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Chapter 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Careless People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Carelessness, Wealth, and Greed
Idealism and the Failed Promises of Technology
Sexism in the Workplace
Bureaucracy and Obstacles to Change
Summary
Analysis
Facebook’s main staff is notoriously difficult to reach, so Wynn-Williams spends a lot of time trying to contact them to pitch them on giving her a job. In 2010, she learns that they have hired Marne Levine to be vice president of global public policy, so she decides to try to network with her. She uses Facebook to find that she and Marne have one friend in common: Ed Luce. Wynn-Williams and Ed get drinks, where Ed is confused about Wynn-Williams’s fixation on Facebook but offers to help by sending Marne and email.
The difficulty of Facebook’s staff to reach reflects how at this point, Facebook wasn’t concerned with how it appeared to the rest of the world. By contrast, Wynn-Williams’s experience in the world of diplomacy makes her very conscious of the public images of people and institutions. Wynn-Williams’s efforts to get a job at Facebook show both determination and creativity, as she asks for a position that doesn’t exist yet.
Active
Themes
Wynn-Williams follows up throughout 2010 but hears nothing back from Marne. When she finally gets a meeting right before the end of the year, she figures Marne must just be doing a favor for Ed. After working in the formal work setting of embassies, Wynn-Williams is shocked to see things like Nerf guns in the Facebook Washington, D.C. office.
The Nerf guns in Facebook’s D.C. office reflect how the culture at Facebook is less formal than at an embassy. It also perhaps hints at childishness and a refusal to grow up, something that Wynn-Williams feels is true of Facebook the company as a whole, which she believes has not yet reckoned with the extent of its own global influence.
Active
Themes
Wynn-Williams is intimidated by Marne, who asks difficult questions about why Wynn-Williams wants to be a “diplomat” for Facebook. Wynn-Williams begins to make progress, however, when she points out how governments might eventually start making laws to limit Facebook’s growth. Eventually, however, Marne says that she’s looking for people more familiar with the U.S.’s regulatory process, not New Zealand’s. At the end of the meeting, she says they should stay in touch, but Wynn-Williams takes this as a rejection.
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Themes
Wynn-Williams is surprised when Marne does indeed call her later. The Arab Spring has just happened, which reminds Marne of some of the things Wynn-Williams brought up in their meeting, and Marne wants an opinion on whether Zuckerberg should take credit for Arab Spring. Wynn-Williams points out that it depends on Facebook’s China strategy, since taking credit for a people’s revolution might make China ban Facebook. Marne puts in Wynn-Williams’s resume for a Facebook position in Australia, but Wynn-Williams is devastated when she doesn’t get it.
Active
Themes
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That February, when Wynn-Williams is accompanying Tom, her boyfriend at the time and future husband, on a work trip in Atlanta, she gets a panicked call from her sister Ruthie on a number she doesn’t recognize. Ruthie says she thinks she’s going to die, and the call drops. Wynn-Williams soon finds out there’s been a major earthquake in Christchurch. After a lot of calling, she eventually manages to get through to her parents, who haven’t heard from her sister.
Active
Themes
Wynn-Williams finally learns that Ruthie has survived when she sees a message from her on Facebook. Wynn-Williams learns more about the earthquake on Facebook, since traditional media in Christchurch is still down. Wynn-Williams decides to call Marne directly on her cell phone and tell her about what she learned about Facebook from the Christchurch disaster. Marne is reluctant, but over the course of three months, Wynn-Williams manages to wear her down and get the job of Manager of Global Public Policy at Facebook.
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