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Character Analysis OfThe House Of The Scorpion

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In the story The House of the Scorpion, written by Nancy Farmer, the main characters are Matt, El Patron, Tam Lin, Celia, and Maria. The main setting of the book is in the Opium fields, which are strips of poppies, that lay in between the United States and Aztlan. In the beginning of the story, we learned how Matt was created in the lab, and why he is different from the rest of his kind. The main problem or conflict in the book is that Matt is a clone, and clones are looked down upon in the Opium fields. The resolution to this problem is that El Patron passes away, leading to Matt becoming a real human by the default of the laws. At the end of the story Matt becomes the leader of all of the Opium fields, doing all the things in his power to fix the things that he thinks is wrong. He also finds out that El Patron killed everyone that was living in the Opium fields with poisonous wine besides Celia, Daft Donald, and Mr. Ortega. I believe that Tom is a spoiled brat that thinks he is better than everyone else, he also puts up a fake front to make himself seem like a perfect little angel when he really isn’t, and he treats Matt extremely poorly. For example, the text states, “Tom’s bristly red hair was slicked down, and his fingernails were neat, white crescents. Tom was always perfectly groomed for these occasions, and it earned him admiring comments from the women who came to El Patron’s birthday parties,” (Farmer 95). The text also implies, “Tom hurried down the hall. He glanced back with a look of savage triumph,” (Farmer 121). Lastly, the text explains, “In less than an hour Tom returns with a peashooter. The boy outside seemed to have an endless amount of peas, but eventually he called Matt a few bad names and went away,” (Farmer 46). Based on what I have read in this book, changing one little event could have completely changed basically the whole plot. For instance, if Celia and everyone else who contributed wouldn’t have been able to stop El Patron from using Matt’s organs for transplants, who knows where the story would have ended? A possible ending could have been that Matt unfortunately passed away, and everyone that truly loved him or was against what El Patron was doing would secretly turn against

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