Book Recommendation "The House of the Scorpion"

I will admit to not being the greatest reader, and I dont like reading too much. So throughout the beginning of the book, I wanted to change books because it was not very interesting. I was about to give up on it, but then the pace picked up, and I'm happy I stuck with it. The book has three awards so obviously people enjoy it. The House of the Scorpion is about a boy Matt, who is a clone, and faces a world of troubles from being mistreated, being thrown in pits of mysterious objects, being beaten, and almost dying. This is what I like, theres a little bit of drama, comedy, action, and mystery all rapped up in a 380 page book. Im not going to say this book is for everyone if you dont like some of the genres I just said, but its worth your time. I give it a strong 4/5 stars. If you dont enjoy reading like me, this book will most likely suit you well. Stick with it! you will be happy you did.

Summary and Theme "The House of the Scorpion"

SPOILER ALERTS:
The summary of the House of the Scorpion is Matt the main character is a clone and is the only clone with a brain. He goes through a series of struggles. Such as killing Marias dog and being treated like an animal for being a clone. Matt then thinks that he is going to be used for something great! It turns out that he is going to be used for his heart so he can give it to El Patron. But when it came time to give his heart to El Patron, Matts "mom' Celia poisoned Matts heart. Not enough to kill him, but enough so he didnt have to give it to El Patron. Matt then gets sent away and faces a whole other trouble in Alacran where he is forced to work. Then he he goes back to Opium to save everyone that got left behind. (Opium is where Matt lived before he went to Alacran) The theme of The House of the Scorpion is identity. No one likes is when someone acts the same as them. So how would you feel if you were an exact copy of someone? Thats the struggle Matt faces through the whole book. Then Matt realizes he can make his own identity by making his own choices.

"The House of the Scorpion"

The ending is here! Matt is in Alacran and is being used for child labor. Then he does something naughty and gets thrown into a pit full of whale bones. I have no idea why Matt was thrown into a pit of whale bones but i went with it. Then the children took over and Matt needed to get back to Opium to save everyone from the country being in "lock down" because of El Patrons death. He saves them and then the story ends.

"The House of the Scorpion"

The book has been picking up the pace. Now Matt is being used for his heart to give to El Patron. Knowing this, Celia poisoned Matts heart, but not enough to kill him. Now El Patron is dead. And Matt is on the run out of the city of Opium to another country called Alacran.

Character updates "The House of the Scorpion"

The main character Matt is now 12 years old. Nothing has happened that I think is important. He is still a clone and is still mistreated. Maria is banished from seeing Matt after he was framed for killing her dog, and Tom was sent off to boarding school with Maria. Matts bodyguard is no longer with him because Matt is old enough to take care of himself. And El Patron is no where to be found. Nowadays, Matt goes to his secret spot in the music room and hangs there. Absolutely nothing is happening and I dont really have much too say. Hopefully that will change shortly. Im pretty far into the book and I feel something big is about to happen but for now I updated you on the characters a little bit.

Clones

The main character Matt saw something he will never forget. For some reason that i dont know, Matts "friend" Tom took him to the hospital. There he saw something terrifying. Matt heard a screaming that he said sounded like a cat. But once he got to the room he heard it from he opened the door and there was a boy strapped down on a table screaming! The boy was going crazy! Tom told him it was a clone. Matt was shocked. he thought there was no way he is anything like that clone! I think that Tom brought Matt to see that because he wanted to show Matt that he was very special and will be very important. And to scare him. Too learn more about cloning, click here.

Questions? "The House of the Scorpion"

I have many questions lingering in my head at this point. The main one being what is Matts purpose of being a clone? I believe its to fill El Patrons shoes because he is the clone of El Patron but the book is giving me no evidence to support that. Also why is El Patron 145 years old but no one else in the book lives to be that long? Yeah i get that they have many scientific achievements than we have right now but why is he the only one living that long? My next question is why is everyone so afraid of El Patron? He is a scrawny old man and is in a wheelchair, what could be so scary? A part answer is he is rich and probably has paid gunman watching every single person but I want to know what is so scary about him. My last question is why does Matt belong to the Alacran family as a clone when the family absolutely hates his guts. Why would they spend time and money on this clone and hate him so much? Hopefully I will answer some of these questions as I read farther into the book.

Analysis "The House of the Scorpion"

While analyzing the chapter "The eejit in the Dry field" I finally learned what an "eejit" is after it was said multiple times in the text before without me understanding the meaning. In the text it states that "An eejit is a person or or animal with an implant in its head."(Farmer 81). The book also says "An eejit will not eat, drink or do any movements unless its told to by its owner."(Farmer 82) Then after learning what an eejit is I was able to go back in that chapter and earlier in the book and make sentences such as " 'El Patron insists that you be educated and live, as nearly as possible, a normal life. The problem is, no private teacher wants to teach a clone. And so the Alacrans got an eegit."(Farmers 81) Going a little further in the book makes me understand eejits even more. On page 85 it says "Thats why my eejit teacher could only teach the same lesson every single day."(Farmer) I can then infer that eejits have absolutely no choice in their actions or any brain function to be able to think for themselves at all and thats why they are the only ones who can teach Matt. Also that they can only be programmed or told to do one thing. I also am inferring that possibly Matt will become an eejit because most clones get turned into one. But the story says Matt is a "special clone" so I'm interested to see how the author plays off this.

How would you feel?

If you were a clone what would you do? How would you feel? Would you think you are not special and just a thing made in a petri dish? Would you feel unoriginal and not like a person? Would you live a human life? Think about it, you could be made just for for body parts OR you could be made to be a "perfect" human being. Would that be a bad thing? I think yes. So many lives are wasted because of cloning and even if you make it, your not real. You were made for a purpose and if you dont fill that purpose then you were born for nothing. This is how Matt feels, even though he doesn't know his purpose. He wants to be real and not just a clone. I mean i dont blame him, he was made inside of a cow. Its so unreal to think about being born in a cow. If I were Matt  i would feel mistreated, used, and manipulated. But thats just my opinion whats yours? 

My Thoughts on "The House of the Scorpion" October 7th

So far I have been really enjoying the book despite the confusion. Obviously the big idea in the book right now is that Matt is a clone and has some weird purpose that i dont know yet. But now there are parts saying that they control people and animals with their voices and they can not move, eat, or drink without their owners saying to do so, even if they are about to die of thirst. Kind of like human robots, but without the metal part....and their human. This makes me wonder what is wrong with these people? The book is kind of carrying on right now and I'm really waiting for a twist or something to keep it "juicy". The bodyguard is becoming a big part in this story and so is the young girl. I know that Matt is going to have a big change or something but when is it going to happen?? The summary seemed so engaging and thats not really happening. Im a little disappointed but i will talk about this again in another post! 

Setting "The House of the Scorpion"

 The setting for The House of the Scorpion is set in the future because of the technologies that they have to clone people. Even though we are able to clone people, it is illegal and we haven't actually tried it on humans (from what I know). It takes place in poppy fields with a giant mansion on one end of the fields and a small little apartment like home on the other end. It does not specifically say the location but it is in a place called Opium, Which on my research says that it in Arizona but in the book I feel that it is its whole new country and does not actually take place in the United States. The picture to the left is a bit of a stretch from what I think the actual setting looks like but it does give you a little bit of a image of what the poppy fields and the small house looks like, it however does not show the mansion. Please ignore the human bunny, skeletons, and skeleton butterflies.

Reading Skills "The House of the Scorpion"

I am at a point in the book where I have a lot of questions. But first let me get you caught up on whats happening. Another Matteo Alacran, much older than the main character Matteo Alacran (The both have the same name) was introduced. He is the person that Matt is a clone of and is very high up in the social ladder. He found out how they were treating Matt and got very very upset. So my questions are why do they have clones? Why are they treated very poorly? The book states that Matt is a "special" clone and did not get his brain taken out like the rest. Why him? Why do they take the brains out and make them stupid? Why did the older Matteo Alacran need a clone? My prediction for this question is that once the older Matt dies, then the clone Matt will need to take his place in whatever important job he has ( I do not know what it is). I have tons of questions and hopefully they will be answered as  I get more into the book. Moving on to Connections; This book allows me to relate to science class in eighth grade where we learned about clones and what they are.This book also allows me to relate to the TV show Futerama where it is in the future and has a advanced clone technology kind of feel just like The House of the Scorpion. A text to world connection is that to this day we have been cloning fruits and vegetables and even have the technology to clone humans even though we don't. Probably because its illegal. 

1st Conflict Prompt "The House of the Scorpion"

I have gotten far enough into the book "The House of the Scorpion" that I am beginning to get a slight glimpse at the conflict that I think is arising in the story. Matt, the main character, is a clone and in the book they call him "The beast" and lock him in a small room for days. Then the doctor says he needs to remain healthy. He has "Property of the Alacran State" written on his foot, therefore i believe he is the conflict in the book. The summary on the back says Matt will be in a fight for his life and considering he is a clone and everyone thinks he is a beast, that is going to play a huge role in the conflict of the story. With him fighting for his life against the people of the Alacran state, that is what i believe the conflict will be throughout most of the story. I am not that far into the book but once I have more details on the conflict of the story I will create another conflict post.

Character Prompt "The House of the Scorpion"

I've just started the book The House of the Scorpion not too long ago and I love it! I have been introduced to one character that I feel is the main character. His name is Matt. He is a six year old boy in the part that I am in right now. But at the beginning of the book it shows chapters and it says that he will go from zero years old to fourteen years old. Matt is a clone and is being loaned to Celia, a servant of the Alacran family. He is made for the Alacran family , a rich family, and is property of them and everyone says that he is a beast and treat him very poorly. He seems to me like a very normal boy but obviously the characters in the book feel differently. He talks like a normal person, looks like a normal person, and acts like a normal person. He left his little house in the poppy fields that he was locked up in and now lives in a small dark room in the Alacran house with sawdust all over and is treated like a dog. That is a description of the first main character Matt. Full name: Matteo Alacran.

What I am reading This Tri.

 I chose to read The House of the Scorpion because of the summary that I read on the back. My mom had showed me this book and I denied wanting to read it because i saw the word scorpion and just said no, but after reading the summary when i was bored, I got very interested. Last year we learned about test tube babies in science class which is what this book is about. There also seems to be action involved because the summary states that the main character Matt is threatened, surrounded, and must escape. This seems very interesting and hopfully I wont get bored which is what happens with most books for me.

I also decided to read this book because of the amount of awards that it has on the cover. It got the National Book Award, The Newbery Honor Award, and the Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. The author Nancy Farmer has three Newbery Honor books so obviously she writes very good books. This book being one of them, that is why I want to read it. Lastly, I decided to read this book because of the color of the cover. I like red and the cover of this book pops out and intrigued me. It’s very thick and has small words which I do not enjoy, but I feel that my eager to read this book overpowers that. I can’t wait to read this book!