Tenth Of December Summary

Tenth of December is a collection of short stories by George Saunders. In Tenth of December, Saunders uses the theme of selflessness and sacrifice for others in multiple stories. Saunders shows this theme multiple times with a transformation of a character in which he/she ultimately acts in a selfless manner, often at a cost to him/herself. “Escape from Spiderhead” and the title story, “Tenth of December” both demonstrate this. “Escape from Spiderhead” is about a man named Jeff who is convicted of a crime, and as a result is sent to an experimental prison. Ray Absenti, the man in charge, is conducting tests to determine the effectiveness of a love drug. Ray places Jeff in a room with Heather, another subject in the experiments. At first …show more content…
However, once Absenti turns off the drug these feelings subside and they return to their previous state and no longer care for one another. Jeff is then subjected to this experiment again but with a separate woman named Rachel. The tests yields the same results of no feelings towards each other, falling in love and having sex, and then returning to having no feelings for each other. Later on, Absenti tells Jeff about Darkenfloxx, a powerful drug that causes severe mental and physical suffering. Jeff describes the Darkenfloxx as, “the worst thing you have ever felt, times ten. That does not even come close to how bad you feel on Darkenfloxx” (56). He then shows Jeff a room containing both Heather and Rachel, and asks him which woman he wants to be Darkenfloxxed. Jeff says that he has no preference as to who receives the Darkenfloxx, thus showing that the love potion has no residual effects and he does not prefer one woman to another. Jeff then goes to a room where he is alone with another man and realizes he is on the other end of his previous experience, and that Absenti is asking Heather or Rachel which man she wants to receive the Darkenfloxx. After multiple tests the same no