
moment, everything else on the street is hidden or asleep. I feel balanced in that I feel huge and
insignificant at the same time. It makes me feel small in comparison to the entire universe, and
pressure is lifted in that in the grand scheme of things, my actions don’t matter, I am less than a
speck in the infinite galaxy of stardust that I can see above me. But at the same time staring at
the stars makes me feel vast, and I can see hundreds of suns in that moment, and from where I
am standing, I am far more important than them, I am so much more vast and impactful on this
world than those tiny little dots in the sky. I like this sense of smallness and vastness because it
makes me feel balanced and reset, and that I can go in any direction I want to. I am alone yet a
part of everything. Staring at the night sky makes me feel like a part of nature, it reminds me that
I am the product of nature in space, and so are the stars I’m seeing. I savor this moment after
being dropped off by my close friends, and before I go back into my house full of sleeping dogs
and family members because very often these types of moments of quietness, aloneness, and
transition between two events go by unnoticed or unappreciated, and by taking notice of them, I
feel that I am prolonging my life by drinking in every second. This is a moment of peace because
the universe is at peace, painting my idea of a perfect night, and I am at peace, after having a
perfect night and being able to appreciate the natural beauty of that moment, and that the
universe and I can be very much together.
The hustle and bustle of the Circle can be stressful for Mae, so she takes moments of
relaxation for herself out on the sea and she goes kayaking, which is similar to my own
experiences when looking at the stars. A sense of inner peace and one-ness with the universe can
be achieved through taking moments and appreciating your place in nature. I have found this
through my own personal experience with staring at the stars in the night sky, and is also
portrayed though Mae’s experience while kayaking in Dave Eggers’ The Circle. So if you have
been looking for a way to escape the stresses of everyday life, go for a hike or even sit in the
backyard with your dog, you can find peace through your natural surroundings.