The House of the Scorpion

by Nancy Farmer

Reviewed by Anshika Yetchina

Fall 2021

REVIEW: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
ISBN#: 978-0-689-85222-0
REVIEWED BY: Anshika Yetchina


SUMMARY:
Matteo Alacran was conceptualized in a glass plate, and birthed by a cow. He isn’t boy or machine, but he still is scorned on all the same. A clone of the twisted but great El Patron, Matt was raised in the Big House, in the intersection of the United States and what used to be Mexico, by a servant named Celia and branded with “Property of the Alacran Estate" on his foot.

One day, seeing children playing outside the living room windows of the Big House, Matt breaks out of the windows to be severely injured by the glass shards. Brought to the main house of the Alacran’s, he meets Maria, a young girl who does not look down on him the way the rest of the Alcran’s did when learning that he was a clone. The doctor forces Matt to stay in a room with minimal food and water, treating him like a animal and ordering Rosa, another servant, to “care for him. His conditions get worse and worse until El Patron finds out about how Matt was being treated, and as the drug lord of Opium, he orders everyone to not lay a finger on the boy. Finally dressed up and being properly taken care of, Matt takes a liking to El Patron, but also recognizes the unhidden scorn of the house. Taken under care of the Scottish bodyguard Tam Lin, who, despite not being educated, was one of the wisest and kindest people in the Alacran’s estate,  Matt realizes that the house of the family crested with scorpions is just as deadly as it sounds. He takes a leap of faith and starts his escape from the horrors of El Patron and his family, not as a clone but as a human. (295)

OPINION:
I think that House of the Scorpion is a wonderful book for teens and young adults. Following a young Matteo through his life and his ups and downs is incredibly fun, and this story manages to rend your hearts with emotional twists and turns. The characters are absolutely delightful and it's rewarding to follow their development. My personal favorite was Tam Lin from the moment he was introduced, as he was the first character other than Celia to show true care to Matt, like a father, adding levity to this heavy story. The world of House of the Scorpion is well developed, with Aztlan and Opium having fantastic worldbuilding, though I am personally more interested in Opium and how it was raised from nothing. If you are looking for complex words though, for a report or a assignment, I don’t think you will find much here. Even with the wonderful worldbuilding and the well rounded characters, the word choice is a little above average, but you won’t find any new words here. Along with that, this book will also cover death and the eugenics of human experimentation, so if that makes you uncomfortable, stay away from this book. Overall, I would rate this book a 9/10, as the characters are absolutely stunning, the setting unique and interesting, the dystopian setup not in your face but noticeable, and the book itself well rounded. (233)

THEME ANALYSIS, written in collaboration with Chelsea Li. 

In the story, “The House of the Scorpion,” by Nancy Farmer, the author establishes the theme, “two people could turn out different due to upbringing,” by demonstrating the parallel between El Patron, a twisted man and a the powerful leader of a drug empire, and the clone of him, Matteo Alacran, who despite being targeted by the Alacrans, ended up to be kinder than his origin. Early in the story, the author hinted at Matt’s identity starting to diverge from that of El Patron’s, when Tam Lin finds out about his secret visits to the music room. Tam Lin remarks, “Funny, I never thought of El Patron as being musical.” (200)  Here, the first signs of difference start to show as Matt’s personality starts to diverge from El Patron’s, showing he could grow differently as a person. During his stay at the Alacran Estate, Matt notes that the sinister “El Patron [is] a lot nicer when he remembered the past.” (200) This seems to hint that his upbringing contributes to who he is in the present, as he was much more vulnerable in the past. This also parallels how Matt had a wildly different upbringing and turned out to be a different person to El Patron. “No one can tell the difference between a clone and a human . . . the idea of clones being inferior is a filthy lie.” (245) Here, Tam Lin shows that Matt is not just a clone of El Patron, but a human, someone who can grow into their own path. El Patron grew into a tree with twisted branches, but Matt can be different, for the better or the worse.

Through his life, Matt, despite being a clone of a horrible drug lord, ends up being a very different person through his thoughts and actions. (299)

VOCAB AND QUESTIONS
PART 1.

1. What is Matt?
1a. Matt is a clone of El Patron, the horrible drug lord and Farmer who rules over Opium. (pg. 4)

2. What is the reason that the children were scared of Matt?
2a. Matt was a “filthy” clone, and due to the stereotypes of clones, he was looked over as a animal. (pg. 26)

3. Why was Matt forced to stay in the dirty servants quarters?
3a. Since Matt was a clone, no one wanted him to stay near normal people, so they locked him in the servants quarters. (pg. 27)

4. What happened that made Celia aware of Matt’s treatment?
4a. Maria, who had visited Matt before, told Celia about Matt’s living conditions in the sawdust covered room. (pg. 47)

5. What did El Patron do in his childhood?
5a. El Patron had a very rough childhood, with his sisters and brothers passing away from many unfortunate events, and with being poor, he strived to become richer and richer until he became who he was today. (pg. 58)

VOCAB:
Brood (adj.) - A animal kept for breeding. 

Gristle (noun) - cartilage, typically from foodstuff.

Momentum (noun) - the impetus and driving force gained by the development of a process or course of events.
Arbor (noun) - a shady garden alcove with sides and a roof formed by trees or climbing plants trained over a wooden framework.

Ricocheted (verb): appear or seem to rebound

PART 2.

1. Who wrote the book that Tam Lin gifted to Matt?
1a. The book was written by Maria’s absent mother. (pg. 168)

2. What happens to the water from the spoiled Gulf?

2a. The water gets filtered out, with the clean water flowing to the Alcran’s mansion while the slop falls into the pit near the eejit pens. (pg. 172)

3. What are the clones true purpose?
3a. Clones were created as organ harvesting supplements to the farmers rich enough to afford it, such as El Patron. (pg. 226)

4. What happened to McGregor’s clone?

4a.McGregor’s clone’s brain was destroyed at birth, just for the sole purpose of organ harvesting. (pg. 232)

5. What does Celia poison Matt with?
5a. Celia poisoned Matt using first foxglove then arsenic to render his organs unusable for a transplant to sustain El Patron, as arsenic settles into every crevice of the body. This was to protect him from his untimely demise. (pg. 235)

VOCAB:

Theological (adj.) - Related to that of theology.

Efficient (adj.) - (especially of a system or machine) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.

Trimmings (noun) - the traditional accompaniments to something, especially a meal or special occasion.

Nationalist (noun) - a person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

Conscience (noun) - an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.

PART 3.

1. What was Matt trying to do when escaping the Alcran’s estate?
1a. He was trying to escape because he didn't have a ‘use’ in the estate anymore as El Patron was dead, so they were planning on putting him down. (pg. 238)

2. Who was the people who guarded the border between Aztlan?

2a. They were the Farm Patrol, and their job is to turn any runaway immigrants into eejits. (pg. 257)

3. What happens to children who passed the Farm Patrol and made it into Aztlan? 

3a. The children were picked up and sent to factories to work, as most of them did not  

have any more family due to the Farm Patrol killing them off or turning them into eejits. (pg. 268)

4. Why do the Keepers call Matt a ‘aristocrat?’

4a. Matt was born and raised as a intellectual who used lots of facts and logic, but in the plankton factory, you had to be obedient without thinking. (pg. 275)

5. What happens to the Keepers after Matt and his small gang escaped?

5a. The Keepers were found to have been smuggling in laudanum, so their operation was quickly shut down. (pg. 361)

VOCAB:
orderly (adv.) - neatly and methodically arranged
aristocrat (noun) - a member of the aristocracy (nobility)
vane (noun) - a broad blade attached to a rotating axis or wheel which pushes or is pushed by wind or water and forms part of a machine or device such as a windmill, propeller, or turbine.

commando (noun) - a soldier specially trained to carry out raids.
authority (noun) - the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.