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.

Setting

The setting in The House of The Scorpion is a little bit confusing. I’m not sure why Farmer specifically chose the boarder between the United States and Mexico. Farmer’s choices that she made should have something to do with the story, and I think that the setting is really just to get the story flowing. For example, in the beginning when Matt meets Emilia and Steven for the first time, I think that the setting was to set up the event. The house that Matt was living in was in the middle of nowhere, and I think that it was to keep other people from finding out about him. The setting is becoming clearer throughout the story but it’s starting to unfold very slowly. She sets the time of the story in the future because it says that they are living in a country called Opium, which is between the United States, and what was once Mexico. Like I said, I think that she did this to set up the events in the story. Specifically, when Celia was telling Matt about how she is now El Patron’s. Moreover, she explains more about the setting throughout the story like when Tam Lin took Matt to the oasis. She explained more about the farms, the oasis (in chapter 15 matt goes back to the oasis, so I believe that this is something important) and more. Throughout the story she describes more about the story, in the beginning she unfolds the story about Matt and at the same time, more about his house, the fields around him. I think that as the story unfolds she will continue to tell us more about the setting, similar to how she did in the beginning. 

Setting of Novel

The setting Nancy Farmer intended for this book is showed differently to the reader than some other books. The first chapter in this book did not say much about setting instead it was more of a prologue explaining how Matt was born and how everything else started. However, this chapter did give you a clue of what time of year this story is taking place in. You can kind of hint that this story is taking place in the future by reading the first chapter, although it did not give a specific date, it tells you about people creating clones and using far more advanced technology that you might find in the future. The second is where the setting started to take place, in the chapter title itself, “ The little house in the Poppy Fields” it already sets the books beginning setting for the reader. To get a more general sense of the setting in this book you need to look earlier, even before the first chapter of the book. On one page of the book, it explains Alacran’s Family History. In most of the earlier generations of the family, it says they all lived or died in Mexico. So from this, you can hint that the setting is taking place in a future Mexico. However, the entire setting in this book cannot be found immediately. As the reader progresses through the book, more and more of the setting is being revealed and each little part in some chapters help find the actual setting the book is taken place in. The season in this book is very obvious though, in the second chapter it explained about the white poppy field outside and didn’t mention anything about there being snow or if was cold or not. Also in chapter 3, it explained Matt being carried on a dry dirt path; this could mean that it wasn’t spring either. So from all of these small hints, the reader could easily point out that the current season in the book was summer.

Overall Setting of "The House Of The Scorpions"

Compared to other novels, Nancy Farmer has illustrated the setting in quite a different way. Instead of telling us what the setting was, she illustrated the setting through different events through out the novel. In the 2nd chapter of the book, it explains a beautiful morning sunrise with bright blue skies and early morning sunlight. This description of the morning sky suggests that the time the novel is taking place in is around spring or summer. Another possible hint as to the season this novel is located in is the title of the second chapter, "The Little House In The Poppy Fields" also hinting us that it is around summer time. Near the beginning of the book, it does have a family tree stating that the many characters that are being brought up in the novel are from Mexico, suggesting that the place of which the book is taking place in is in and around Mexico. However, it doesn't state a certain time period that the book is taking place in but judging by the events that are happening in the first chapter of the book, you can take and educated guess that this book is taking place somewhere in the future as we do not have the technology to create clones yet. In chapter 8, it gives you can get a general feel of the setting through reading about the horseback ride and the secret pond the Tam Lin took Matt to go and see. However, Nancy farmer has not given a straight explanation of the the book and up until chapter 9, has given little hints about the setting through the action of characters and what the characters see. This could mean that the setting could be constantly changing and isn't always the same. I believe that the reason Nancy farmer is doing this is to keep and hold the readers interests. Instead of having the book in the same setting throughout, the setting continuously changes, thus captivating the readers interests.

Foreshadowing

Everything that Nancy Farmer put in the book is there for a reason. What I’m trying to find out why she put it in. A specific reason for her doing could be because she’s trying to hint us something that is going to happen next. In the beginning, Matt meets Steven, Emilia, and Maria. Maria later calls him an “eejit” and I think that farmer was trying to hint us something about that. Later in the book, I realized that when Maria was talking about “eejits” she was really trying to tell us something, trying to hint us something. Also that could be part of why everyone hates clones. In the book, when everyone figured out that Matt was the clone, they all treated him very badly. The way that everyone treats him could also be foreshadowing a major event that is going to happen.  Names like little beast, filthy clone, bad animal, etc. could all be foreshadows that hint about something that could alter on in the story. Along on that note, the thought that Celia is keeping Matt out of the public could be another foreshadow of why people hate Matt so much. The Chupacabras that Celia talks about could also be a major part in helping develop the story and why people hate Matt so much. The Chupacabras could just be something made up by Celia to keep Matt out of the public because of some reason. Later advancing through the book, I think that we’ll be able to find out the real reason why Farmer put in all of these events/characters into the book. 

Relationship between characters

There are a variety of relationships between the characters in the first section of this novel. Each character has different feelings towards one another and towards Matt. Once Matt has moved to the big house, he became very distant from Celia and started to have a much different relationship towards the people who live and worked in the big house. The relationship between Matt and Rosa are very obvious, they both hate each other but it seemed as if Rosa hated him an extra bit more. The kids in the big house changed their relationship with Matt as soon as they found out the he was a clone. At first, Tom, Maria, and Steven didn’t really hate Matt, they actually helped him when he fell on the glass, but once they found out he was a clone; their personalities changed immediately. They started to hate Matt and started to treat him very differently. Tom especially hated Matt; he would go into his room and shoot Matt with peas. One relationship that didn’t really change was between Matt and Maria, even though Maria knew that Matt was a clone, she still didn’t really hate him as much as the others. In fact, it seemed as if she actually liked Matt. An obvious foil relationship in the book was between Celia and Rosa. Both of them were caretakers for Matt, however they had a very different feeling towards Matt. Celia loved Matt like he was her son, but Rosa hated Matt. Another foil relationship was between Matt and Tom, they both hate each other but they also have very different personalities. Matt is more caring and forgiving and Tom is just being a jerk to everyone around him.

Confliction's Between Characters

What I have found throughout the first part of the book or as Nancy Farmer explains it, Youth: 0 - 6, that there are numerous conflicts growing between certain characters in the novel. What I have noticed, beginning on page 23 is that many people consider clones something that is extremely inferior and poor. For example on page 24 of chapter 3, after the fierce man leaned over and whispered into Rosa's ear that Matt was a clone, Rosa immediately took Matt outside of the Estate and threw him out onto the grassy meadow. This event implies that there may have been a conflict between this man and clones themselves, specifically a conflict between the man and Matt. This could explain why many people think of clones as rabid and bad tempered animals. There are also may other events illustrating that people have a thing against clones such as the comment by Steven. "He is an animal." This is just one of the many indications throughout the book that clones have earned themselves a very bad reputation.


One of the more prominent conflicts in the first stage of the book is the one between Rosa, the caretaker and Matt, the clone. As stated before, as soon as Rosa heard that Matt was a clone, she got rid of him as soon as possible. When the fierce man found out Matt was property of the Alacran Estate, he told the doctor at once and it was the doctors responsibility to keep him up to health. So, he was taken in to a jail cell where he would be cared for until further notice. But soon, Rosa found out that she was responsible for feeding and cleaning the jail cell of which Matt would spend his time in. From there on out, the conflict began to arise. It first started off with Rosa, handing out rather nasty food to Matt, food that was barley even edible. Rosa also has a flirtatious relationship with the doctor Willum. Unfortunately, like all relationships, there are flaws and later on they began to fight. Because of this fight, Rosa redirected her anger at Matt, blaming him for everything that has happened between Willum and Rosa. Rosa told Matt hints like "if it wasn't for clones, i wouldn't be in this position, i wouldn't have to clean your stinky prison!"


I have been asking myself, is there a greater meaning to all of these conflicts? Or are they just common fights between characters? I think that something that the author is trying to inform us that there is a reason why many people hat clones so badly. Nancy Farmer is hinting to me and other readers that there was an event that was the catalyst for all of these conflicts between characters. Possibly, cones may have done something extremely bad. Maybe, the first clone that was made got out of hand and killed other innocent people. From the first five chapters of this book, we can't tell exactly what bad things clones have done to deserve being treated the way that they are, but we can assume that something greater happened with clones.

Overall, conflict-ions between characters in the first five chapters of the book has gave or almost left us with a bit of uncertainty as well as an educated guess at what might happen over the course of the rest of the book.