The Theme Of Consumerism In Feed By M. T. Anderson

M.T Anderson’s Feed is a novel that satirizes the way people globally are increasingly becoming dependent on technology and exposed to advertisements. The theme of this novel is that if we are not careful, consumerism will take over our lives and rob us of our humanity. All the characters, excluding Violet, are mindless followers of the feed. They care only for fulfilling their primal desires and gaining status. This is a caricature is American consumerism. The reader is shown multiple examples of when people buy things out of habit, not need. A place where women are harming themselves to fit the beauty standard. A world where people go to far off planets but are somehow still bored. A universe where people barely react to depictions

When lesions are first introduced in the novel, they are regarded as disgusting. However when,"The stars of Oh ? Wow! Thing! had started to get lesions,so now people are started to think better of lesions." (Anderson 96). Towards the end of the novel, girls are even getting fake ones ascetically. According to Titus, Quendy, "Had lesions all over her. When she moved her head I could see a lesion on her neck open."(Anderson 221). At first citizens are rightly disgusted by all the holes that are forming in their skin, but the media manages to change their mind. By associating the stars of "Oh? Wow! Thing!" with these lesions, they made them acceptable. Eventually, they even became attractive and girls began getting fake lesions. Quendy got hundreds by choice all over her body. Constant exposure to the media and glamorization can cause you to believe that anything is attractive. Even rotting flesh. Another way people are affected by the feed is being indifferent to tragedy and the injustices around them . Violet is the only one who cares about anything besides partying and social status. In a rant she says,"'We are hovering in the air while people are starving. This is obvious! Obvious! We're playing