In one of my English courses, I had to read Feed by M.T. Anderson. This novel is a subset of classical novels such as 1984 and Brave New World. Books like Feed are not easy to understand right away, but in this post I will show you how to make that connection the author hopes to establish with the novel.
Case study: Analyzing Feed
The truth is that this novel begins is slow and difficult to understand. Suddenly, I developed an antagonistic attitude towards the book and I lost my interests in the story. In addition, I myself saw many peers complaining about being “forced” to read something not interesting at all. Here is the problem. Nevertheless, once I understood the idea behind the main issues addressed in the novel and how each character behaved in the hypothetical context, I fall in love with the book.
We complain about tough books because we do not understand them. Sometimes the first 20 or 30 pages of the novel are detailed and not dynamic; subsequently, reading the book becomes a pain-inducing task. This is basic psychology, we dislike what we don’t understand. This also happens in Art where people pay a very short span of attention to masterpieces and not really appreciating anything because we actually do not see that amount of work, attention, and point of view from the artist. So, how do you actually break the barrier between being “forced” to read boring material to enjoy if not love the reading?
1- Context, place, and time matters. Reading at 11 pm is not worth it. Reading in the bus or the metro might not be too productive too. Reading in your bed is not recommended too (yes, you guessed right, you might end up sleeping). You need to read mostly in mid-afternoon and in isolation with good light. Students would say “Wow, he is brilliant!” I am not. I am not saying anything new, but the environment where the reading process take place might be the difference between hating the story and liking the story.
2- Understand what is going on in the story. First things first, get the story. If you find yourself reading pages and not remembering anything, then you are in trouble. If you don’t get the story, ask a friend, or even better ask your instructor. They could help you get back in track with key events and key ideas presented in the novel.
3- Adapt yourself to the context and time of the story. Adapt yourself to the story, submerge yourself into the universe of the story and understand the characters points of views. This is the big step towards enjoying any tough novel: adaptation. For example, Feed takes place in the future where technology is so advanced that it is inside our brain. I adapted myself to such context to deeply understand the novel.
4- Compare and contrast main issues addressed. You will undoubtedly cover the main issues presented in the novel in class. Bonus points if you take note about those themes and symbols presented in the novel. For instance, Feed is more than just a satire about over-consumerism, declination of human society, and environmental degradation (among other themes), it is a satire of the emerging class of teenagers. Now, the novel was written in 2001, or 3 BF (Before Facebook). The viewpoint of the author is pretty impressive imagining a world full of social media and consumerism.
5- Draw you own theories. How are those issues presented in the novel related with your life, trend, behavoir, etc? Usually, authors allow readers to draw their own theories and promote discussion. The Feed emptiomizes my point in the sense that it could symbolize our individable attention to the Internet, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. Once we understand the real point about the story and what is the author trying to tell us, we will like the reading.
There is no 12-step process to understand all readings, but the above points are a guide towards enjoying your reading homework. Deep analytical thinking and critical reasoning are one of the differences between high school reading and cégep. Since you are a better reader now and your cognitive skills are superior, then you will be expected to go deeper into the reading.
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