Feed

Kyesha Freeeman 11/09/10 Dr. Braun Analysis of Feed Does Technology Define Americans Today' In the dystopian novel Feed, M.T Anderson creates a technological environment in which the characters are dependent on a particular technology called the feed. The chip, a piece of technology implanted into the brain, causes the characters to lack intelligence and not have a mind of their own. The characters rely on their feed for everything they do. The technological environment that Anderson has created in this book is much like the world today such as technology expanding and make life easier. Technology affects many people’s intelligence and this book explains how. Instead of this chip making the characters smarter, they are learning less. The characters can look up anything without actually learning the meaning. The characters don’t have to study or read. While the characters were at the moon at the beginning of the book Violet said the word suppuration and the characters began looking up that word on their feed because they had no idea what it meant(23-24). At one point in the book the police had to shut their feed down and take them to the hospital to see what had happened. When the characters woke up they felt lost and the police explained to them that the man who touched them was a hacker and naysayer( 46-47). The characters could no longer look up information when they wanted. The characters in this book felt that they were going to be like the people before the feed and actually learn information and not have it handed to them. The feed takes away the characters ability to think on their own. At the beginning of this novel the characters decided to go to the moon and as soon as they were on their way the feed started telling them where to stay, what to eat and showed them many pictures to convince them things to do(3-4). If the characters walk in a store the feed starts speaking to them in their head and try to force them to buy items. (97-104). Some of the characters have dreams about items in stores. One night Titus was sleep and he felt that someone was poking him in the head with a broom handle. Then came pictures of some khakis for $150. The sales people had even set up a scene of someone wearing the pants to prove how well the pants would look on him. The sales people try everything in their power to manipulate the characters. One night on the moon the characters were at a party and a old man touched them and suddenly their feeds starting broadcasting and the characters began to yell, “We enter a time of calamity”, and the characters couldn’t control it(35-40). That proves that the feed can hack into the characters ability to think on their own. The characters challenge their intelligence and showed how much they lack intelligence by using lesions as a fashion. Lesions were big cuts that have not healed almost like a open wound. The characters thought lesions were amazing and the lesions became very popular among the characters. The characters each have their own special lesion. One night at the club Violet showed the characters the lesion on her neck and she called it a necklace. (21-23). Quendy also has a lesion on her forehead but she was very insecure about it so she was the only one with some intelligence at that time. (22). Titus and the rest of the characters also had lesions. Violet, on the other hand, had a different way of dealing with the feed Violet didn’t let the feed control her and cause her to lose her intelligence. In the book she tried proving to Titus how corrupt the feed was(114-115). She actually did a project on the feed and created a customer profile that no one could market.(99). Violet went into stores with Titus showing him examples of what the feed does. The feed has a way of trying to force characters into buying things and make it seem like its perfect for the characters. Every store the characters went in the feed tried to interest them in something different. (99-101). When the system shut down it caused Violet to become very ill.(169-171). She was the only one that the feed didn’t corrupt but it took away her life. In this book Anderson proved that technology does not always have a positive outcome but can also be negative. Violet and Titus fell in love during the book, he saw something in her that his friends didn’t which was she was really smart and had a mind of her own. Anderson is warning us not to let technology define us in the future. He created this dystopian world to show people that just because we all have freedom to play with technology do not let technology control us and take away our intelligence. He also shows that the characters are not focused and shows interest in things that are not important. Also in this novel Anderson is trying to really say eventually this will happen if we don’t get the proper knowledge and proper meaning of intelligence.