House Of The Scorpion book review Glenn

HOUSE OF THE SCORPION BOOK REVIEW

To start off you start this book with a sort of prolog were it talks about the people that clone it is interesting but I do not thing that it is needed because it never talks about  the characters in that chapter again.  After that you go through a kind of story that is filled with mystery, deception, death, betrayal and even a little romance.  The main characters are Matt, El Patròn, and Maria these are the most important characters in plot development.  In the book Matt is a clone of of El Patròn the leader of a massive country called Opium and guess what the main and mostly only businesses in that country is selling drugs who knew.  I do not want to go into to much depth because then that will make to many spoilers.

In my opinion this book is rather boring it has to much plot development which is good but when you have the massive amount that House of the Scorpion does it is hard to keep track of the many developments in the book.  The story is good but I think that they way the author (Nancy Farmer) set up the book she could have made the one book into 5 or more books.  The ending of the book is something that you can predict to an extent there are somethings that you can not predict and because of that I will not mention simply because I want to prevent spoilers.  There also seams to be only two or three main settings which for a book this big I find is really surprising.  Through out the whole book I kept on thinking about Dolly the sheep which is the first mammal to be cloned.  All in all this is a fairly good book and if you like the kind of book that is set in the not to distant future this if for you.  I give this book a 4/5.

Cole: House of the Scorpion Review

The house of the scorpion follows the storey of Matt, a clone of the powerful drug lord El Patron. The book covers matts journey from being treated like an animal to a pampered rich boy.  Still this is only a small bit of the book as the main plot deals with Matts slow increase of knowledge about El Patron and the eventual realization El Patron merely wants to use him for Organs.  Interestingly after Matt's escape form El Patron he is sent into an entirely new part of the book, one dealing with how he is dealt with after his escape from El patrons nation, Opium.  This new chapter progresses him through a plankton factory and being forced to work and to his escape from that facility, it is an almost opposite circumstance from the rest of the book, being pampered but waiting for your death or being forced to work but kept alive.

My opinions on the book are many, i really do feel like the setting was good however i felt it went widely unexplored.  The book talks of a new socialist mexico but only touches on this in the end.  Even in the end it is barely mentioned.  Along with this the book states people are going across the border from the US, but the situation in the US that is causing this is never fully explained, along with the way Niger suddenly became a rich country.  I left the book with a feeling that a brilliant setting was barely explored, and with that detracted much from the book.  However as a polar opposite the book excels in character development, but only in characters that the book deems necessary to develop, creating some holes that could have been easily filled.  Still when characters are developed they are developed gradually with a very clear and concise change.  This area of the book was OK but not amazing, another reason why i feel the book could have been better.  The storey was told well for most of the book but after Matts escape the writing style changes and it feels like an entirely new book.  This was such a drastic change that i felt it killed much of the quality attained by the book.  It took a good storey chopped the end of it off and then crudely glued it back on, leaving much to be desired.

All in all the book was OK but poor management and lack of development in some areas dragged the quality down, 6/10

Cole: Matt vs Vincent

Matt:

Matt is a rather interesting character in House of the Scorpion.  As the main protagonist he is clearly the most developed character.  Matt is a clone, separated from the rest of humanity by genetics, shunned by the religious and looked down upon as dirty by the rest.  Matt cannot hide what he is, so instead he has used it to his advantage, and eventually by being a clone Matt finds salvation through genetics and imperfect laws.  Matt is both gifted and disadvantaged by his genetics, Matt was bred for slaughter and often decimated against and hurt, but eventually the reason he was bred became invalid and his escape lead to him taking the place of the one he was meant to keep alive with his very organs.

Vincent:

Vincent is similar to Matt is some ways, Vincent is also discriminated upon for his genetics, but while Matt is created and modified and discriminated against because of that Vincent is discriminated against for being natural.  One could say its the comparison of a scientific world to a religious one, one where no babies are natural and those who are mean less to one where no babied are artificial and those who are will be discriminated against.  Vincent is running from his nature, a natural birth, Matt is also running from his, an artificial one.  Vincent however was never meant for slaughter and only discriminated against for being less than perfect while Matt was meant for slaughter and discriminated against for existing.  Vincent had to work to shed his own self and never fully would, while Matt merely had to outlive his creator.  Vincent had it better from the start but worse in the long run and Matt had it worse in the start and better in the long run.

This is my comparison.

Final Round Table

Cole: Implications of the timeline and ethics of cloning.

This post is going to cover the implications of the future setting on cloning and how it shows in the book as well as exploring the ethics and ideas on cloning.  It is clear that these are extremely relevant and only one is directly shown in the text, that is the ethics of cloning.

Even now human cloning is considered illegal due to ethical issues that may occur and in this book do occur.  Its clear that people use clones for organs, and its also clear this happens often as there are multiple drug lords in Opium and hundred of rich people in the world.  Now the question is why did human cloning become legal? Why did clone be declared a “non-person?” I believe that this is due the idea that people feel life is short and want to live longer.  Regardless of how they do it people will attempt to use any means necessary to live longer, whether it be eating healthily or using clones organs.  The second option is noticeably easier, and if you could afford it usually a good idea as what’s wrong with living a little longer? Always having a suitable donor if you are injured?  It allows you to never worry to live life to its fullest and to be even happier than ever before, knowing your days are less numbered than another’s.  Its an incredible deal, but only for the price of murder, sad to say that’s a price paid all too often and in too great a number even today.  Ethics simply cease to matter when money greed and the promise of immortality, sought after for a millennia come into play.  As things become easier they will be done, as things will be done we will forget why at first we did not do them, this is what happened in the House of The Scorpion.   In the future clones were easier to make than today, as such people tried to see if they could do it, and it was done.  From that point on it would snowball out of control into a process that would eventually cumulate into every man and woman having a personal organ bank, regardless of what or where that organ bank was.

Yet in the book another major force is noted.  Religion played a large role in the book, and it seemed to affect the way people viewed clones.  As clones are unborn and unbaptized many religions would view them as evil, this is shown when the priest screams for Matt to leave a funeral naming him an “unbaptized limb of Satan.”  Its clear that religion has helped people dislike clones and propagated the idea the are evil, further justifying their use as organ banks by the rich.

In all ideas of greed, immortality, religion, and money have shaped this worlds idea of clones and how to go about them.

Free Style Post (Glenn)

This blog post I will be mainly talking about why the people hate and or are disgusted by the clones and why people think the same way about Matt even thou he is not like normal clones because he is much smarter than every other clone and he is the clone of El Patron.

The main reason that I think that the people (and by people I mean everyone but El Patron, Celia, Maria and Tam lin as well as the anyone that does not know that Matt is a clone,) hate Matt is that all of the other clones are literally stupid and piss their pants and things like that.  However that is the reason that they are disgusted by other clones not Matt because he is has not been dumbed down at all and in fact he is really smart and vary good at a lot of thing such as music.  The main reason I think that the people in this case the family hated Matt, is because Matt for these reason A, because Matt is another way for El Patron to live longer thus the family has to stay under his control for even longer B, I think that they all secretly hate hate El Patron and because of that they hate Matt because he is basically El Patron.

Another reason that everyone but the people that like him, hate him is that they remind the people that know he is a clone he reminds them of normal clones and that makes them be discussed by him.  Also some people like the priest at the funeral of the son of El Patron would hate him because he is unnatural and not what God intended so religious people would most likely hate him because of that.

Now I will give a quick and short review of the book.  This book like most do not start off to a vary action packed but it is vary interesting and if you don't look at the family tree or the cast of characters it would be interesting to find out who is who and who is clones of who, but as you go on it gets more and more interesting and fun to read I would give this book a 3 out of five stars.

Illegals:Cole

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-01-17/us/border.fence_1_border-patrol-border-fence-mexican-border?_s=PM:US

While this article is less focused on the people going over the border than the people on the other side refusing the governments right to put a fence on their land however its all the same deal.  By people refusing the governments right to put a fence on their land they are in a way providing a path for illegals to go through, being more humane.  Also interestingly this article discusses that illegal immigration is going to happen whether or not the US implements a fence.

This brings up the idea that people no matter how helpless if they are desperate can get across any obstacle.  It brings up the point that the people going over the border are attempting to escape what they believe is a bad life.  People who jump the border would likely identify as refugees, however it is extremely unlikely any of them would get away with that based on circumstance in Mexico.  Regardless of how they feel their nation is and how at risk their personal well being is living there they would be denied refugee status, and in the days of select immigration the vast majority would be harshly turned down and laughed at.

People who jump the border however are refugees, they are people fleeing from terrible living conditions to a place they know is better, where they can work for real money.  The people who jump the border and threatened by desperation and their very survival, there are reasons people do illegal things, but this has to be the most valid of them all.  Still the US blocks them, labels them aliens, unwanted leftovers and throws them back into the muck they were in before.  Even after crossing the border illegals are on the run, trying desperately to live there lives in the new better world they arrived to, in constant fear of being reported and thrown out.

Yes their are reasons for illegal immigration, and the US denies them on grounds that more than likely are racist.  If the US accepted refugees and gave illegals that status and allows them to work and be taxed the US would surely gain money, not lose it.  So clearly the waste of millions and millions of dollars on a fence is preposterous, offensive and disgusting it is things like this that drive the world mad.  The racism of old men long dead still lives on today, in rumours and ideas that will never fade, it is the illegals that are the victim, not the US.

Third Round Table

Setting (Glenn)

In this blog post I will be talking about the setting of the farm and the little "cell" that Matt is held in.

The farm's fields are first described as blindingly white because of the poppies and their flowers.  In my mind i imagine it like when it first snow and the snow is untouched and when the sun is out and you look at it at the right angle it can almost blind you because it is so bright.  That is how I imagine the fields of the farm when the poppies are in bloom.  They are also hilly and vast.

Now I will talk about the "cell" that Matt is held in for the first few chapters.  When Matt first gets in it, it is first described as a small square room with only one window and has a bed in it opposite to the door and the bed has no blankets or anything, with a bucket in the corner for Matt to pee in.  However when Rosa takes everything away he only has saw dust to sleep in.  When that happen it is very interesting because Matt starts to attract bugs for entertainment but that has nothing to do with setting so I will not go any further into it.

Other than what I have talk about there is not much to talk about for the fields and the "cell."

Cole: Setting

Nacey Farmers The House of the Scorpion is set in the future within a nation aptly called Opium.  This nation is run by the drug lord El Patron.  Firstly it is noted that there are huge fields of opium in the nation harvested by people who have been implanted with computer ships and only accept orders.  Clearly the existence of such a nation suggests a decline of moral values in the universe the book takes place in.  Along with this the presence of a US senator within the drug lords compound also hints that the general attitude on drugs has changed dramatically from outright hate and loathing to accept or want.  It is clear by the fact an entire nation is growing opium that the world in this book has a larger demand for it, perhaps making it legal in many places.  The implications of this however are far reaching as it shows how the world this storey is set in has drastically changed, but the cause of this change is unknown.

For a large section of the book the sub setting is the Alacan estate.  The Alacran estate is a large building That spans out over a huge track of land and never goes above one floor.  The estate while owned by El Patron is not his home.  He lives in a mountain house some distance away and visits the estate only on occasion.  For an entire chapter Matt is locked in a room within the estate, it is generally a dull prison cell for the most part.  However when he is freed the rest of the estate is shown as being very vibrant with gardens designed to look like ancient with an Egyptian feel mixed in.  This is a direct result of El Patron seeing a similar sight in a rich mans house when he was poor and a child.

Overall the entire setting is coherent to the proposed future setting yet still maintains a direct connection to today expressed through social circumstance and physical location.  It is clear that the author intended to take advantage of both further and current settings, an ingenious move that is well executed.

Character Development Everybody Else (family of the house, celia, rosa, willum, maria, emilia, etc.)

Characters introduced other than Matt
I. Celia
II. Benito
III. Steven
IV. Emilia
V. Maria
VI. Tom
VII. Rosa
VIII. Willum (The Doctor Rosa's lover)

In this blog entry I will group the characters into people that like or don't mind clones and people that hate or are disgusted by clones now the reason that I am separating them like this is because the people that do and don't like clones have vary distinct characteristics

The people that like clones are as follows: Celia, and Maria
 In the first few chapters it introduces and describes her vary well it tells you that she loves Matt, that she is religious and worships a person which resembles mother Mary called the Virgin and is the mother of Jesus, Matts caregiver, the book also describes her as she is a fairly over weight cook that works for the Alacrán family, the book also describes her as Matts caregiver.  Now Maria is that daughter of Senator Mendoza she is about Matts age (which is 6) and loves to play, the book describes her sister Emilia as vary pretty with black hair and because I would assume that Maria does as well.  Maria is the only one that is not Celia that seams to care about Matt I think that this is because she is to young to now what a clone is and why she should be discussed by them.

The people that are disgusted by clones are as follows: Steven, Emilia, Tom, Rosa, Willium
 All of these characters have one thing in common and that is that they hate or are disgusted by clones, now the reason I think that they are disgusted by clones is when they talk about clones other than Matt they talk about how they are literally dumb and how they piss their pants and barf on their feet.  First I will talk about Steven he is described as a person that is not terrible but he is not the nicest person, he is the one of the first people that is introduced besides Matt and Celia, and he is also one of the first to realize that Matt is a clone he seams to be more disgusted by the fact that Matt is a clone and not by Matt himself.  Next is Emilia, she is not in the first few chapters that much but she is some what important she is one of the Mendoza  girls and is described as I said earlier as pretty with black hair, just before she discovers that Matt is a clone she says that she is going to become a doctor and I think that that is leading into something into the future.  Now Tom he is said to be a really terrible person that is ten times Benito (which I will describe later) in the book he takes a pea shooter and shoots Matt with it and gave Maria a bottle of urine saying that it was lemonade.  Now I will talk about Rosa and Willium at the same time because they are closely connected.  Rosa is a maid for the Alacrán family and Willium is their doctor After they all find out that Matt is a clone Rosa is given the job to look after Matt and Willium is just looking after him as normal.  As you read the book it becomes vary obvious that they are lovers because when Willium says that he is going to be gone for a while Rosa gets really mad because she is leaving her behind, then she blames Matt for it and treats him even worse because of it.

Now I will talk about Benito who you do not really know if he hates Matt because so far he is not really around Matt and therefor you can not tell if he does.  When he is described he is described as being a really mean and terrible person but other than that the book does not really talk about him in the first few chapters.

Character Development: Matt

Character Development: Matt


The House of the Scorpion set a breakneck pace for the first five chapters, putting perhaps some of the most important things at the beginning rather than the end.  However this allows us to view the character development in the story much sooner and in much more detail.  This post is dedicated to the character development of Matt, the main protagonist of the storey.

Matt is first presented as a small child who is relatively normal, begging Ceila (Who acts as his mother) to stay with him rather than going to work.  He is to avoid the microwave and often plays with stuffed animals.  However soon after reading a storey he goes to play with his toys, this is the first sign of development in Matt's character.  Matt plays with the toys but soon stops after what he describes as a, "hollow feeling" (p. 8) as he realizes are not real, they can't hear him or understand.  For a few moments it seems you are shown a glimpse into how lonely he might feel being inside his house all the time, that he is a lonely child full of melancholy.  However soon he places his toys against the wall as an act of punishment and moves to the TV.

Still at the TV Matt begins to say its not real and its like the animals, meaningless. He soon describes a feeling of "desolation" and begins to cry.  Here it is shown he hates being alone so often, with the absence of everything, one could say at this point Matt felt like a prisoner.  Still moments after this first development he sees the children.

Matt is strange in seeing the other children, he real doe nothing, showing a sign of innocence, and a lack of knowledge.  Later when Celia returns it is discovered she is not his real mother, this paves the way for a deeper understanding of his feelings of being alone, and seems to add a sense of sadness.

Over the next areas of the book Matt is shown to be religious often talking of Jesus, the Virgin and several other characters.  He talks of this throughout the point of his injury and being thrown outside, it becomes very clear that we knows much about religion.  This is interesting as an aspect of the other characters hating Matt might come from religion and how if they are religious they consider him an abomination, this is certainly interesting as it shows that whilst they hate Matt he is of the same beliefs to an extent, exempt from the issue of cloning, of course.

The next area of development occurs when Maria visit's matt while he is having his foot heal.  Matt tells Maria of several stories told to him by Celia.  While Matt appears to believe these stories it is clear that he enjoys telling them, which lead to the first real hint of friendship between Matt and Maria.  This has shown that he does care about people and is a kind person, child or not.  The effects of this are unclear but it is certain that this friendship and show of kindness by both sides will be developed later in the storey.

Chapter five titled Prison holds the most development of the character Matt, but the development is all rather linked.  Throughout his chapter his torment by Rosa and briefly Tom is seen and the effects it has are far reaching.  From the insults thrown to the addition of chicken litter and the brutality of Tom Matt is left psychologically mute.  This is a clear result of his treatment, and it shows that Matt is as human as they are.  This is because normal people would have damaging effects from things while animals would not.  People regard him as an animal but in no way does he act like one, he feels the damaging effects like any human would and is clearly reacting in accordance to this.  Matt is like what many prisoners are like if they are subjected to torture, his reaction is like those who are tortured for information, or for sick fun and then thrown into poor conditions.

Still in spite of all that matt develops to make the best of the situation rather than sulk in it.  He uses bones from his meals as toys and uses food to attract bugs to keep busy.  He refers to the chicken litter and the cell as his kingdom and often uses it as an advantage to keep busy rather than a disadvantage.  Matt is shown here as an opportunistic character, taking advantage of bad situations and finding ways to do well off of little.  This is an important development that could have consequences throughout the entire book.

Interestingly Matt holds out some hope that Celia will come to his rescue during his imprisonment, an interesting aspect that shows he believes in the goodness of people.  This is clear because while most would simply say that the person didn't care and they were stuck there forever after such a long time Matt holds out and says that Celia does care.  Even while showing some losses of hope it is never complete, and he still believes Celia cares.  He is once faced with saying she forgot about him, but he refuses this idea and thinks of other things. This is a development that might factor into trusting other down the line in the storey.

Overall the Character Matt developed a great deal during chapters 1-5, and i believe this analysis covered most of that development.



Over 600 words as approved by the editor: Cole

Second Round Table Discussion

First Round Table Discussion