Feed B

Looking at Feed as an art, Tobin uses the allegory to show the reader the typical modern day teenage life in a more extreme way. Tobin uses the allegory as an artistic choice to force the reader to draw the connections between Titus' life and our own. It was also an artistic choice for him to make the book a tragedy. I don't think the readers would feel the same way of the book had a happy ending. As a writer, they try to send a message to readers, to make them think or feel or notice something. A happy ending would make a reader have an 'its okay because everyone else is doing it' kind of attitude about the book. But because the book is a tragedy, personally it made me feel like our society is so corrupt and so lost in norms and technology and that there's something wrong here. Tobin leaves noticing the negative aspects of modern day teenage life.

Also noticing that Tobin's ending is just pointing out that there is a problem and not necessarily going into what should be done about it. He leaves that for the reader to decide whether to go with the flow of society or do something to make it better. I think because he may not necessarily know what to do about it either, he decides to just raise awareness about the ignorance of younger generations in today's world.

I think he is speaking to both mainstream adults and young adults because I feel like this topic of technology distracting us from the world around us is important not only to the young adults, but also to the mainstream adults because I believe they are getting sucked into all the new technologies as well as the younger generations (also shown in the book).

I would think that Tobin decided to write a book instead of a film or a website to shy away from the technologies. I think it would be kind of hypocritical if he decided to use new film or internet technology to make a point that technology is a negative aspect of modern teenage life and that it is making us more ignorant.

"Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." I think that Feed is both a hammer and a mirror because it shows average American teenagers what they look like and how dumb they act when they are trying to be cool and trying to be like everyone else, but in proving this, it begins to shape the reader, depending on how they are affected by the book, in giving them another perspective. The book I don't think is necessarily telling you what to do and specifically shaping your life but it makes the reader almost feel guilty and get the incentive to want to change because of the book's influence. I would want my art to be a mirror and a hammer as well.