Escape from Spiderhead took on a very spooky post-apocalyptic, dystopian vibe to me. The mysteriousness of the experiments combined with the relaxed disposition the scientists took on only added to that feel. What is Spiderhead? What point is society supposed to be at where medicine is this advanced? The lines that really hit me were the ones that revealed Jeff was there serving time.
The story had made references of his past anger, and the progress he had made with it. But the lines: “Mom always looked heartsick when our time was up. It had almost killed her when they arrested me. The trial had almost killed her.” really got to me. The story then goes into describing all the emotional distress that Jeff’s mom went though throughout his trial and processing. Amidst all the science experiments going on, what I was mostly getting was the human emotion throughout it all. So once I knew that Jeff wasn't there by choice, and he was being forced to go through all this emotional manipulation like a lab rat, I was like “oh shit!” I was finally given more background about this main character.
His death at the end made me think about what freedom really means (he was in jail, technically, so was his death a way to mentally or physically free himself?). Overall, I thought the story was both absorbing and strange, and I liked the topics it made me question.
I like the question you posed about freedom, which is essentially the same question posed by Seth in his blogpost. Jeff kills himself to escape the guilt and pain the experiments at Spiderhead cause him. But then what happens after he is dead? Will his afterlife truly be better than? Or is Jeff simply escaping into nothing? I believe this may be the author's way of making the reader question the afterlife.
ReplyDeleteI liked your analysis of the emotional aspect of the story. And that even though it takes place in this bizarre, futuristic world, there is still some human emotion. In the story, the sections where it mentions Jeff’s mom always reminds me that he is a real human being and has emotions. This aspect has always been something I forget when reading these type of sci-fi stories. Also, I agree with the questions you raise about what freedom really means. Especially when, in the story, it seems that death is the equivalent of freedom.
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