House Of The Scorpion Analysis

A 148-year-old ruler of a country. Hovercrafts. Human clones. Computer chips that can control your mind. These are just a few of the many futuristic things you will find in this dystopian novel. In “The House of the Scorpion,” by Nancy Farmer, Matteo Alacran, or Matt for short, is the clone of a powerful drug lord named “El Patron,” who is also the ruler of the country of Opium, which is the country between the United States and what used to be Mexico. Unbeknownst to Matt, clones are used for spare body parts. The only way to avoid this death is escape from El Patron, and an important secondary character named Tam Lin, who is Matt’s bodyguard, had a significant impact on Matt as he helps him try to do what no other clone of El Patron has done—escape. The first choice made by Tam Lin that had a noteworthy effect on Matt is when he decided to take Matt to one of his favorite getaways …show more content…
This was significant because it allowed Matt to escape to Aztlan and eventually find his way to safety. Matt describes the eejit pens as “a compound of rotten fish, excrement, and vomit with a sweet chemical odor that was worse than the other smells put together.” However, Tam Lin made everyone think he was taking Matt to the eejit pens when he actually took him to the oasis by the Ajo Mountains. He then gave Matt detailed instructions on how to escape from death in Opium. Along with this information, he also gave Matt helpful survival tips, maps, books, food, water, money, and matches to start a fire. Matt does successfully escape to Aztlan and eventually, through a lot of luck and the will to survive he inherited from El Patron, makes it to a place where he would not be hunted. Unfortunately, Matt finds out that Tam Lin died, but his spirit clung to Matt throughout the rest of the