Anasha Roberts

Block 3
7 May 2014
The House of the Scorpion Book Review
The story is set in the country of Opium, a strip of land between Mexico (now
called Aztln), and the United States. Opium, which is essentially an opium (drug)-producing estate,
is ruled by Matteo Alacrn, also known as El Patrn. El Patrn's work-force consists of illegal
immigrants whom the Farm Patrol (ex-criminals who are tempted with the offer of protection from
the police) enslave when they catch them crossing the border in either direction. These illegal
immigrants become "eejits", humans with computer chips implanted in their brains, making them
more or less zombies who can perform only simple tasks. These "eejits" act, or cease to act, only
when ordered to do so. If an eejit is not told to stop doing its simple task, it will continue until it
dies. This is a form of slacery. The brainwashed and trapped Eejits are the most obvious example of
enslavement, but pretty much everyone in El Patrn's household is a slave in some form. No one is
free to leave or live their lives without El Patrn's say-so. No one can question him openly or go
against his word. Plus, if you think about it, Matt's entire body (namely, his young, healthy organs)
belongs to El Patrn. It would be easy to think that these forms of enslavement are a result of El
Patrn's dictatorial rule, but the scary truth is that slavery is widespread in the world outside of
Opium, too. Even in Aztln, which doesn't appear to have a dictator like Opium, the Lost Boys are
slaves to the will of the Keepers, and must do forced labor in order to be clothed and sheltered. No
one in this world is safe. The fact that Marias father is a government official and is under the
control of El Patrn, shows government corruption. The main character, Matt, is a clone of El
Patrn, an incredibly powerful, 148-year-old drug lord who intends to take Matt's organs when his
own organs fail. Matt was grown from a set of cells taken from El Patrn decades ago, then frozen.
He was cultured in a test tube, then transferred into a surrogate mother, a cow, when it became
clear that he was going to survive. For the first six years of his life, he lives with Celia, a cook who
works in El Patrn's mansion. One day, he is discovered by two children (Emilia and Steven). The
next day they return, and bring Emilia's sister, Mara, who immediately captivates Matt. They
observe him through the window for a while, but soon get bored and turn to leave. Matt is so
worried that Mara will be eaten by a mythical creature that he smashes the window and jumps out
to save her. Never having experienced pain before, he was unaware of the danger in jumping
barefoot onto smashed glass. The children carry him to El Patrn's mansion to be treated. The
people there treat Matt kindly until Mr. Alacrn, El Patrn's great-grandson, recognizes him as a
clone. For the next few months, he is treated as an animal by most of the Alacrns, and is locked
into a room filled with sawdust for his "litter". The inhabitants of the Big House, meanwhile, are so
disgusted by him that they all move to different wings of the mansion, as if they are afraid of
contamination. However, Mara discovers where he is being kept and informs Celia, who tells El
Patrn about Matt's filthy conditions and abusive treatment. El Patrn immediately punishes the
maid, Rosa, who was in charge of Matt, gives Matt clothes and his own room, and commands
everyone to treat him with respect. Matt is also given a bodyguard, named Tam Lin, who becomes a
father figure to him. Still, everyone but Celia, Mara, and Tam Lin look upon Matt with ill-disguised
revulsion, only hiding it when El Patrn is around. Matt lives in the Big House for the next seven
years. He and Mara quickly become friends, and friendship gradually blossoms into romance.
However, Matt is deliberately kept in the dark by everyone about his identity and purpose until a
cruel joke reveals to him that he is a clone. Matt also discovers that all clones are supposed to be
injected when "harvested" with a compound that cripples their brains and turns them into little
more than thrashing, drooling animals. From then on, he studies and practices the piano with a
vengeance, in a state of denial. In his heart, Matt already knows the reason for his existence, yet
he convinces himself that El Patrn would not hire tutors for him and go to all the trouble of
keeping him entertained if he were intending to kill Matt in the end, and that El Patrn must want
Matt to run the country when El Patrn dies. At Steven and Emilia's wedding, El Patrn has a near-
fatal heart attack. Matt and Mara, who have by this time realized they love each other, attempt to
flee in the ensuing chaos but are betrayed by Steven and Emilia. Mara is taken away, and Matt is
taken to the Big House's hospital, where El Patrn at last confirms that Matt lived only to keep
himself, El Patrn, alive in the end. At that moment, Celia reveals that she has been giving Matt
carefully measured doses of arsenic, which, though not large enough to kill Matt, would certainly be
fatal to one as frail as El Patrn; El Patrn becomes so enraged that he has another heart attack
and dies. Mr. Alacrn orders Tam Lin to dispose of Matt; Tam Lin pretends to comply, and ties him
to a horse and rides away to dispose of him. But instead, he gives Matt supplies and sets him on a
path to Aztln. Arriving in Aztln, Matt comes across a kind of penal colony for orphans. These
orphans are called the "Lost Boys", and Matt is sent to live with them by a group of men known as
the "Keepers," who are fervent followers of Marxism. The Keepers operate plankton farms, forcing
the orphans to do manual labor and subsist on plankton. The Keepers enjoy luxurious quarters and
delectable food, claiming that this is fair because they "earned" the right to do so by working hard
during their childhood. Matt is at first an outcast because the other boys think he is a
spoiled aristocrat. However, Matt becomes a hero when he defies the Keepers and leads the boys in
a rebellion against them. Matt then flees with his friends among the Lost Boys. They struggle to
the nearest city, San Luis, then go to the convent to find Mara and her mother, the politically
powerful Esperanza. Esperanza thanks the boys for giving her an excuse to charge the Keepers with
drug trafficking: for years, everybody has known about it, but no one has had sufficient evidence
for a search warrant. Matt also learns that Opium is in lockdown. He manages to re-enter the
country, but only to learn that no one in the Alacrn estate is alive, except for Celia, Daft Donald,
and Mr. Ortega. Tam Lin and everyone else in the estate drank poisoned wine that El Patrn wanted
to be served at his funeral. Tam Lin knew that this wine had been tainted, and decides to drink it
anyway. He felt that he deserved to die... after (accidentally) killing those twenty children, so many
years ago. El Patrn wanted to either run the business forever, or have it and everybody else die
with him. Matt, being El Patrn's genetic heir, is the new ruler of Opium but decides to dismantle
the regime.