Saunders injects emotion into the actions and words by using understatement. Jeff’s emotions are controlled by drugs injected by a pack surgically attached to his body called a Mobipak. “Escape from Spiderhead” presents a redemption arc at the end of the short story when Jeff commits suicide so he will not have to be responsible for another murder. He is a criminal rehabilitated from his violemt tendencies and does not want to go back. Saunder sparks thoughts about consent, the innate goodness of human beings (or perhaps only for some), and the limits of science vs. to what degree humans should be left as they are. The short and occasionally terse sentences and simplistic language abruptly contrast with the long and beautiful sentences. The sentence length plays a duel role of showing the emptiness of the narrator’s words when the drugs are in his system and the weight of his words when the sentence length again becomes short and returns to short and simple words.
The line that struck me the most is “…there is no data in tears.”