House of the Scropion (Book Review)

The book House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer was a very interesting book in my opinion. It tells the life of a boy named Matteo Alacran and his struggles to understand himself. Because you see, Matt isn’t an ordinary boy; he is a clone of a powerful drug lord called El Patron. Matt grew up in small house in the middle of a poppy field strip in Opium, what used to be part of Mexico. The story takes place in the future where technology has advanced so much they are able to create clones and other amazing creations. Matt has no parents though, he was taken care of by a caregiver named Celia, who was pretty much a mother to Matt. Matteo Alacran is hated though, not because he’s bad or mean, but because he is simply a clone. It seems that the clones in this book have built up a shoddy relationship with everyone else. Everyone hates Matt, except for Celia, Maria and El Patron, who loves Matt like he loves himself, because Matt is himself. After being brought to the Big House, he is treated like loyalty by El Patron and gets his very own body guard, Tam Lin. As Matt continues to struggle on understanding himself, he and Tam Lin have become quite the friends and went on various adventures together in secret. The protagonist of this book is obviously Matteo Alacran, which you can tell very quickly at the beginning of the book. His allies include Celia, El Patron and Tam Lin. He does meet other people through out the book and you can find out whether their allies or not with Matt. The Antagonist’s include Rosa and Tom, who probably hate Matt the most. The book was very well written in my opinion; each character had their own original and different personalities and interacted with each other very well. One thing that was really good about the book was how Nancy Famer didn’t give the personalities and look of each character immediately. Instead she gradually built up each character looks and personalities with little descriptions through out the book. The book also had rich sections that included some great action and suspense. At the end of each chapter, it always ended with a cliffhanger that made you always want to read on and never stop. The book also demonstrated lots of rich and descriptive language and made the scene very clear of what was happening inside the book. To me, the book started slow but slowly built up and was really good during the middle, it continued this way all the way to the end but I was kind of disappointed at the very ending. The very end sort of just dropped from all the action and suspense, which kind of disappointed me. Another thing that I though Nancy Famer did well in the book are twists. There are a lot of twists in the book that shock and surprise you; I thought that this was a really good aspect to the book that also helped keep the readers attention. Overall, this was a very good book in my opinion; it included many of the factors that make a great book. I would give this book a 9/10.

House of the Scorpion; Book Review

            Matt had lived in a small house on the border of the United Sates and Opium for all his life, being raised by his mother Celia. One day however, he heard something that he had not quite heard before, the sound of children playing. Never having seen the outside world before, he smashed open his bedroom window only to find himself being rushed to the hospital and being denied treatment to his injury. From that point on, life for Matt was a whole different story. Why was everyone so scared of Matt? He hadn’t done anything to anyone at all. Why did no one want to be around Matt? To his surprise Matt would be in for quite an adventure.

            The House of the Scorpion is an outstanding book about a boy named Matt. Nancy Farmer does such and excellent job writing the book as the characters you read practically come to life before your eyes. Reading the book takes you to a whole different world alongside the characters portrayed in the book.

            I think that this is a very well written book and would recommend it to anyone over the age of 12 as much of the language may be a bit to hard for younger people to read. Out of ten, I would rate this book at about a 8/10 because of how well the characters are written but that it also is a bit confusing in some parts.

House of the Scorpion Review

Matt lives on a strip of land, called Opium, between Mexico (which is called Aztlan) and the United States. El Patron, also known as Matteo Alacran, rules the state. Matt, he's the clone of El Patron. He has many difficulties through his life living in Opium. He faces never-ending hardship until one day a life-changing event happened in the state Opium.

House of The Scorpion was a twisted weird story. But overall it was a great novel. Nancy Farmer was a great descriptive writer; she really developed the setting and the characters throughout the novel. Two of my favorite characters of all time in the book are Tam Lin and Felicia. I thought that she really hid Felicia's character really well and then after, it was just BOOM! It was an event that changed my thoughts on her, I thought that she was a really wicked person and she was someone that I wanted to know more about. Tam Lin on the other hand, I just thought that his personality was great. He sounded like a really cool guy. Every single character in the book in my opinion, was well written about. They were all very well told about, I think that their personality was showed uniquely. Their actions they made throughout the story really showed everything about them.

The plot at the end was a little bit disappointing though. I thought that after El Patron died, everything was going fine and it was really exciting. But then all of a sudden he just gets back to Opium after meeting Maria's mom in San Luis, and it just ended. I thought that there was going to be this breath-taking ending. After El Patron died, the plot was getting really exciting, so I was a kind of disappointed with the ending. But the overall plot was just amazing. I really like the way it was told because it really sounded like it was real. Obviously it is a fictional story but it was told a very impressive way. I enjoyed the book very much and I'm glad that I read it. 

Overall the book was very good. I thought that the way she wrote was very descriptive and very vivid. I enjoyed the book because it was something that I wouldn't usually read. The book was twisted with many surprises. I would recommend this book to everyone. Of course there are some difficult words that I myself didn't know some. I think that this book would be more preferable for teenagers.

Matt vs. Vincent

“By Persisting in your path, though you forfeit the littler, you gain the great” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Both Matt and Vincent have a dream to achieve and in order for them to achieve but in order to achieve it, they had to loser something. In both societies people have the ideal child/person. In Vincents world, people think that if your not genitically modified then you're not perfect, and Vincent is just a natural baby. So because he's a natural baby it's impossible to reach his dream, which is to go into space. To make his dream possible he decided to take a guy named Jerome Morrow's identity to become the "perfect" child. Vincent basically decided to start a new life by getting rid of his own identity. Matt is similar, in his world he's also the outcast, in his world being a clone is a bad thing. People don't consider clones as humans, they consider them as animals; bad animals. The whole reason why he was created was because he was supposed to give El Patron his heart. Matts dream was to get people to realize that he isn't just a clone, but he has his own heart, soul, and identity inside of himself. But in order for him to reach that goal, he had to lose a lot of people that he loved. That includes Celia, Tam Lin, El Patron, etc.

Both of them had to lose someone/something to reach their dream. In both of their worlds, they lost something but that was to reach something most people would call impossible. They both wanted to surpass what people thought they couldn't do, and guess what happened in the end? They both made the impossible possible.

Matt vs Vincent; Fake Identities

Through reading the House of the Scorpion and watching the movie "Gattaca", i have found that both Matt and Vincent had different ways of faking their identity, but with the same goal which was ultimately to achieve a different identity where they would be more respected by other people. Matt needed to fake his identity for the purpose of not being mistreated where Vincent had to fake his identity so he wouldn't be looked at as a non healthy naturally born child. But the want that they both faked their identities were quite different.

First off, lets look into the reason why everyone disliked Matt. Matt wasn't naturally born but instead was a clone or a copy of a guy named El Patron. No one liked him because nobody thought that clones should be treated as real humans and that the were bad animals of any sort. When the time came, matt was forced to cross the border intone the United States in order to stay alive. But in order for the people across the border to believe that he was a real person, make had to tell them he was a real human and that his family and him were trying to cross the border but he was the only person who safely made it across. If people found out that he was a clone, they would try and help him survive but instead mis-treat him. Unlike Vincent (who we will get to in just bait), the only thing that was separating people form finding out that he was actually was a clone was the mark on his foot the read out, "Property of the Altran Estate." All Matt had to do to fake his real identity was to say and lie about his past life and how he lived. Although both Matt's and Vincent's story both took place in the future, i believe that Vincent's way of faking his identity was much more complex.

Vincent dreamed of being an astronaut and going up into space. But since he was a naturally born child with a heart disease, he wasn't allow dot be one. Naturally born child's were looked to as very unfit and not healthy people and for that reason, weren't allowed to participate in advanced tidies such as being an astronaut. So in order to be one, Vincent was able to find a clone that was allowed into the head quarters because his DNA and blood was in the security system. But this clone was in a wheel chair so he couldn't do anything any ways. So Vincent took blood from him and but a patch of it on his finger so that when he passed through the gates and put his finder on the scanner, it would pass as him being a clone, a healthy person. He also had to have pee samples fro the clone as well. As you can see, this process was much  more complex than matts.

Something that i found very similar between them was the urgency each one of them had to fake their identity. Take Vincent for example, if he did not fake his identity, he would have been stuck with being a janitor while matt would have been killed. But all in all, they both were able to pull of their fake identity for the most part, and were able to be the person that would allow them to be who they really wanted to be.

HoTS vs Gattaca

I found that the main characters in House of the Scorpion and in Gattaca were quite different in my opinion. In the book, Matt is completely a clone, he was not born from a mother and has no family, and instead he was harvested from a cow and has the exact DNA from the outside in as El Patron. In the movie, Vincent was actually born and has a family; he is his own person with his own separate DNA. The only similar things about the two characters is that Matt is a clone of El Patron and Vincent is trying to be a clone of Jerome even though the two are completely different. Vincent was born with several disabilities which stopped his dream to travel to space, to fulfill his dream though, he pretended to be Jerome Morrow who was healthy enough to go to space but lost both his legs in accident. Both Matt and Vincent interact with surrounding characters very differently. In the House of the Scorpion, most of the characters hate Matt because he is a clone except for a few like Tam Lin and Celia. In Gattaca though, Vincent is actually treated better when he tries to be a clone of someone else. Both of these stories do have some things similar though, each one takes place in the future where they have the technology to do incredible things, like make clones. Along with the difference between the two characters Matt and Vincent, there are some familiar things with the people who interact with them. Although most of the Alacran family hates Matt, Maria still believes that Matt is a good person despite being a clone. She tags alone side with Matt helping him escape from Opium. After the murder of the dictator, Vincent must avoid being caught by the police at all times. Through all of this action, Vincent meets an ally, Irene Cassini, a workmate. Later Irene finds out that Vincent isn’t really the guy who says he his but still stays as an ally helping Vincent to reach his goal of going to space. Overall, the two characters are very different in my opinion; they both live in different environments and have a different attitude to the people around him and vice versa. They both however have different events that changed their lives. Vincent had swimming competitions with his brother, and that one moment when he won for the first time, he knew that he was capable of great things. Matts lived changed from the imprisonment from Rosa. There, he learned different things about the people around, and it was there where he was rescued and introduced to El Patron.

Matts journey; What is in store for Matt?

In Chapter 23, Matt realizes that it is too late. He finally finds out the menacing truce as to why clones were created, so that El patron and other people could use their body parts to survive longer. Luckily, Celia would stand up for him, giving El patron a little more than he bargained for. The argument between El patron and Celia escalated until El patron just couldn't withstand the pressure and finally, his heart gave way.  But what was to become of  Matt? Matt found himself being carried away by Tam Lin or as Tam Lin would say, "being disposed of"(Farmer, p 239, 2012). Matt was slung over the horse and quickly taken off, the ground flying underneath his head. But he soon found out that he was being taken to his much favourite spot, the lotus pond. Without any hesitation, Tam Lin sent Matt on his way with a map, food and a general idea of what he had to do. Before you know it, Matt was dashing over the mountains, climbing and hiking like no other had before, with power and agility until he reached the much expected farm patrol. Like a lion stalking his prey, Matt patiently waited until the right time to strike. Fortunately, all of a sudden, a commotion broke lose and a group of the farm patrol went chasing towards it. Matt then found himself printing for his life, the farm patrol not close behind. As luck would have it, Matt made it across the border, but he had no materials to spare. Soon he found himself being adopted into an orphanage by the keeper named Raul. The downside to this would be his new found duty to work. Within a couple days of working at the orphanage, Matt was sent off to San luis, or so he thought. Instead he was sent off to the plankton factory where trying to run away would get you nowhere in the scorching hot dessert.

But what is in store for Matt? So far it looks as if everything will be fine and matt will be able to find his way to Maria. But i think that Nancy Farmer has other plans. I think that in order to keep the reader more interested int he book, she is going to create a turn of events. Sure seeing the main character succeed is great, but it is much more fun to read if the character must go through many "obstacles" to reach his final destination. One thing that Nancy farmer has already done was to make it seem like there is no possible hope for Matt to get away from the plankton factory as it is in the middle of the dessert. What will Matt do to get to Maria? Will his carefully planned plans actually succeed, or will they go down in flames?

Independent Post - Overall plot of book

The House of The Scorpion has its good moments and it bad moments. Things that I really enjoyed throughout the book were how detailed Farmer was in describing Matt’s feelings, the setting, and the overall event. Matt’s feelings were always described with adjectives that were helpful in showing how he felt instead of telling. It really drew a picture in your mind on how he looked based on his feelings. One of my favorite characters that Farmer developed was Tam Lin. His overall character really sounds awesome. The things he does throughout the book really are interesting. The way that Farmer developed Tam Lin was something I was really looking forward too while reading the book. She didn’t explain everything about the character all at once, but rather she explained in detail for every moment she exposed something about the character. Tam Lin was mysterious because Farmer showed the personality, past, and expressions of Tam Lin with a slow pace, but every single thing she talked about him was with detail. For example, when she talked about the looks of Tam Lin she really described his hair, his body, his face, etc. These were the things that I really liked about the book.

As for the bad moments about this book was how Farmer really kept a slow pace to get to the plot. She took a really long time just to get too the very suspenseful moment of the book. I know that she had to explain in detail for the climax to really make sense, but I feel that it did drag on for a while throughout the book. Once you get to around chapter 25 that’s when it really gets interesting. But for a couple of the events after chapter 25 she really kept a slow steady pace until she got to the end. The slow pace climbed to the climax in a very suspenseful way, but right when it hit the point where it was getting interesting, the book just ended. I was a little bit disappointed in how she developed that because I was expecting something more for the ending. In the end, I think that overall, The House of The Scorpion was really interesting. At parts it got a little bit boring but at the same time it made me want to continue reading to find out what happens to Matt in the future.

The Orphanage and Plankton Factory

When Matt finally escapes the big house, he finds himself in an orphanage with other boy around his age. They all ended up in there the same way Matt did, trying to cross the border between Opium and Aztlan and losing their parents in the process. Matt than finds himself doing work in the orphanage and being bossed around by the keeper, Raul. This is sort of what it was like back in the house, being kept prisoned until El Patron rescued him. Of course later being betrayed by El Patron and almost dying. However things seem to be different for Matt in the orphanage. Unlike when he was in the big house, he isn’t hated here. In fact, most of the boys look up to Matt. Now this is probably because they don’t know that he is a clone, but it seems to me that even if they do figure out, some of them may still like Matt. This is probably because even though people think of him as different person, his personality is still the same. As Matt’s friendship grows stronger though, the keeper, Raul, is starting to hate him even more and thinks of Matt as an “Aristocrat.”  Later, Matt and a couple of his friends are transported to a plankton factory in San Luis. Here they grow plankton and Matt finds out that Aztlan uses plankton for pretty much any food. They use plankton in hotdogs, hamburgers, burritos, and even milk! To me, this is just plain gross. Matts job here was to help tend and grow the plankton, he was also ordered to help gather salt from giant salt mountains that were left behind after a lake dried up. Now obviously this isn’t the life that Matt expected he would find when he left Opium. In Opium and in the big house, Matt was treated like royalty. He could eat anything, get anything, and go anywhere he wanted to without being asked not to. Here in the plankton factory the keepers treat him like slaves. To me, it doesn’t seem as different in the plankton factory than when Matt was kept by Rosa.

Celia vs Farm Patrol; Growing Boarder Patrol Issues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gRBCZk_0Xg

Near the end of chapter 14, Celia tells Matt her story of how she became “owned” by El-patron. She talks of how she worked and a factory and how she dreamt of being taken to the United States of America. Like Celia, many people are despite to try and cross the border. The reason is because they are looking for a new life through finding a new job and to get away from how they were currently being treated. But there is one problem. The border patrol, just like the “farm patrol” in Celia’s story are hired to keep people fro illegally crossing the border. But many people ask, why is it so necessary that they keep them from crossing the border? Because it is so hard to cross the border, many people try to hire “coyotes,” which get paid to take people across the border.

As a result of illegal immigrants journeys cut short conflict has developed between border patrol and the other people in Mexico. As illustrated in the video above, conflict between these two have escalated to a new level where people in Mexico are now aiming to kill border patrol. Although no “farm patrol” is killed in Celia’s story, there is still an everlasting conflict between the two.

One thought that has occurred to me is the mere thought of why? Why are people so desperate to cross the border? Well, think of the life that Celia lived. She was boxed up in a factory for a lot of her life. She wasn’t allowed out of the building. Similar to Celia, many people aren’t able to find a good source of living. In Mexico, it is very hard to find a job as the economy is not as developed. I can relate Celia’s feelings to past experiences in Mexico as I have seen small towns that people live in. But do I think that all this conflict is worth killing somebody? The answer is no.

Celia's story and border issues

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Illegal-immigrants-arrested/story-15532461-detail/story.html

This article is talking about several men who have been arrested for illegal immigration action. The arrests were made in the UK on Wednesday and were based on tip-offs from which the agency has received. This is related to Celia’s story because she was also travelling in a group when Farm Patrol arrested her. In Celia’s story, the reason why she wanted to escape so badly was because the way she was living and how she was treated. She had such a horrible life that she was willing to risk her life and trust a ‘coyote’ just so she could get a better life. From this article though, I could make a connection to this issue. In the article it explained that five of the men were from Afghanistan. From this fact, I could assume that these five men were having a very hard time in Afghanistan and tried to escape into the UK so that they could live better. These people probably shared something similar with Celia; they must have been treated quite poorly and was willing to do anything to get out of that kind of life, much like Celia. They traveled in big groups like Celia’s story however the article did not explain that they might have gotten help from anyone else. In Celia’s story, her group got help from a ‘coyote’ that said he would help but ended up abandoning them and leaving the to the farm patrol. The people in this article did not have a guide like this, it seemed as if they just traveled by themselves without help and simply got caught because people were telling the police of these people that probably looked a bit suspicious. Now of course, it ended differently for these guys in the article than Celia’s story. Her story had a lot more at stake because the people that got caught turned into eejits while the people in the article only got arrested. But it still goes to show you how far people are willing to get to live a better life and I don’t blame them. If I was living in such I bad living condition, I would probably risk a lot to find a better place as well.

Celia's Story and Boarder Control

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-20113604.html

Alabama just put a new immigration law into effect allowing officials to check the statuses of students in public schools and the police the power to determine if someone is illegally in the country. This law affects those who want a better life from the place they were originally from. Similar to Celia, she wanted to get away from Aztlan because she was poor and life was hard in Aztlan. People who want to get away from their hometown are probably thinking the same way; if they get to another country maybe they can restart and achieve new things. As for Celia, she asked the “Coyote” for help to cross the boarder to achieve a new life, but once the Farm Patrol catches them everything gets hard; similar to the Illegal Immigrants that are living in reality.

Knowing that this law has come to effect, there’s obviously a reason as to why it’s even made. Well, those who illegally immigrate to other countries have made life harder for those who fund for medical services with their taxes. Also, the immigrants want to help their families back in their hometown, so they probably want any job that gives them enough for a living. This benefits businesses that receive cheap labor and don’t have to pay taxes. Moreover, America loses money from the taxes that businesses don’t pay.

For those living in Alabama, it’s obviously going to affect them as well. As I said some examples before, there are obviously there are going to be pro’s and con’s to this law. For example, Farmer Keith Smith needs 20 pickers to cover his 200 acres on his farm. But because of this new law people are scared and ran away. Now this definitely affects him because now he has no one to pick his crops.

I conclude that because of the disadvantage that America gets, they decided that there has to be a law that stops Illegal Immigrants. There are pro’s and con’s to this, but obviously the country is going to make sure that they aren’t losing money but instead gaining money. 

Felicia's Playlist

For our assignment "Create a Playlist" we decided to take on the task of the character Felicia. Below are the songs that we picked for her and an explanation of why we picked them.


Florence and The Machine - No Light, No Light

We chose this song because Felicia seems to be a very drugged up person who is having troubles with her life and cant see the ‘light’ in life. This song is talking about how this one person doesn’t feel like she belongs in the public and how this person cant see the ‘light’ in life as well. We figured that Felicia would listen to this song not only because it relates to her but it is also her kind of music which is soft and slow.

All My Love - Miranda Wong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d91WDAVNEiI

We chose this song because Felicia seems to be a very drugged up person who is having troubles with her life and cant see the ‘light’ in life. This song is talking about how this one person doesn’t feel like she belongs in the public and how this person cant see the ‘light’ in life as well. We figured that Felicia would listen to this song not only because it relates to her but it is also her kind of music which is soft and slow.

Sad Emotional RnB Piano Instrumental

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAurWkWOxQE

We decided to pick this song because in the book it described Felicia as a person who played the piano a lot. Also piano tend to be softer and more relaxing which is why we chose this as a song Felicia would listen to. Another factor that led us to pick this song is that it is sad which a state that Felicia is in.

Falling Blue - RnB Instrumental

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy3A6WLOhi0

We chose this song because it only involves the music of instruments and no voices which we think Felicia would listen to because she played the piano. Also this song is nice and happy song with a hint of sadness in some parts, we think that Felicia would listen to this because it may cheer her up sometimes instead of her being always sad.

The Beetles - Hey Jude

We picked this song because Felicia seems to be more of calm music type that may also be a bit gloomy and slow. By saying this, we think that the song “Hey Jude” would be something that she would listen too. It seems to be Felicia’s style because she plays the piano and enjoys listening to more calm and slow music which is what this song is sorta offering.

City and Colour - Fragile Bird

This song talks about night terrors. It talks of going to sleep and remembering the bad memories of the past. It talks of night mares and not wanting to remember the past but instead try to forget it. This is why we think that Felicia would listen to this song. This song also seems to be her style because of the general tune and the beat of the song. Since Felicia is always depressed and is usually very mad, that probably means that she would listen to something more slow and quite.

City and Colour - Death of Me

We feel that this song is mostly about remorse or a strong regret for something. It the first line, it states and explains that “they should drink their their troubles away.” We feel that because of the topic in the song, Felicia would be able to understand the song. She would be able to feel the emotion that is coming out of the song. Because of the possible relation ship that she might have with the song, she would most likely get lost in the song. This is why we picked this song to be included in Felicia’s play-list. Once again, it is also to her pace and is not to fast of a beat.

Cat Power - I Don't Blame You

We picked I Don’t Blame You by Cat Power because we thought that it could relate her thoughts of when she gave birth to Tom. She would probably listen to this when she’s thinking about her past of when she was with Mr. Alacran. The lyrics of the song could be expressing how she has been through many situations, but out of all of them this one was the worst because of Mr. Alacran. After Mr. Alacran found out he stopped talking to her making her feel lonely (Farmer 124). He never wanted Felicia back and that’s when the mood and the lyrics of the song could help her relieve the thoughts in her mind.

Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know

We picked this song because we thought that Felicia could relate to the lyrics in the song.This song is about a man and a woman explaining their bad relationships. They explain or “sing” how together, they still felt very lonely. They tell of how thinking back to their relationship together brings back band memories. A specific line that would back up this reasoning is the line sung by Kimbra which says “Now and then i think of all the times you screwed me over.” This is why we feel that Felicia would listen to this song because she has gone through the same experiences as this song.  Besides the lyrics, this song is a also pretty mellow song, and since Felicia is usually very depressed, she would most likely listen to slow paced music.

The Feist - The Bad in Each Other

The songs lyrics really do sound like something that Felicia would listen to when she remembers the memories back then before she had Tom. The lyrics in the song and the tone really do fit the mood she would feel when the memories are flowing back into her brain. The lyrics “When a good man and a good woman can’t find the good in each other, then a good man and a good woman will bring out the worst in each other” really sounds like when Tom and Her were being bringing out the worst in each other while looking at the security cameras.