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...