English 2000

In M.T. Anderson's Feed, we are shown a world in which the line between consumer product and consumer has been blurred or erased. Cite a few examples from the novel where this has occurred and explore the consequences that the novel suggests accompany such a change.

The novel Feed, by MT Anderson, reveals a future in which the boundaries between a company’s product and its buyer are often difficult to differentiate. A primary example that Anderson demonstrates early in the novel takes place when Titus meets Violet for the first time. Due to his loss of words, the feed suggests the word in which he should use. After it recommends the word “supple,” Titus uses the word even though he is not sure of its meaning. However, the reader is then exposed to the world in which the protagonist lives by experiencing the same commercial running through his feed. Within this advertisement, the word “supple” is used in order to explain its definition.

The feed replaces things like billboards, television commercials, and magazine advertisements that one chooses voluntarily. However, Anderson portrays a world in which an individual is unable to control the media's affect on consumers through the feed when it reveals advertisements based on the interests of each potential buyer.

In rebellion to this way of life, Violet chooses to spend a day at the mall in which she takes interest to certain things that she does not have any concern with. The purpose of her actions is to confuse the feed by not correlating with her past desires. Subsequently, Violet's motives are ultimately the cause of her death in the end of the novel. Because of this confusion, she is unable to attain an updated feed after her old one experiences certain difficulties when it slowly suppresses the functions of her body. Nina with FeedTech Corp informed Violet that after reviewing her purchasing history and shopping habits, they did not feel she would be a reliable investment. She explained," ...like for example you asking for information about all those wow and brag products and then never buying anything.....Sorry-I'm afraid you'll just have to work with your feed the way it is" (247).

Lastly, toward the end of the novel, Titus argues with Violet's father. After an emotional breakdown once he is in his room by himself, Titus has a certain impulse to continue to buy one certain product. He states, "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it" (279). Because of such feelings, Titus believes the cure to this hardship is to purchase.

However, this buying does not accomplish anything.