Our main character, Mae, goes through many changes throughout the book.  Making references to the text, explain where she starts out, what changes she goes through and where she ends up.  What do you think of the journey she makes?

Mae struggles with identity throughout the story. As a classic coming-of-age tale, Mae attempts to define her identity as an adult in the working world. However, the novel also addresses the pitfalls of attempting to create an online identity. TruYou, the original idea behind the Circle, combines all online interaction into one identity. In turn, the company uses this identity in various ways to pull information and cater services to employees and customers. Through Gus's LuvLuv presentation we see a notable example of an online identity's inadequacy. Mae is made uncomfortable by a program attempting to create a person and infer further information about her using what she has posted online. She is confused by the fact that she is indeed trying to create an online persona that represents her and will make people like her. Mercer notes the irony in this attempt, telling her that as she works more and more on her online identity, she is creating a less complex and colorful persona in the real world. Thus, the creation of one's identity and the ability of others to understand that identity is crucial to Mae's journey at the Circle and is a major question regarding the limits of technology.