,

Theme Disregard for individuality Dependence on Technology Powerful corporations

hinders social connections and dehumanises society and the manipulate individuals through
autonomy individual unethical use of technology
Example 1: “a customer profile
that’s so screwed, no one can
market to it” “I’m not going to
let them catalogue me”
Explanation: Violet wants to usurp
the corporations by creating a
feed that doesn't fit in with their
categories. She is rebelling
against the corporation's efforts to
streamline the population for
easier marketing. Violet
recognises the lack of autonomy
in their society and attempts to
prevent it from becoming an
ongoing problem.
Technique:
Example 2: “Maybe, Violet, if
we check out some of the great
bargains available to you
through the feednet over the
next six months , we might be
able to create a consumer
portrait of you that would
interest our investment team.
How ‘bout it Violet Durn? Just
us, you and me - girls together!
Shop till you stop and drop!”
Explanation: Violet sends out
pleas for the corporations to
repair her feed but she is rejected
by all of them because she does
not fit into any of their categories.
The corporations don't care about
her because she chose not to fit
into the categories that run their
society. If they can't make money
off her then she is left to die.
Example 1: Then he said,
“Yeah. Sure. Do you know how
inefficient trees are, next to an
air factory?”
Explanation: Society has grown to
become immensely dependent on
technology such as Air Factories.
This dependence has caused
society to disregard the
importance of nature and accept
the damage that the corporations
are inflicting on the environment.
Technique: Irony- destroying an
oxygen producer in order to make
oxygen.
Example 2: “hey, she chatted.
What’s doing? I wish I was with
you today. I always wish I was
with you. . . . Oh, did you get
my list? Titus? . . . Titus?
Explanation: Titus distances
himself from Violet after finding
out her feed is malfunctioning. He
ignores her messages, deletes
her memories and barely
engages with her when they are
in conversation. His actions are
similar to the actions he would
take when discarding a broken
product. His consumerist
upbringing revolving around the
feed has prevented him from
making complicated, meaningful
connections which is evident in
his apathetic demeanor to Violet
in her condition.
Example 1: “We Americans,’ he
said, ‘are interested only in the
consumption of our products.
We have no interest in how they
were produced, or what
happens to them’ - he pointed
at his daughter - ‘what happens
to them once we discard them,
once we throw them away.”
Explanation: The corporations
used saturated advertisement and
media to invoke a materialistic
and consumerist lifestyle onto
society.
Technique:
Example 2: “Feeling blue? Then
dress blue! It’s the Blue-Jean
Warehouse’s Final Sales Event!
Explanation:the corporations have
utilised intrusive advertisements
to encourage users to replace
emotions with consumerist
tendencies. They access the
user’s emotions and use that to
pressure a product onto them.
Technique:
Example 1: We’re sorry, Violet
Durn. Unfortunately, FeedTech
and other investors
reviewed your purchasing
history, and we don’t feel that
you would be a reliable
investment at this time. No one
could get what we call a
“handle” on your
shopping habits, like for
example you asking for
information about all those
wow and brag products and
then never buying anything.
(pg247)
Explanation: Since everyone else
relies on the feed. The
corporations don't like the fact that
Violet is capable of thinking by
herself, which meant that they
wouldn't have as much control
over her.
Technique: Slang, Tone
Example 2: And I sat there with
my palms pressed into my
forehead, thinking about Violet,
at home, being smart. I would
think about some conversation
we were having where I was
dumb. (pg110)
Explanation: Violet is educated
unlike the other characters within
the novel. Titus is uncomfortable
due to the fact that Violet is more
intelligent than him. She has
helped him realise his insecurity
about being uneducated.
Example 1: “yeah. Jefferson
park? Yeah. that was knocked
down to make an air factory”
(pg.125)
Explanation: people were brought
up to not understand the
importance of nature.
Technique: dismissive tone,
simple sentence structure
Example 2: “the braggest thing
about the feed, the thing that
made it really big, is that it
knows everything you want and
hope for, sometimes before
you even know what
those things are.” (pg.48)
Explanation: this shows the
influence of the feed and how it
makes their decisions for them.
Technique: subversion, language
Example 3: “I realised that they
had chatted me, and that I had
not responded. They found this
funny. Risible. That a man
would not have a feed, So they
were chatting about me in my
presence. Teasing me when I
could not hear. Free to assess
me as they would, right in front
of me.” (pg 288)
Explanation: Violet’s father did not
have the Feed and was
discriminated by others who had
Example 1: “ it was like i kept
buying these things to be cool,
but cool was always flying just
ahead of me, and i could never
exactly catch up to it.” (pg.279)
Explanation: the corporations
constantly keep people
perpetually content. perpetual
content= compliance. Ongoing
compliance which leads to lack of
individuality and autonomy.
Technique: Personification
Example 2: “feeling blue? Then
dress blue! It's the blue-jean
warehouses fina sales event…
everything must go!” (pg. 299)
Explanation: this reflects back to
how consumerism controls the
citizens and how corporations
take advantage of them through
their feeds when they're
vulnerable.
Technique: text sizes, repetition,
rhetorical question,

Technique: Visual Imagery,
Contrast,
Example 1: It was like I kept
buying these things to be cool,
but cool was always flying just
ahead of me, and I could never
exactly catch up to it.
Explanation: Titus is beginning to
realise how consumerism has
affected him, he has lost his
sense of direction by constantly
trying to stay ‘cool’. He is
conscious of his disregard for
individuality in order to comply
with the societal norm of
constantly purchasing goods.
Technique: Double meaning -
cool is first used as an adjective
to describe Titus, it is then used
as a noun.
Example 2: “Ohhhhh! Ohhhhh!”
in this sorry tone of voice,
which was nice, except that
then she would pause and we
could tell she was m-chatting
all the news back to our friends
on Earth.
Explanation: Loga is so caught up
in the show everyone’s watching
that she can’t express sympathy
towards her friends. As Titus is
narrating, he comes to the
it. Technology is so involved in
people that individuals without it
are shunned by society.
Technique: Language
Example 1: “Yeah. Sure. Do
you know how inefficient trees
are, next to an air factory?”
Explanation: The short words
indicate that he doesn’t take
Violet’s opinion seriously, he
dismisses her and the importance
of trees. This is ironic as trees are
being destroyed in order to build
air factories, trees were already
providing oxygen.
Technique: Irony
Example 2: She pointed at
Quendy, and went, “She’s a
monster! A monster! Covered
with cuts! She’s a creature!”
Explanation: By using the words
monster and creature, Violet is
associating Quendy with
something that isn’t human. Using
these words to emphasise how
Quendy has disregarded her
humanity in order to conform to
society’s trends.
Technique: Repetition of monster
and negative connotation.
Example 1: ‘Feeling blue? Then
dress blue!’
Explanation: Corporations try to
target ads at even people’s low
points, Titus is feeling upset and
he is being manipulated while he
is vulnerable. Corporations also
manipulate consumers by
advocating for unhealthy coping
mechanisms such as ‘retail
therapy’ in order to deal with their
emotions.
Technique: Symbolism of blue,
using the connotation of blue
representing sadness in order to
sell their product.
Example 2: “We’ve decided you
need a little cheering up,” said
my mother.I started to feel a
little better. I could feel their
feeds shifting toward a
common point, some kind of
banner they were pulling up.
“We’ve decided to get you your
own upcar,” said my mother.
Explanation: Corporations have
manipulated consumers into
believing that materialism is a
replacement for human support.
Instead of dealing with their
realisation of just how out of touch emotions they experience a false
they are with reality and is sense of happiness by purchasing
annoyed at how obsessed they a product.
are with their feeds.
Technique: Irony, his parents
Technique: Repetition, Loga is not decide to reward him just to cheer
present, all her attention is on her him up even though he hasn’t
feed and she is not putting any done anything to deserve it.
effort to comfort her friends. First
person narration.

Example 3: Quendy and Loga

went off to the bathroom
because hairstyles had
changed.

Explanation: In this world, trends

are changing so quickly that the
girls have to constantly update
their looks. Instead of establishing
their own style they jump on the
bandwagon. Indication of how
their autonomy has been stripped
because of the trends and how
they impact teens and their
purchasing habits..

Technique: Evidence, the change

in trends is normalised Titus
doesn’t have to expand further.

Example 1: Example 1: “He told us, “Yeah. Example 1:

“What I’ve been doing over the feed
for the past two days, is trying to
create a customer profile that’s so
screwed, no one can market it. I’m
not going to let them catalog me.
I’m going to become invisible. (P 98)
Explanation:
Violet’s attempt for individuality is
Jefferson Park? Yeah. That was
knocked down to make an air
factory. (P125)
Explanation: Titus’s father’s
indifferent tone represents the
world of Feed’s disregard to the
true problem present, promoting
the degradation of the
environment to create factories
“Feeling blue? Then dress blue! It’s
the Blue-Jean Warehouse’s Final
Sales Event! Stock is just flying off
the shelves at prices so low you
won’t believe your feed!” (P299)
Explanation:
Indicates how desensitised the
world of Feed is, by purposely
targeting Titus during a vulnerable
her resistance to the feed. This
quote reveals her plan to rebel
against the corporations, by
making it harder for corporations
to create a consumer profile on
her.
Technique:
Irony, satire and colloquial
language
Example 2:
“Violet was standing near the
fountain and she had a real low
shirt on, to show her lesion, because
the stars of Oh? Wow! Thing! Had
started to get lesions so people
were thinking better about lesions,
and lesions looked kind of cool.”
-Titus (P 96)
Explanation:
The motif of the lesions conveys
the significant influence that
‘celebrities’ in the world of Feed
have towards other individuals
like Violet. The positive
connotations that Titus uses in
this quote highlights this idea that
individuals in Feed prefer to feel
validated by ‘trends’ that are
popular and not by their own
individuality. This is ironic
because lesions were once
viewed as something unpleasant.
Technique:
Motif - Lesions
Positive connotations
Irony
that produce the same purpose.
Technique: Indifferent Tone, Irony
Example 2: “Linkwhacker! Shit!
You’re like doing all this meg
damage to my knees and my face!”
(P6)
Explanation:
The use of colloquial language
and simple syntax structures to
emphasise the lack of ..
Technique:
Colloquial language
Simple sentence
Example 3: “Violet was standing
near the fountain and she had a
real low shirt on, to show off her
lesion because the stars of the
Oh? Wow! Thing! had started to
get lesions, so now people were
thinking better about lesions, and
lesions even looked kind of cool.”
(P96)
Explanation:
Technique:
Motif - Lesions
Positive connotations
Irony
time, in an attempt to promote
consumerism as an unhealthy
coping mechanism.
Technique:
Rhetorical question
Symbolism
Irony
Example 2:
But the braggest thing about
the feed, the thing that made it
really big, is that it knows
everything you want and hope
for, sometimes before you even
know what those things are.
Explanation:
This quote highlights the power of
the corporation, through the
authority they have to access your
private information and profile the
interests of each individual in the
world of Feed. The effect of this
evinces how they use this
information to their advantage, in
order to promote consumerism.
Technique:
Colloquial language
foreshadow
Themes Disregard for individuality
hinders social connections and
autonomy
Example 1:
“Maybe part of it was the
loneliness of the craters, but I
was feeling like it was maybe time
to hook up with someone again,
because it had been a couple
months.”
Explanation:
Upon getting bored on the moon,
Titus seeks a shallow relationship
to pass time, alluding to how
society has become desensitized
and unable to form a real
connection to others.
Technique:
Repetition, internal dialogue,
colloquial language
Example 2:
“Of course, everyone is like, da
da da, evil corporations, oh
they’re so bad, we all say that,
and we all know they control
everything. I mean, it’s not great,
because who knows what evil shit
they’re up to. Everyone feels bad
about that. But they’re the only
way to get all this stuff, and it’s no
good getting pissy about it,
because they’re still going to
control everything whether you
like it or not. Plus, they keep like
everyone in the world employed,
so it’s not like we could do without
them”
Dependence on Technology
dehumanises society and the
individual
Example 1: “Her spine was, I
didn’t know the word. Her spine
was like . . . ?
The feed suggested “supple.”
Explanation:
Upon seeing Violet, Titus is
unable to describe her physique,
portending the society’s
dependence on technology
Technique:
Non-linear structure, satire
Example 2:
“That’s the thing. I can’t field this.
Okay? You're lying this whole
guilt banquet. I can’t field any of
this.”
Explanation:
Titus’ inability to cope with Violet’s
worsening condition causes him
to have an emotional outburst,
connoting to the dehumanisation
of individuals
Technique:
Syntax, low modality, dialogue,
repetition, colloquial language
Example 3: “Feeling blue? Then
dress blue
. . . everything must go x3”
Explanation:
At noticing Titus’ current
Powerful corporations
manipulate individuals through
unethical use of technology
Example 1: “Everything we think
and feel is taken in by the
corporations, mainly by data ones
like feedlink and OnFeed and
American Feedware, and they
make a special profile, one that’s
keyed just to you"
Explanation:
Titus gives insight on the true
nature of the Feed implant during
his experience in the hospital.
Technique:
Internal monologue, low modality
Example 2:
“Now that School is run by the
corporations, it’s pretty brag,
because it teaches us how the
world can be used, like mainly
how to use our feeds.”
Explanation:
Corporations have taken over the
education system to brainwash
the young generations to develop
a consumerism lifestyle. Teaching
them how to use their feeds and
how to spend their money.
Technique:
dialogue, subversion
Example 3:
“Her feed’s warranty had expired
years ago.

Explanation:
Titus provides further insight on
the history of the Feed implant,
and reveals that despite
Society is aware of the control
that corporations have over each
individual. But the people can’t do
anything against it since there is
no point.
Technique:
Internal monologue, low modality,
repetition, satire, s
emotional state, the Feed
provides a “solution”, alluding to
the societal norm of depending on
society to grant emotional
contentment.
Technique:
Non-linear structure, repetition,
double meaning, motif
“Please,” said Violet. “We need
your financial assistance.”
“If you want us as customers,”
said her father.”
Explanation:
The Durn family discover Violet’s
warranty has expired and
presents a petition to several
companies asking for financial
assistance.
Technique:
Dialogue, high modality.