At the beginning of the novel, the characters are all suffering from mysterious lesions that cause their skin to peel away. It’s suggested that these lesions are caused by environmental devastation brought about by corporate expansion and pollution. But over the course of the book, something strange happens. Lesions come to be seen as hip and even attractive—such that young women get artificial lesions all over their bodies, and young men seem to see them as an appealing feature. The implication is that corporations, rather than slowing down their environmental destruction, have simply found a way to glamorize the wounds that their environmental destruction causes. In this way, lesions are a symbol of the decay of the natural world and of the unthinking habits of consumers in the face of marketing strategies in an age when corporations can successfully glamorize even physical deformity and illness in the interest of maximizing profits.
Lesions Quotes in Feed
"It is not the will of the American people, the people of this great nation, to believe the allegations that were made by these corporate “watch” organizations, which are not the majority of the American people, I repeat not, and aren't its will. It is our duty as Americans, and as a nation dedicated to freedom and free commerce, to stand behind our fellow Americans and not cast . . . things at them. Stones, for example. The first stone. By this I mean that we shouldn’t think that there are any truth to the rumors that the lesions are the result of any activity of American industry.
Violet was screaming, "Look at us! You don't hate the feed! You are feed! You're feed! You're being eaten! You're raised for food! Look at what you've made yourselves!" She pointed at Quendy, and went, "She’s a monster! A monster!"
Lesions Symbol Timeline in Feed
