Similar to the earlier stories we’ve read in Tenth of December — like “Victory Lap,” for example –George Saunders continues to play with language in his story “Escape From Spiderhead.” He chooses a similar but contrasting structural change between the two stories. In “Victory Lap,” Saunders breaks the narrative up into different perspectives, each having a moment in the story. In this story, the point of view never moves to other characters but instead uses one character, Jeff, who displays a range of different personalities in the story. On top of this, Saunders continues to explore the idea of good versus evil, just as he did in “Victory Lap.”
An important part to this story is the choice to use first person narrative with Jeff. This story runs on the function of point of view. If this story were written with a different point of view, the story would ultimately change its purpose. Having the point of view be from Jeff’s perspective allows the reader to care about Jeff’s concern for freedom and humanity. If the story were not told from the first person, the reader would not have a reason to care about what Jeff or anyone else feels concerning freedom and humanity. In other words, having this story written in first person narrows the purpose of the piece to a more individualized one; if the point of view had been third person, the purpose would probably relate back to groups instead of an individual.