Summary Of Feed By M. T. Anderson

How did this happen? How will this affect her in the future? These are questions being asked by readers in M.T. Anderson’s book Feed. The book is about a teenage boy, Titus, who lives in a society where a computer feed is implanted directly into people’s brains. His girlfriend, Violet, has a seizure which causes her to lose a year’s worth of memories. Later, when Titus visits her, something doesn’t seem right. She seems nervous about what the feed is doing to her mind. She also later tells him about how she wants to show she’s alive, or how she wants to live life to the fullest. It becomes clear that Violet has suspicions about the feed and perhaps, dislikes it. To start with, the feed malfunction causes Violet to have a seizure that makes her lose all her memories prior to the year she got the feed. The text clearly states, “I lost a year. During the seizure. I can’t remember anything from the year before I got the feed...The information is just gone.” This adds to her distrust she has for the feed. If the feed erased her memories of that year, specifically, I can infer that it could be possible that Violet knows some dangerous information she’s not supposed to know about. This shows how questionable the feed is. Second of all, she seems to be nervous about how the feed is affecting her mind. She was “pressing her palms into her thighs as
hard as she could.” This tells me that she was nervous because when someone presses their palms into their thighs, they are usually uncomfortable in the situation they are in. In this case, Violet seemed uncomfortable when she was talking about how she couldn’t remember a single thing from the year before she got the feed. This implies that she is worried about not remembering what happened during that year. Lastly, Violet talks about how she wants to experience the world and live life to its fullest.
She says, “There’s so much I need to do...You can’t even know...I want to do the things that show you’re alive.” This proves that she wants to experience life. The only problem is, she feels like the feed limits her. She says, “Everything I think of when I think of really living, living to the full—all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms...What am I , without the feed?” She feels like her life revolves around the feed and all her ideas of life is just from the feed. I think that she dislikes that feed for this
reason. Based on the reasons stated above, I believe that Violet distrusts and despises the feed. First, Her loss of memory of the year before she got the feed raised suspicion in Violet which made her question the feed. Second, When she lost her memories, she became concerned that the feed may be dangerous to her mind and might do some damage to it. Third, she dislikes the feed for limiting her ideas of life. In conclusion, Violet overall, feels like she could live without the feed.