Feed

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Part 1: MOON

Reading Check

1. Why do Titus and his friends decide to go to the moon for spring break?

2. What makes Marty popular?

3. What is Violet wearing that makes Titus think she’s different?

4. What does Link approach Violet to ask about?

5. How does the old man in tweed take control of their feeds?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why doesn’t Titus like space?

2. What is Violet’s theory about lesions and attractiveness?

3. What is the result of Titus and his friends’ shopping trip?

4. Why do Titus and Violet start to dislike each other?

Paired Resource

“The Future of Lunar Tourism”

• In an invited speech given at the 2003 International Lunar Conference in Waikoloa, Hawaii, Professor Patrick Collins addresses the potentiality for one day vacationing on the moon.
• How do Professor Collins’s ideas and predictions compare to Titus’s trip to the moon? How might his theories connect to the theme of Privilege and Poverty in the novel?

Part 2: EDEN

Reading Check

1. When he wakes up in the hospital, what is the first thing Titus discovers?

2. What is the subject of the painting that Titus finds irksome?

3. Which of Titus’s friends manages to avoid the hacker?

4. How does Marty entertain himself and the others in the hospital?

5. What does Titus say the vines in the dead garden look like?

6. What can Violet do that amazes Titus?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Titus do when he wakes up in the hospital?

2. According to Titus, what was the original purpose of the feed (at least as it was sold)?

3. What does Loga do that surprises Titus when everyone’s favorite show comes on?

Paired Resource

“Future Words: Language and the Dystopian Novel”

• In this seminal scholarly article by Gorman Beauchamp, the author examines the way language and vernacular are created and used in dystopian fiction to reflect broken-down future societies. For example, for 1984, George Orwell invented Newspeak.
• How do the language used and the discussions about language in Feed demonstrate that the society is dystopian?

Part 3: UTOPIA

Reading Check

1. Why is Quendy jealous of Calista?

2. What information does Violet give Titus about the hacker?

3. Violet is upset to learn the forest she wanted to see has been destroyed and replaced by what?

4. What event do Titus and the others experience in a dream?

5. What information does Titus reveal about why Link is the only one of his friends who isn’t attractive?

6. When Violet has a seizure and collapses, what does she scream at Quendy?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the message of the president’s speech in which he addresses the lesions?

2. Why does Violet provoke a fight with Loga and Calista at Marty’s Coca-Cola get-together?

3. Describe the beach Titus and Violet visit.

Paired Resource

“When Rioting Is the Answer”

• This article in Time discusses the history of riots and uprisings in American history and the purpose they have served in the pursuit of social change.
• What is the significance of riots and uprisings in the novel, and why is Violet so upset about the Riot Gear fashion trend?

“Beaches”

• This guide by the Environmental Protection Agency gives information about beaches, the ecological dangers that are damaging and destroying beaches, and what individuals can do to fight against it.
• The article connects to the theme of The Corrupting Force of Technology in its discussion of factors that impact beach health.
• What does the state of the beach Violet and Titus visit say about the environment as a whole and the future of life on the planet?

Part 4: SLUMBERLAND

Reading Check

1. What do the numbers in the chapter titles represent?

2. How does Quendy respond when Titus tells her Violet is sorry for what she said?

3. What does Titus smell when he listens to Violet’s messages?

4. What causes Titus to reestablish contact with Violet after he has pushed her away?

5. When Titus’s father shows his family his memories from his whale-hunting trip, what unintended detail does he share?

6. After Violet is comatose, what does Titus spend all night doing to try and feel better before he realizes it isn’t enough?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does FeedTech decline to pay for Violet’s treatment?

2. Why does Violet send Titus endless overnight messages, and what does he do with them?

3. Describe the events on their trip that lead to Titus and Violet ending their relationship.

Recommended Next Reads

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

• Published in 1895, Wells’s novella is one of the earliest examples of dystopian fiction. In the story, a time traveler tells a group of dinner party guests he has just returned from 802,000 years in the future. He describes the state of humanity, which will evolve into two species: the privileged Eloi who live aboveground and the rough, uncivilized Morlocks who live underground as the working class that keeps the Eloi alive.
• Both Feed and The Time Machine broach issues of class-based oppression and resistance.
• Violet’s father references The Time Machine by telling Titus, who visits after Violet is braindead, to return to the Eloi.
• Both works explore the themes of The Corrupting Force of Technology and Privilege and Poverty.
• The Time Machine  on SuperSummary

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

• The first book in a young adult dystopian series, Uglies is about a future in which all teenagers receive plastic surgery at age 16 to become pretty. They then live a life of leisure, partying, and more trendy surgeries with no responsibilities. Tally, the protagonist, learns that the flashy pretty life is just a distraction to keep the populace docile and easy to control.
• Like Feed, Uglies broaches themes of Consumerism as an Addiction, The Corrupting Force of Technology, and Privilege and Poverty.
• Uglies on SuperSummary

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

• Oryx and Crake, the first book in Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, takes place in a world that has all but ended, destroyed by humans in an increasingly dystopian society. The few who are left must negotiate the new territory, which includes a race of genetically modified people who are created specifically to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.
• Oryx and Crake, like Feed, demonstrates the potential ramifications of a distracted populace that blindly trusts those in power for the sake of preserving personal comforts. The novel also addresses the catastrophic results of failing to protect the environment.
• Shared themes include Consumerism as an Addiction, The Corrupting Force of Technology, and Privilege and Poverty.