Karla Perez-Estrella
11/14/2017
Paper #3
Prof. Chanin
“The Power of Choice”
Trapped in a world where one does not have control of themselves is like living the life another person wants you to live. The puppeteer guides and leads you to where ever it wants you to be at mentally and physically. In the story, “Escape from Spiderhead”, by George Saunders, he illustrates the clash between a harsh and damaging environment that paralyzes Jeff from making his own decisions. Despite Jeff choosing to take the Darkenfloxx because Abnesti had left the remote in the Spiderhead, prior to that he did not have the choice to be freed from the drugs Abnesti would give him which impaired his thoughts and senses. Therefore, Abnesti is responsible for Jeff’s …show more content…
Abnesti’s attitude towards Jeff seems careless about what Jeff wants or not. When Jeff claims to know what is Abnesti doing with him, Jeff asks, “What is in it? Hilarious,’ he said” (Saunders 1). When Abnesti says “hilarious” it implies that because Jeff is a prisoner and he is under his terms he does whatever he wants to do with Jeff. Which means that Abnesti has the freedom to do as desire he will continue to play around with the mind of Jeff. Abnesti’s being in control of doing unethical experiments on him has affected Jeff to the point where the only control and freedom he found is through killing himself. Similarly, in the analysis of “Moral Psychology: Free Will and Moral Responsibility” by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong analyzes the issues of liberty and righteous responsibility. Sinnott-Armstrong demonstrates how drugs can affect the mind when he writes, “Engaging in various kinds of self-regulation—controlling one’s urges, thoughts, or habits—depletes a limited mental resource, making it harder for the person to perform effectively in subsequent tasks” (Sinnott-Armstrong 298). Jeff could not handle every thought that he was going …show more content…
Although, Jeff did murder a person he changed. Jeff was capable of thinking of how he does not want to kill anyone anymore. When Jeff denies to Darkenfloxx Heather it shows that at that moment he is not capable of killing or harming anyone. When Abnesti asked Jeff if he wanted to Darkenfloxx Heather Jeff responded, “I don’t want you to Darkenfloxx™ Heather,” I said. “Interesting,” he said. “Is that because you love her?” “No,” I said. “I don’t want you to Darkenfloxx™ anybody.” (Saunder 20). When he killed Mike Appel that was a different stage in his life, but when he found himself in a position where he was in power of killing someone and that made Jeff realize that he would be nothing but a killer. Unlike, Sinnott-Armstrong analysis, which demonstrates that “[In] the grip of paranoid delusions might believe himself fully justified in killing someone whom he takes to threaten his livelihood… He may entirely lack the capacity to recognize the wrongfulness of his conduct” (Sinnott-Armstrong 289—290). When Jeff killed Mike Appel he was not under the influence of drugs, but under the power of Abensti, Jeff was under the influence of drugs and he still was aware that he did not want to be responsible for the death of Heather. It was not about loving her or not it was about changing the reason for why he was in prison for. Jeff does not deserve to be used as a lab rat because he still cares about people
11/14/2017
Paper #3
Prof. Chanin
“The Power of Choice”
Trapped in a world where one does not have control of themselves is like living the life another person wants you to live. The puppeteer guides and leads you to where ever it wants you to be at mentally and physically. In the story, “Escape from Spiderhead”, by George Saunders, he illustrates the clash between a harsh and damaging environment that paralyzes Jeff from making his own decisions. Despite Jeff choosing to take the Darkenfloxx because Abnesti had left the remote in the Spiderhead, prior to that he did not have the choice to be freed from the drugs Abnesti would give him which impaired his thoughts and senses. Therefore, Abnesti is responsible for Jeff’s …show more content…
Abnesti’s attitude towards Jeff seems careless about what Jeff wants or not. When Jeff claims to know what is Abnesti doing with him, Jeff asks, “What is in it? Hilarious,’ he said” (Saunders 1). When Abnesti says “hilarious” it implies that because Jeff is a prisoner and he is under his terms he does whatever he wants to do with Jeff. Which means that Abnesti has the freedom to do as desire he will continue to play around with the mind of Jeff. Abnesti’s being in control of doing unethical experiments on him has affected Jeff to the point where the only control and freedom he found is through killing himself. Similarly, in the analysis of “Moral Psychology: Free Will and Moral Responsibility” by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong analyzes the issues of liberty and righteous responsibility. Sinnott-Armstrong demonstrates how drugs can affect the mind when he writes, “Engaging in various kinds of self-regulation—controlling one’s urges, thoughts, or habits—depletes a limited mental resource, making it harder for the person to perform effectively in subsequent tasks” (Sinnott-Armstrong 298). Jeff could not handle every thought that he was going …show more content…
Although, Jeff did murder a person he changed. Jeff was capable of thinking of how he does not want to kill anyone anymore. When Jeff denies to Darkenfloxx Heather it shows that at that moment he is not capable of killing or harming anyone. When Abnesti asked Jeff if he wanted to Darkenfloxx Heather Jeff responded, “I don’t want you to Darkenfloxx™ Heather,” I said. “Interesting,” he said. “Is that because you love her?” “No,” I said. “I don’t want you to Darkenfloxx™ anybody.” (Saunder 20). When he killed Mike Appel that was a different stage in his life, but when he found himself in a position where he was in power of killing someone and that made Jeff realize that he would be nothing but a killer. Unlike, Sinnott-Armstrong analysis, which demonstrates that “[In] the grip of paranoid delusions might believe himself fully justified in killing someone whom he takes to threaten his livelihood… He may entirely lack the capacity to recognize the wrongfulness of his conduct” (Sinnott-Armstrong 289—290). When Jeff killed Mike Appel he was not under the influence of drugs, but under the power of Abensti, Jeff was under the influence of drugs and he still was aware that he did not want to be responsible for the death of Heather. It was not about loving her or not it was about changing the reason for why he was in prison for. Jeff does not deserve to be used as a lab rat because he still cares about people