Feed vs. Catching Fire

First, we had Feed. The futuristic book about what life would be like if we had computers implanted into our brain. The book is just one big satire about todays technology. It’s kind of like the author’s saying “if you don’t change now, then it’s just going to get worse!”

It also showed us how destructive it can be.

We saw the character Violet “crash.” She was literally killed by the feed.

Now, we have Catching Fire. This book is set in a post-rebellion world where every year, one male and one female gets picked into going into an arena to fight for their life, which they call The Hunger Games. This book focuses on the characters Katniss and Peeta in the year after they won The Hunger Games.

Let’s talk about the differences first:

Feed is definitely placed in a more relatable setting. The world in Feed resembles this world more than the world in Catching Fire. Although we don’t live in domes or travel to the moon for spring break, we still have malls, car dealers, go to school, etc.

The characters in this novel are also pretty relatable. They deal with typical teenage drama, like relationship and friend drama, for the most part. They basically live in the same world as us, but upgraded.

Catching Fire is set in a post-rebellion world that I don’t believe we’ve encountered at all on this earth. The world is split into districts and those districts each specialize in something. Some specialize in agriculture, mining, and one was even rumored to specialize in nuclear weapons.

The characters here are so young, but so mature for their age. They’re more mature than we are because of all of the events and trauma that they’ve been through. A lot of these kids are even providing for their families.

Now for the similarities:

The most obvious one is the fact that both are set in the future. These are both possibilities of what could happen in the distant future.

We also have very strong characters in both novels, even though the characters in both novels are extremely different. All of them are true to their own beliefs.

We have one character from both books that’s trying to cause some sort of change. Violet’s trying to bring attention to how bad the feed is and Katniss gets caught up in an uprising against the Capitol and is now the one leading it. Although this uprising wasn’t her idea, she’s the only person that the people of Panem will listen to.

Another similarity is the way that the government handles the wrongdoings of their people. Both governments turn to torture and some even the threat of death.

In Feed, the guy that hacks all of the feeds in the club gets beaten because of what he did. Titus recalls seeing the man being hit “over the head again and again with stunners and sticks” (Anderson 40). Honestly, I can’t say whether or not this is a common occurrence in this world because we are only shown one instance of it, but one would assume that this is the punishment they use when a hacker is caught since the police are so quick to beat him up after he hacks the people in the club.

The violence that the government puts on the people in Catching Fire is much more amplified than the governments violence in Feed. In Catching Fire, we have the lovely President Snow who loves to play mind games with people. Especially with Katniss. He threatens to kill Gale if Katniss can’t make it look like she’s madly in love with Peeta.

We also have the peacekeepers. They get most of the control with the violence. Gale was caught hunting and he ends up "bound to a wooden post" with "the wild turkey he shot earlier" hanging above him with nails driven through the neck of the turkey (Collins 104). Gale is being whipped and is being whipped so badly that he becomes unconscious.

These examples of violence in these two books are at completely different levels of intensity, but the fact that the government uses violence to punish its people is what connects the two.

Now that you’ve read this post and probably thought about other similarities and differences between this book, I want you to think about this question:

If you had the choice to live in one of these worlds, which one would you choose?

-Emily C. Prompt 3

Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc, 2009. Print.