The Real Experiment

George Saunders story "Escape from Spiderhead" details a prison program that involves testing the short and long term behavioral effects of a series of drugs. The main character Jeff is asked which of two girls, who he'd recently felt feelings of love for courtesy of some of the programs drugs. The test was to determine if he harbored any residual feeling of love for either girl. Jeff however did not and thus did not choose to administer the drug Darkenfloxx, which causes one extreme discomfort, to either girl. This however is not deemed to be enough proof, so instead a new test is administered. In this test Darkenfloxx is given to the girl for 5 minutes regardless of what Jeff says and and then his commentary is recorded. However the administered dose of Darkenfloxx kills the first girl, Heather. Then when it comes time to administer it to the next girl, Rachel, Jeff refuses and when Abnesti leaves the room he instead chooses to give himself Darkenfloxx and end his own life so he doesn't have to kill someone.

Jeff's suicide was meant to be a sort of "escape" from the program, so he wouldn't have to kill someone, or be subject to the authority of Abnesti and of "Spiderhead". I don't think it was truly an act of defiance though. The experiment itself is flawed as watching someone suffering would elicit some sort of emotional response in almost anyone regardless of if they had any emotional attachment, thus invalidating any results that may be gathered. It is also suspicious that they seem to have no idea that that dose of Darkenfloxx would kill someone, and even when they find they are going to do it again without altering the dose despite the fact that doing so would not ruin the experiment. It all seemed too convenient that Abnesti just happened to leave his remote in the room allowing Jeff to kill himself. It seems to much like the Milgram experiment, the participants are asked to perform acts that conflict with their conscience just because they are told to do so by an authority figure. In this case the subject Jeff initially refuses, but he knows if he waits he will be forced to. So he is left with two choices submit to the authority and kill another woman, or kill himself. So by killing himself he is not defying the experiment but acting withing its parameters.