"The House of the Scorpion" By: Nancy Farmer
"The House of the Scorpion" By: Nancy Farmer, is an amazing story about a boy named Matt who lives with Celia, the woman assigned to watch over him until he is needed. Matt is taken to a mansion by three children, one of the children is named Maria, she is Matt's first real friend. Matt is told to leave the mansion immediately because he is a clone and clones aren't considered people because the law says that something has to be planted in their mind that makes them act like animals, but Matt is different because he is El Patron's clone and he wanted Matt to have a regular childhood. Matt is kept in a jail cell for many years until El Patron comes and treats him well, with his own bodyguard, regular meals, a music teacher, and many other wonders, but when El Patron was young he lost all eight of his siblings so he believes that he deserves to live out all eight of their lives for them, and he does this by creating clones of himself and then transplanting their good hearts to replace his bad one, at this point in the story he is about 140 years old. Celia had been putting poison in Matt's food, not enough to kill him, but enough to kill anyone that was already weak, when El Patron has a heart attack Matt manages to escape and he makes it to a camp with leaders called the Keepers and they watch over lost kids but they are really child abusers. After the Keepers try to throw them in a ditch and leave them to die Matt and another one of the boys escape and go back to the mansion to discover that Matt's beloved body guard, along with many other of El Parton's close friends and family members died at El Patron's funeral because the day El Patron was born he kept everything and never let go which included people so he had a poisonous bottle of wine made to serve at his funeral so that he could take everything with him. In the end Matt becomes the new El Patron which means he inherits the drug empire and he plans to break it down everyday until it's completely gone.
Protagonist
The protagonist in "The House of the Scorpion" is Matt. Matt is the protagonist because he just wants to live a regular life, but he is told that he will never be a regular person because he is a clone and clones are not considered people. While Matt is in the mansion with the Alacrán family he is not welcomed by them, but he is treated well when El Patron is there because he is El Patron's clone. Even though El Parton treats Matt well, he is really just using him so that whenhis heart becomes unhealthy again he can take Matt's heart to live on. This is a problem for Matt, obviously because without his heart he will most definitely die. El Patron creates clones of himself because when he was young his brothers died and his "sisters were carried off by typhoid when they were so small, they couldn't look over the windowsill- no, not even if they stood on tiptoe."(p.101) When this happened El Patron believed that he had to live out their lives for them so he replaces his bad heart with the one from his clone. In conclusion, Matt is the protagonist because he is focused on throughout the entire story.
Antagonist
The antagonist in the story "The House of the Scorpion" is El Patron. El Patron is the antagonist because he is a problem for the protagonist. El Parton is a problem for Matt because if El Patron's heart becomes unhealthy, he will have his guards take Matt's heart out and give it to him so he can keep on living. El Patron is not a good man because he believes that he can create clones of himself and steal their hearts so he can live out all eight lives of his siblings. El Patron has already live out well over eight lives according to Celia, El Patron is 148 years old. Even though El Patron dies in the story, he manages to remain the antagonist. At El Patron's funeral he took everything with him, "...'All that time he was adding to his dragon hoard, and he wanted to be buried with it Unfortunately...Unfortunately, the dragon hoard included people.'" (p.376) El Patron had had a bottle of wine made to be served at his funeral when he died, that wine was poisonous and almost everyone who attended fell in a silent death within seconds. In conclusion, El Patron was the antagonist because he was a huge problem for Matt.
Theme
The theme of "The House of the Scorpion" is persistence and courage. I believe persistence is part of this stories theme because Matt keeps digging and digging through the problems in his life to find an answer as to why clones are different from people and why he was created this way instead of that of a normal clone. I believe courage is also a part of the theme because Matt has the courage to stand up to the Keepers, escape from the Alacrán estate, and leave the country of Opium without Celia or Tam Lin. This has to do with courage because on every border there is Farm Patrol, which is a patrol hired by El Parton to make sure no one gets through and they could've returned Matt to the Alacrán estate to have his heart taken out. This story teaches anyone who reads it that you don't have to follow the path given to you, you could become your own person, and possibly do something worth while.
Conflict
The conflict in the story "The House of the Scorpion" is man v.s. society because Matt is against the entire country of Opium given the exception of six people. They are against him because he is a clone and it is law that clones are to have chips planted in their brains that make them act like animals but, Matt is El Patron's clone and El Patron is so rich he could break the law if he wants to. Even though Matt doesn't act like an animal he is still treated like one which makes him wonder about why he was made this way and if he'll ever be considered normal. Matt doesn't remain this way for the entire story because when he is traveling to the Convent of Santa Clara, outside of Opium he is told that no one can tell the difference between a human and a clone, this makes Matt feel he was never different at all. In the end of the story, after El Patron dies Matt takes his place and becomes the new leader of the drug empire and he decides to cure all the eejits and break it down piece by piece while helping all of his friends by giving them rooms in the mansion.
Motif
The motif of the story "The House of the Scorpion" is sacrifice because to be persistent in something you have to let go of other things and Matt was courageous enough to go back to the Alacrán estate after he had spent many years trying to get out. Sacrifice is a very big part of this story, for example, in the beginning of the story Matt is taken to the mansion and later put into a cell for being a clone, he had to let go of everything he knew and create the best life for himself while he was locked away. Also, towards the middle of the story Matt had to leave the country of Opium alone and leave behind Celia and Tam Lin, not knowing whether they would be alive when he came back. I believe that this story is one of the best I have ever read, not just by its content, but because of how many valuable lessons it is able to express. While reading this book, I have learned that people are never who they seem to be and that you should never judge someone based on the way they look or act. In conclusion, this story is great for two reasons: one, it has so much action and mystery, it would make for a good book report and two, while it was entertaining the reader, it was still able to teach a lesson.
About Nancy Farmer
The author of the story, House of the Scorpion is Nancy Farmer, she was born on July 7, 1941 in Phoenix Arizona, she is 72 years old. When she was young she failed the first three years of school, she had no concept of left and right and all of her letters were written as if she were holding her paper to a mirror, she later discovered that this condition is identified as dyslexia. She had both a brother and a sister and they had skipped several grades because of their intelligence, they were so much older than her people often mistook them for her parents. Farmer went to a school that used to be a prison so there football team was called the Yuma Criminals and the players were called Juvenile Delinquents, the school was located in the middle of the desert and they had drills to protect themselves from atom bombs because they were in the middle of the Cold War. Farmer went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon where she earned her BA in 1963, then she joined the Peace Corps and was sent to India, after that she returned and attended Berkeley. She met her husband in Harare and they have a son named Daniel who is in the U.S. Navy, Farmer started writing when she was 40, she was just reading to her son and she thought to herself, "I can do this!" Farmer has been awarded with the National Book Award for 'The House of the Scorpion' and Newbery honors for 'The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm' , 'A Girl Named Disaster' , and 'The House of the Scorpion' today she lives in Menlo, California.
Book Review
The main message of the story "The House of the Scorpion" is to never give up, this is the main message because throughout the story Matt is living his life as someone who was different from everyone else and he never gives up on trying to figure out why he was different from the other clones. I enjoyed reading this book because of the suspense and action that it contains, I enjoy this because this never happens in real life and this book is an escape from reality. I would rate this book ten out of ten stars because it was so well written and there were so many surprises and interesting characters and the action was phenomenal, I cannot imagine someone reading this book and saying they did not enjoy it. If I got to choose who read this book I would say ages eleven and up because in order to understand, the reader would have to know what drugs are and not a lot of young kids are exposed to information such as that, also another reason is that the book is confusing and sometimes it is hard to keep track of what is happening. In conclusion, I would be careful not to let under aged kids read this book because of the intensity, but for those who can understand what is going on I hope you read it soon.