1st Block - Summative Discussion: Feed and Our World by Rachel Pawlowski

rpawlowski4 — 2025-09-25 00:16:23 UTC

While the novel primarily critiques Titus and his friend group, this book is also a critique of the world around them. Please write a FULL paragraph responding to the following prompts:

Step 1: Describe one of the issues occurring in the world of Feed, using a quotation + page number from the text to provide a specific example. Possible issues:

Environmental concerns (deforestation, pollution)
Health concerns (lesions)
Socioeconomic status/wealth (poverty)
Trends (clothing)

Step 2: After describing the issue, explain how it impacts the characters in the novel. How does it impact their lifestyle and/or mental state?

Step 3: Make a connection! To what extent is this issue relevant to our REAL world? Is M.T. Anderson’s concern valid? Explain.

tmatu158 — 2025-09-25 13:54:04 UTC

One of the main problems in the book feed is how ignorant people are to nature and their health, and an example would be: Titus' dad-"Yeah, sure. do you know how inefficient trees are, next to an air factory?"(M.A.125) This quotes shows how most of the people in the book look at trees and nature, they think its useless when there are factories that can create air faster and more efficiently and they don't really care about the beauty of nature. In a way this relates to the real world since there are factories everywhere that cut down trees and destroy the environment to be built, but instead of creating air most of them pollute the air. I think that the authors concern is valid because if people don't take care of the environment that can cause more health concerns over time.

athom279 — 2025-09-25 13:58:33 UTC

In the world of feed, we see environmental concerns pop up all over. In a conversation between Violet and Titus's dad, we see them talking about a forest that used to be in Jefferson park. “You got to have air”. Violet pointed out, “trees make air,”… “Yeah. Sure do you know how inefficient trees are, next to an air factory.” during this conversation we can see violet is upset that they cut down all the trees, but the father just argues how we don't need them since we have air factories.

This impacts the character's lifestyle throughout the book by making some characters blind sided from what is really going on in the world and relying on man made things and technology to survive rather than natural resources. Even later in the book, we see Violet and Titus take a trip into the country. In this country, there were filet mignon farms instead of real animals. Once again, showing their reliance on technology rather than nature. How do you view their use of technology over natural resources? How would it affect your day-to-day living?

This can relate back to our world in many ways. One is the deforestation happening all over the world, where we cut down trees to develop more land into buildings and get materials to make things. This increases things like pollution, which we also see a little in the book when they fly in their up cars in the sky. It is weird to me that they do this because trees in general already make air, so why cut them down to make air factories when they produce that already. The filet mignon farm is a representation of our processed food today. We can see throughout the world's most foods are now possessed with chemicals. How do you feel M.T. Anderson represents our world today, and how closely this book relates to us today?

ahart102_1 — 2025-09-25 13:59:15 UTC

In the world of Feed, the environment is very polluted. The ocean specifically seems dead and is described as having a bad smell. Titus explains what the ocean is like in the chapter titled "seashore." Titus describes how it "was dead, but colorful." (p. 179) he also says how they "had on suits so [they] wouldn't smell it." (p. 179)

Based on what I have read in the book, the pollution in the world of Feed doesn't seem to bother the characters all that much. The characters in Feed probably grew up around a similar level of pollution, so they are probably used to it. Would you say the same?

This issue is not as relevant in the real world as it is in Feed. However, Feed could be interpreted as a warning as to what could happen in our world if we let things get too out of hand.

dperr202 — 2025-09-25 13:59:19 UTC

One of the biggest issues in the world of Feed is deforestation and pollution. Stated on page 125, Titus's dad says, "That park was knocked down to make an air factory." After Violet heard this, she got really upset because she loves trees, and believes that trees are the best source of air. A way that deforestation and pollution is affecting the world of Feed, is that trees are being cut down to make factories, which causes pollution and gives these characters lesions. This can relate to the real world now because people are constantly cutting down trees to make factories, which are always putting pollution in the air. In reality, it's pretty ironic that people are cutting down all of the trees (which make air), just to build factories that produce air.

rwelc292 — 2025-09-25 13:59:39 UTC

One big issue in the world of Feed was lesions which were sores on peoples bodies from the damage of pollution. The community normalized getting lesions instead of getting them healed and it was apart of life. For example, Titus says, “We had the lesions that people were getting, and ours right then were kind of red and wet-looking. Link had a lesion on his jaw, and I had lesions on my arm and on my side. Quendy had a lesion on her forehead. In the lights of the hallway you could see them real good" (Anderson p.11). This quote shows how general and accepted lesions are since Titus friends are looking at their sores without any concern or thought of something bad. This connects to the real world because pollution is still a big problem today and causes problems like allergies and asthma. People usually ignore it just like the Feed does because they think it is normal thing everyday.

avazq286 — 2025-09-25 14:02:00 UTC

"It's Riot Gear. It's retro. It's beat up to look like one of the big twentieth-century riots. It's been big since earlier this week." Feed pg. 159. This quote shows how ignorant the people in this society are, not only are they making trends out of violent events but they are glorify or erasing the things that happened just to look pretty or be trendy. While large scale revolutions and riots are happening around the world, these teenagers and even large companies are making trends about the suffering that these people are living through. Not only that but as we've seen and heard throughout the book these trends come and go in a matter of days showing just how little they actually care about the things they're glorifying, the constant changing of trends and the constant need to follow these trends can most likely take a heavy toll on these people, they have to keep up with these fast paced trends and appear perfect, the stress of having to be perfect all the time can be extremely heavy. I think this can be related a lot to our world as well, while I personally haven't seen or heard of trends that are glorifying violent events but the fast paced nature of trends is a very real thing that we face. One example being just the simple term "fast fashion". These companies work so hard to keep up with trends and in doing so create environmental devastation for something that will last a few weeks, continuing with that is the reality that these fast paced trends also affect people in real life. They are so worried about not seeming like a "trend-jumper" while also not wanting to seem like they hopped on the trend too late. This is a real issue that M.T Anderson was able to predict.

watki017 — 2025-09-25 14:04:31 UTC

Violet and Titus' dad were talking about trees and how they are obsolete and inefficient as shown in this quote, "'Yeah. Sure. Do you know how inefficient trees are, next to an air factory?' 'But we need trees!',"(Anderson, 125). This means that Titus' father thinks that trees are useless and Violet thinks we need trees. Which is related to environmental concerns because of deforestation.

This impacts the characters in the novel because most people haven't seen trees before and might never, because the trees going extinct for being inefficient. They think of trees as inefficient because they have never had to rely on them as a source of oxygen and have never been important to people since the invention of air factories before they were born.

In our world, we think of trees as a resource not as something that makes oxygen we think of trees as lumber. In their world they think of trees as just another thing not even as lumber anymore, they are just viewed as obsolete, in both worlds trees just are not viewed as oxygen makers by most and just viewed as another thing. A lot of the time people don't care about trees and don't appreciate the value of trees. This means M.T. Anderson's concern is most definitely valid that trees may go extinct in the future if we as people do not learn to love trees we may never see them again.

ogodf095 — 2025-09-25 14:06:05 UTC

In Feed by M.T. Anderson, one major issue is health concerns, especially the lesions that everybody has. When Titus and all his friends were trying to get into a party at the hotel, but were stopped because they looked bad and had lesions all over them, Titus started to think about how their lesions looked at the time, "in the lights of the hallway you could see them real good. There are different kinds of lesions, I mean, there are lesions and lesions, but somehow our lesions, in this case, seemed like kid stuff" (Anderson, 11). This moment shows how the characters are more worried about how their lesions look instead of worrying about the fact that they are unhealthy. Instead of being concerned with the cause of the lesions or its dangers, they treat it as a matter of appearance. Anderson’s concern is valid, because in the real world some people often focus more on appearance or trends than on serious health issues that are happening around the world. Do you think people ignore serious health problems if they don’t affect how they look?

gfern085 — 2025-09-25 14:07:49 UTC

One of the issues occurring in the world of Feed is Environmental concerns because Titus' dad said "Yeah. Jefferson Park? Yeah. That was knocked down to make an air factory." (M.A.125) This shows how the people in book feed feel about trees and that they rather have air factories to produce air. After Violet heard that she didn't like how they rather have air factories instead of trees because she believes that trees are the most beneficial way to get air. This relates to the real world because companies cut down trees to make space for factories and the factories are always producing pollution. In Feed the factories also produce pollution all the time and the pollution causes the characters to get lesions.

browe234 — 2025-09-25 14:11:16 UTC

One problem in Feed is a wealth problem and a health problem, in the book it states, " "I got my feed later... than some kids." She said evenly, "I got my feed really late." "You told me. So?" "But the problem is, if you get the feed after you are fully formed, it does not fit as snugly. I mean, the feedware. It's more susceptible to malfunction." " (pg 170 Anderson) " "They don't know. I could lose my ability to move; I could lose my ability to think. Anything. It's tied in everywhere." "(pg 171 Anderson). This impacts Violet since she doesn't know what could happen too her and if it will be soon, Violet could lose her ability to do anything, and it would affect Titus since she wouldn't be able to do anything anymore if something does happen to her. This is relevant to the real world, because technology could lessen our life spans, since people use technology for almost anything and people are technology all the time if people don't start caring about their health it could cause the whole worlds life span to go down, also they wouldn't really care about working out or even making a diet for themselves. I think that MT Anderson's concerns are valid since one day technology will be so advanced that it could bring have a big health issue and they will make everything super expensive. Do you think that the world will start to rely on technology that much for it to be a health problem?

adela069 — 2025-09-25 14:19:21 UTC

An issue that occurs in the world of Feed was Lesions which caused damage in peoples bodies that were normalized. Many people would be affected by lesions and instead of finding a cure it was a normal thing for people to have. For example, Titus stated " We had the lesions that people were getting, and ours right then were kind red and wet- looking (pg. 11 Anderson)." This quote proves that it wasn't a big concern and it was visualized as a normal thing that many people had. This connects to the real world because pollution has been a big issue and many people have problems with their health but it is seen as a normal thing. This relates to Feed because people ignore these issues instead of finding a solution.

gloza774 — 2025-09-25 14:19:30 UTC

In page 96, Lesions were starting to become popular a trendy look " because the stars of the Oh? Wow! Thing! had started to get lesions, so now people were thinking better about lesions" Which in this case is confusing because the reason they are getting them, is because of how bad their environment is becoming for them and the lesions are proof of it. This connects with the real world because right now with these recent news are being treated like if it they were just a phase when it's actually more concerning.

nparr195 — 2025-09-26 13:37:26 UTC

In the feed world they experience a lot of environmental concerns such as deforestaion on page 125 we see some tension build up between Titus's dad and Violet because of a forest being taken down. Violet after her telling Titus's family at dinner that trees make air Titus's dad responses in a sort of way that Violet may not like. "Yeah. Sure. Do you know inefficient trees are, next to an air factory?"(Anderson p.125). As we see Titus's dad doesn't think trees are very needed while Violet things they are very much needed because trees make air. This impacts people lifestyle and mental state because it shows that they rather rely on the new air factories that are being exchanged for trees. People like Titus's dad don't see the importance of the real life of nature. This connection to our real world is that people are getting rid of more trees to creat one big open space to either build more gas stations, stores, houses. etc. by cutting trees also in our world is getting rid of wild life's homes and habitat. I would say M.T. Anderson's concern is a agree to disagree in some ways but maybe its an a bit of an exageration.

eford090 — 2025-10-07 14:21:13 UTC

A big problem that people with feeds are experiencing are lesions. " In the hallways you can see them real good. There are different kinds of lesions, I mean, there are lesions and lesions but somehow our lesions, in this case, seemed like kids stuff" (Anderson p.11). Titus and his friends seem to not be concerned with their lesions. As in our world today, sicknesses like colds. Nobody really thinks too much about them and most people will ignore it like the feed does with the lesions

ahell106 — 2025-10-08 15:16:18 UTC

One big issue in Feed is health concerns, especially the lesions people get all over their bodies. Titus says, “People were getting lesions everywhere. You’d see somebody with a lesion and you’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s cool’” (Anderson, p. 97). This shows how messed up their world is because instead of worrying about why people are getting sick, they turn it into a trend. It affects the characters by showing how disconnected they are from what’s actually happening to their bodies and the environment around them. They care more about looking cool than being healthy. This connects to our world today because sometimes people ignore real problems like pollution or health issues since social media and trends make us focus on what’s “in” instead. M.T. Anderson’s concern is definitely valid because it shows what can happen if we let technology and consumerism control how we think and feel.

aparm194 — 2025-10-10 17:01:48 UTC

One major issue in Feed is how the environment is falling apart because of pollution and people not caring. In the book, "Like she was always reading things about how everything was dying and there was less air and everything was getting toxic.”(Anderson, p.110-111). This quote shows how their world has become, nature is dying, air quality, but nobody has really noticed except Violet because the others too focused on their feeds and shopping, while Violet is looking more deep into her life. This issue affects the characters because they live in a world where everything feels fake empty. So, they distract themselves with parties, shopping, mal, and trends instead of facing how bad things really are. It makes them shallow and kind of clueless to others, like they don’t know how to care about real problems anymore. This also connects to our world because we also deal with pollution and climate change. But sometimes it gets ignored because some don't want to believe the earth is changing and slowly decomposing. Many are now to focused on social media or what’s trending to notice these changes. M.T. Anderson’s biggest concern is that he trying to warn us that if we don’t start caring about the planet and each other, we could end up just like the people in Feed and be disconnected and clueless.