Literary Analysis of "Feed", authored by M. T. Anderson

Throughout the entire book the readers constantly see Violet’s need to defy the system and go against the norms of their society. She attempts multiple times to trick the corporations with the intentions of keeping the old world alive, the natural world. We see how nothing seems to stop her from doing this, even her own health, after her initial start of tricking the corporation it is seen that her body begins to malfunction. It started with her foot and moved on to her arms, head, and eventually speaking ability, yet none of this seemed to deter her from wanting to challenge the corporations and the feed. Ever since she was introduced as a character into the book, it was very obvious to the audience that she was different from the rest of the teenagers. Even though she later becomes friends with them and does start to conform a little bit, there is never a moment where she is depicted as completely one of them. She remains an outsider throughout the book to some degree and despite her hanging out with these ‘normal’ teens, she never wavers on her opinions or actions. The author uses Violet's character in order to expose the true motives behind the feed and corporations as they take advantage of people and uses her fate to bear the real meaning of this novel, which is that they are all simply pawns in a game to the corporations in order to make money.

Throughout the novel, one key detail that is maintained is Violet’s care for the natural world and ecosystem. She seems to be the only person who worries about its state and how its disappearance will matter once it is truly gone. Everyone else in the book, both teenagers and even adults, is depicted as not caring about the environment because if it is gone they can easily come up with a new solution. “Yeah. Sure. Do you know how inefficient trees are next to an air factory?” (Anderson 125). This quote is from when Titus’ dad discusses with Violet the need for trees to be cut down as they take up real estate land. This purely shows how brainwashed these characters are as they are all blinded with the idea of using everything to make money instead of caring about the natural world. They do not realize the actual impact the crumbling of the environment would have on their lives, they are shown to believe that anything in nature is replaceable and they do not need it in order for their lives to run normally. This is a major part of the novel where Violet is labeled as an outsider and differs from everybody else, she expresses her concern for the environment and is aware of the impact it would have on everybody if it was destroyed. She is not afraid to debate the uncomfortable topics that the rest of the characters may find overwhelming to think about. “Not only must environmental education teach people about their physical environment, it must go further to teach how to live and flourish in sustainable ways. Environmental education has failed in part because of its limitations” (Saylan & Blumstein 2). This quote is from a book in which it is discussed that in today's day and age there are many people who are not aware of the environment’s issues and how much it truly matters. It can only be imagined that this statistic will get smaller and smaller as time goes on, which we can assume is what happened in this novel. This book is set in the future and a critical thing to note is that their feed tells them what they need to know, or at least what it deems important for them to know. This would show that obviously the corporations and the feed would not tell people about such issues as they do not want them focusing on things like this instead of helping them make money. This is one place where Violet becomes labeled as an outsider, she does not contain the ability to ignore these issues and go on with her life because they are constantly blaring in her head. Her constantly pushing this issue forces other characters to have these conversations with her and by result the audience starts to learn about how the corporations have attempted to avoid the feed users from knowing this information.

Another vital place in this book where Violet is labeled to be an outsider is when she does not understand or go along with the want for things that are trending. The audience can see this happen in multiple places throughout the book, whether that is through buying fancy new upcars, new trending clothes, or even getting surgery for lesions. Throughout almost the entire novel, it can be easily noticed that Violet does not conform to the society norms of following trends or even really understand them. Many times we see all of the other characters follow new trends almost exactly as soon as their feeds inform them about it. One example of this is when Calista and Loga buy and wear their riot gear to a party as soon as they see it start trending. They explain their need to have it because it started trending last week which shows how a majority of the characters in this book prioritize being popular and having popular things because they see it as something in their lives that they need to have. “Keeping up with trends can foster a sense of community and camaraderie among people who have the same interests or preferences. Essentially, we follow trends because we don’t want to be left out and because it’s easier than making our own path” (Price 1). This is from an article in which it is explained that most people follow trends because they want to be liked and supported by others around them and it makes them feel a sense of belonging and importance. This is a key factor that can be seen in this book among most of the teenagers as they all follow trends in order to stay popular among their friends and other peers. This is another part of the novel where Violet is seen to be an outsider and where she starts to become disliked as she voices her opinion. She is seen multiple times not understanding the feeling behind all of her ‘friends’ to want these things that are new and trending. She expresses how she does not want the feed to tell her what she likes and what should be important in her life so instead of going along with the feed and corporations like everybody else does, she decides she wants to mess with them. This leads to Violet taking Titus to the mall and messing with her feed by pretending she is interested in things and then not buying them which bothers the corporations as she is no longer being an asset to them making money. As a result of this, Violet starts to get body malfunctions as soon as she no longer is useful to these corporations. The author shows this to describe to the audience the underlying message in the book that the corporations are only interested in the people who help them produce profits and that they have no care for people who do not benefit them.

One final reason that the author uses in order to show how Violet is an outsider is her constant reminder to the other characters that they should be smarter and more aware. Throughout the novel the audience can see how Violet occasionally makes the other teenagers feel as though they are being stupid for just being themselves how they were taught to be. As she was raised differently than all of them she cannot see why they would want to like random popular things or why they would go along with these things purely because someone else told them to. This can be seen in the beginning of the book when the teenagers were all in the hospital on the moon without their feeds when Violet shows Titus that she knows some of the basic language. She essentially shows Titus this with what he believes to be an underlying message stating that she is smarter than him. This is shown later in the book when Violet says almost the same thing about Titus’ friends and he does not take too kindly to it. She expresses how she feels dumb when she is around them because all they do is party and do what she deems unimportant activities. This forms her as an outsider because it is the true factor that makes Titus and his friends start to not like her being around as it always seems that she is criticizing and judging them for simply enjoying and having fun in their teenage years. Ultimately, the author shows throughout the book how Violet is there to be an outsider in their world and belittle them for how their society functions.

Works Cited

Anderson, M.T. FEED. Somerville, Massachusetts, Candlewick Press, 2002.

Price, Austin. "The Psychology Behind Trends." google scholar, Regis University Highlander, ruhighlander.org/home/2024/6/20/the-psychology-behind-trends. Accessed 22 May 2026.

Saylan, Charles, and Daniel T. Blumstein. The Failure of Environmental Education (And How We Can Fix It). E-book ed., University of California Press, 2011. Google Scholar.