Summary Of Feed By M. T. Anderson

In the futuristic, dystopian novel, Feed by M. T. Anderson, a world is depicted in which people have the internet, known as “feeds,” installed into their brain. In the book, the topic of knowledge, or lack thereof, is an important one. As people have an infinite, immediate access to information in their heads, they do not see education as a priority, and consequentially become less intelligent as the feed becomes more widely used. Within the first few pages, the reader can already see how difference the characters’ speech is from ours, in that their dialogue is extremely simplistic and unintelligent. It becomes established that reading and writing are both uncommon, and most characters do not even know how to read. Instead, the communicate through their feeds, similar to modern-day texting or instant messaging. It is because of this instantaneous form of communication that they have simply become lazy in their speaking, by using excessive colloquiums and bad grammar. This difference in language is somewhat of a preface for the characters’ overall lack of knowledge throughout the book. …show more content…
Violet exemplifies this idea by stating, “Do you know why the Global Alliance is pointing all the weaponry at their disposal at us? No. Hardly anyone does… We enjoy being young. We take what’s coming to us.” (Anderson 272-273). This quotes illustrates the willing ignorance of the people with feeds. While most people got their feeds at a very young age, Violet did not get hers until she was seven, and her parents did not have them at all. This allowed her to think more independently and to care about current events. However, in several instances, this only causes other characters to either find her pretentious or, contradictorily,