Revision 1

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” In other words, staying true to yourself and your beliefs in a world that is always trying to influence you to be somebody else is very rare. Instead of being yourself, we so often see everybody trying to be like each other, we’re so often told that it’s bad to be different, it’s bad to stand out of the crowd. This is shown to be true in Loser written by Jerry Spinelli and Feed by M.T Anderson. Spinelli uses characterization in order to prove to his reader that while every tries to get Zinkoff to change, he’s perfectly happy being who he is. M.T Anderson also uses characterization as well as symbolism to show the battle between being yourself versus being like everyone else.

In Loser by Jerry Spinelli, Zinkoff is very much like other children. He likes to ride his bike, play with friends and he enjoys spending time going to work with his dad. On the other hand however, Zinkoff is different from the rest of the children in his class. Zinkoff has autism and instead of feeling bad when no one wants to play with him after school, when no one picks him for kickball, or when his classmates call him a loser, he laughs and goes on enjoying his life. Zinkoff is characterized as clumsy and socially awkward, he makes up his own words and dances to the beat of his own drum. While everyone tries to get him to conform to society, he doesn’t mind being a little different. To everyone else he’s different, but he doesn’t see himself that way. While it’s clear in the novel that everyone wants him to be a little quieter, a little more careful, a little more like everyone else, he’s perfectly fine being him. By the end of the novel Zinkoff shows how being different doesn’t mean he can’t be a hero, when he goes out in a blizzard to look for a little girl who has went missing. He doesn’t realize that the little girl was found already and spends the entire night looking. Back at school, while kids are still picking him last and laughing at him they hear about the story and start to respect him for what he did and for being different.

While Zinkoff’s accomplishment is noticed and eventually respected, Violet in M.T Anderson’s Feed isn’t as lucky. Violet’s feed isn’t as up to date as the rest of the kids in her grade. While they all love the accessibility and easiness of the feed she believes its ruining them. Violet portrays the rebellious character and tries to break away from the feed, while the rest of society is trying to repress her unruly ways. Violet prefers simplicity and talking with her mouth rather than through brain waves however, many of the peers are so brainwashed by technology that they make fun of her for being “behind.” After a hacker set a virus on Violet and her friend’s feeds she spends her time recovering with Titus and teaches him her views on the consumerism the feed is sucking them all into. She tries to make him understand that the feed represents a world in which humans don’t communicate with each other verbally, a world in which technology rules the world. Most of all the feed symbolizes consumerism and the constant need to be like everybody else. In a world that is trying so hard to suck Violet in, Violet tries hard to resist, she doesn’t let her classmates bother her and she remains satisfied with the simple things in life. In the end Violet learns that the feed is stronger than her desire to be different. She resists an upgrade for her feed and dies due to system malfunction. We realize however, that her desire to be different was greater than her desire to live.

While “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment,” sometimes having such a strong desire to be yourself takes a turn for the worse, like seen in Feed. However, both Violet and Zinkoff prove that being yourself and resisting the power to conform can end in people gaining great respect for you.