The Strain of Identity (Re)shaping in the Digital Age: Debriefing the Divide of the Authentic Vs. the Fake in Dave Eggers’s The Every (2021)

Abstract

In the age of digital transformation, individual identity has become a subject of debate as it appears to be under Persistent reformation and reproduction, critically within the digital age. This research converses about the impact of modern digital technologies on contemporary identities, focusing on how surveillance algorithms influence the (re)shaping of identity . Dave Eggers’s The Every (2021) mirrors the characters’ distressing journey and quest for authenticating their identities in a world tracked by apps and technological platforms. Through the characters and Denaley in particular , the novel portrays the struggle between preserving an original self without fully submitting to the digital dominance. Hence, Eggers tends to question the prospect of an authentic representation of oneself without being absolutely immersed in the virtual world. To meet the objectives of the study, an interdisciplinary approach, aligned with a textual analysis of Eggers’s work, is embraced to probe the different cultural, historical, and social contexts that may shape contemporary identities. Eggers reveals that one can probably understand the issue of identity if he/she understands that people today are the products of this age and their identities are shaped by the platforms they adhere to. This, however, explains Delaney’s anxiety and concern whenever her true and fake identities clash. Hence, her resistance to the technological supremacy sprang from her desire to restore her autonomy and sense her identity that is entangled in a Perpetual struggle between what she aspires to and what is imposed on her