The House of the Scorpion - Narrative Structure

So this is my opinion of the plot of this novel.

            The narrative structure for this particular novel was very interesting. There was a lot of rising action and mini climaxes along the way. It also had quite a short falling action and therefore also a short resolution. I felt that the resolution was quite short too. I think that it went up to the part of the story when he first sees Emmilia, Steven, and Maria. Until that point in the story, it was all description of Matteo Alacràn’s life. After that there was the rising action, which took up majority of the story. This part included his life from when he jumped out of the window, up until the part where El Patron has a heart attack, and is in critical need of a new one. Now here is where the plot of this novel starts to get confusing. At first I thought that the Climax was Matt’s attempt of escape to Matt’s actual escape, but then I realized that there was so much of the book left. There was no way that the falling action and resolution could take up that much of the book. So I concluded that this wasn’t the actual climax and the rising action was still going.

            During the climax of a novel, the protagonist’s life is supposed to completely change, with the danger gone, he or she can finally continue with his or her life. In the section La Vida Nueva, which translates to “new life,” Matt still faces complications, but these are new. After reading this part, I came to conclude that the rising action goes at least to the part where Matt talks to Esperanza and goes back to Opium, which is in a state of emergency. The climax of this novel is when he returns to Opium and he finds out that the whole of the Alacràn family is dead. This is the climax because without this happening, the ending wouldn’t have been the same. Also it is when his whole life is changed and when he realizes that now he truly is the new ruler of Opium. It wasn’t when Esperanza informs him of being the new El Patrón because with the Alacràn family still alive he is still in danger. I thought that the falling action was when he is mourning Tam Lin, which wasn’t for that long and I think the resolution of this novel was when he talks about all the changes he would bring to Opium and how confident he is about his new goal.