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. 

The House of the Scorpion - Theme

Here are my thoughts on the theme of the novel.

             When I first thought about the theme of The House of the Scorpion, I thought it had something to do with loyalty because of the role that certain individuals play but as the novel progressed, I came to realize that even though this could be a sub-theme, the actual theme was that your identity may be determined by your place in society. I thought that this was evident throughout the novel, even after Matt escapes into Aztlan. It shows how everyones actions and feelings reflected their place in society, people from a higher stature were treated with far more respect and felt that they deserved better than others. People from a lower stature treated people from a higher stature with respect and they were generally quite obedient, even if it was against their will. Even so, people like María, who is was a higher stature didn’t stick to the status quo.

            As I said above this novel one of the sub-themes I felt really popped out was loyalty. People can go to great lengths for friendship. I felt that this was important because throughout his life, and therefore the book, Matt is introduced to many new characters, some of which become his friend. Friendship with a clone however, is looked down on. In Aztlan, becoming friends with the aristocrat is also looked down on.  With the chance of being grouped in with him, his friends still stick by him, which in this kind of a society is a very big step to take. There are many different sub-themes explored in this novel but I only stated this one because it can easily be mistaken as the actual theme of the novel. It is highly explored as well but thinking about the novel as a whole, the theme is that your identity may be determined by your place in society.

The House of the Scorpion - Connections to Real World Issues

Here are some connections I made with the novel and our world.

            There are many things that are wrong in our society, and yet what society is perfect? In The House of the Scorpion Nancy Farmer has written the story in such a way that you can’t help but think about and compare our two societies. Many of the problems we face today are talked about in the novel. One of them being Drug Trafficking. El Patron created Opium when he made a deal with the USA and Aztlan governments that he wouldn’t deal drugs in the two countries and would only sell to the costumers across the ocean, if they gave him that piece of land. Drug Trafficking is something that happens in our society today and illegal trades occur all the time. It is an issue that increases an individual's exposure to drugs, making more and more people addicted.

            Another issue that was stated in this novel was discrimination. Although it is not that forward, I noticed that there was discrimination between men and women. In our society, certain jobs give higher pay to men than women, even if they accomplish the same task. In the novel, I noticed that there were no women that had power in Opium. They were also treated poorly, more so than men. Another thing I noticed were the jobs of each gender. All the servants and cooks that Farmer talks about are women. All the guards and security people she talks about are men.

            The one issue that I found that was stated, and to me the most important, was child labor. In the section La Vida Nueva, it introduces the Keepers and the orphans. The orphans are fed thoughts that make them believe that child labor is required for their society to function. They are also beaten if they are not accomplishing their work properly. They are not fed properly either. In our society, there are certain countries in which child labor occurs and it robs a child of their childhood. Giving children the sense of fear from when they are young is not a good start to their lives. Another one I read about in this section was equality. I realized that their ideas of equality are far more strict than ours and equity isn't quite for the orphans of Aztlan.

The House of the Scorpion - Characterization

Here is my post for my thoughts on characterization for this novel:

            In The House of the Scorpion Matt is clearly the protagonist of the story. The tale is told from his perspective and the whole story talks about how his life progresses and how it differs from the life of a normal child. At the start of the novel, the way Matt was portrayed was a different experience for me because I had never read a novel that showed the perspective of a six year old child. As the novel progressed and he grew older however, I could definitely relate to what he was feeling and his reactions. Matt has some sort of a relation with each of the characters. It could be short, it could be long, it could be negative, or it could be positive. His speech differs throughout the novel, depending on his age group but there was one thing that didn’t change, he always spoke his mind. He didn’t try to hide what he was feeling, at least not from everyone, which is something many people struggle to do.

            To accompany Matt, Nancy Farmer also included María, Tam Lin, Celia, Chacho and Fidelito. Out of everyone in their society, these individuals stick by Matt for the whole novel, and though they aren’t talked about throughout they play a major role in Matt’s life. Celia and Tam Lin play the mother and father figures for Matt. They are more flat characters than they are round, but pieces of their pasts are shown to us in order to better understand them and their motives. María, to some extent, is a stock character. Though she is in the story throughout, we don’t really get to learn much about her. She is like the classic female figure, or heroine, of the novel. Chacho and Fidelito come in at the very end. They help Matt once he reaches Aztlan sticking by him when he was criticized by all others. They remain with him for the rest of the novel.

            Like each story, this one also has an antagonist. In this case, it was El Patrón. He created the society that despises clones and he also had every intention of killing Matt. He was definitely a round character. We learn more and more about him each time he comes to visit Matt but also by people who are associated with him. Matt also had a foil, Tom. Even though Tom was definitely not Matt’s friend, through his character we came to better understand Matt through his actions and feelings towards Tom.

            With the support of his friends, and wisdom of his mother and father, Matt makes it through his life and becomes “The one possession El Patrón let slip through his fingers.” (Page 246)

The House of the Scorpion - Setting

So this is my individual post on the setting of the novel.

The House of the Scorpion took place in a futuristic society in which clones are strongly discouraged and considered inhuman. I felt that Nancy Farmer described the novel in a very detailed and interesting manner. For one thing, she used different ages throughout Matt’s life to tell us what time period it was in. I don’t think it mattered what year this book started in, but I feel that it started in 2012 (keeping in mind that this book was created in 2002). The actual places that Farmer explored through this novel were incredibly well described, which made it wondrous to read. The overall setting of this novel was Opium but a little bit also took place in Aztlan. Opium was a strip of land, created to prevent illegal drugs from being sold into the United States and Aztlan, which was once known as Mexico.

Scene-specific setting includes places such as the Alacràn House, or the Big House, which is where the majority of the book takes place. It serves as his prison when he first gets to it, and later becomes his home, only to become his prison once again. It contains many rooms, such as the piano room, which introduces Matt to his love and talent for music. This room helped to show that there truly was a difference between El Patrón and Matt. Another area of the Big House that was talked about and played a role in the novel was the Secret Passage. It helped Matt discover some of the secrets that El Patrón and the rest of the Alacràn family were keeping from him, but he found out even more of these secrets at the Oasis. A major part of the Alacràn House was the prison in which Matt was forced to live. He was treated like an animal, living in a room of sawdust. Later on in the book, Matt escapes to Aztlan, with hopes of finding María. When he first reaches Aztlan however, he is taken in by the keepers who lead Matt to believe that Aztlan is a corrupt country. He is sent to the Plankton Factory in San Luis, which is where María’s hostel was, but he was trapped inside the area. This leads to his stay in the boneyard, which gave Matt more incentive to escape. Without all of these places, the story would not have played out the same way as it did.

The House of the Scorpion - Thoughts So Far

We have started to read The House of the Scorpion and I have to say it is an incredibly interesting novel... so far. We have read the first section which was Youth 0-6. The story starts in a lab, where a character named Eduardo is trying to create a clone of Matteo Alacran (El Patron). Why was he so frantic to have at least one clone created? Why was it so important for at least one of the embryos to survive? Most importantly, why did El Patron want a clone in the first place? The story started off leaving many different questions in my brain and so far, I don't have the answers. Throughout this section, Nancy Farmer talks about how clones are despised in the future. They are not considered to be human beings. When Matt first comes into contact with different children, their thoughts toward him change when the children find out that Matt is a clone. Why did she guide her story in that direction? What kind of events happened when she was creating this novel that inspired her to create this type of a novel? After reading this section I have an inference that Nancy Farmer named her novel The House of the Scorpion because the main family of this novel is the Alacran Family. Alacran means scorpion in Spanish. It is clear after reading this much that Matteo Alacran, the clone, is the protagonist of the story however it is unclear who, or what, is the antagonist. I think that the society may be the antagonist of the story because everybody, except a couple of people, despise clones. Why doesn't Maria despise clones like the rest of her family? This makes me wonder, if clones were introduced to our modern day society in a way that they are in the book, how would we react to the change? How would we treat the clones? How many people in our society would treat clones the way Maria treats Matt? Overall I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the novel and hopefully answering some of my questions.

The House of the Scorpion

For the next few months we are starting a new project. Previously we would read a book and do a review on it to show our understanding of the novel. Now we are going start reading the book The House of the Scorpion. I will be posting what I think of the novel and other elements such as the theme, narrative mapping, characterization, setting, connections to real world issues, and film study. If you want to take a look at new litspiration challenges and our group discussions, the page Scorpioness. This is a quite a change compared to what we have been doing for the majority of the year and I think it will be a very interesting experience. I am looking forward to reading The House of the Scorpion because it seems like something I would read.