Noah's blog post

Noah Lawrence
House of the Scorpion
Nancy Farmer
distopian/science fiction
holiday
240

1.  I am currently reading, House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer. I am at the part where Matteo 
Alacran, a clone of the lord El Patron is living in a country called Opium which is in the middle of Mexico and the USA. Matteo was created to supply El patron with extra body parts to allow him to live a longer life. Matteo didn't believe it until it was happening to him.  El Patron was attending a very important wedding of his great, great, great, grandchildren.  El Patron is 146 years old. He has been able to live this long by using various body parts and organs from his clones. El Patron supplies his clones with the best education and athletic coaches, and he spoils them with presents and healthy food. It appears to Matteo that El Patron loves him but El Patron just does this to make his body parts and organs stronger. At this wedding, El Patron has a heart attack. Matteo and his friend Maria go off to hide, and Maria tells Matteo everything about El Patron's evil doings. Maria disguises Matteo as an eejit, which is a clone that has been enslaved. They run outside to the hovercraft and they are ready to take off to go to Mexico, but the pilot remembers that in Mexico you need a permit for eejits. Maria doesn't have one and then the pilot recognizes Matteo. The pilot calls security and Matteo is taken to the hospital to have his heart removed and given to El Patron. Matteo was brought in to see El Patron where he found his care taker Cecilia. The doctor said it was time but El Patron wanted a last word with Matteo. Before El Patron could mumble a word, Cecilia started screaming about how she poisoned Matteo just enough to make his heart to unstable to transplant it. El Patron would not survive because he was to weak to fight off the poison that would be transplanted to him from Matteo. The doctor stood by watching all this and then started to get very worried because he could tell that El Patron would die if he didn't get a transplant that instant. El Patron died and Matteo was dragged out of the room by security guards!


2.  You can not put this book down. This book is very suspenseful. It is really suspenseful when Matteo is spying on Maria's mother and brother and he sneezes. You just don't know what's going to happen. This book has many twists. An example of that is when El Patron gets his first heart transplant. The reader discovers that the operation puts two hearts in El Patron because the hearts were too small for  one heart to do the job. Those hearts must have come from children. It must be nearly impossible to find two child hearts that match your blood type. Those hearts must have come from clones. Also El Patron's friend wanted a transplant and El Patron said you  have to let the doctors know about 8 months ahead of time. That's how long it takes for a clone to be harvested and grown enough to have their organs taken out of him. Therefore, I predicted, that one day Matteo would have his organs ripped out and given to El Patron. It is very interesting how many of the characters in this book treat Matteo. Most characters treat him like he's a beast even though he resembles a human in every way. At the beginning of the book he is held captive by El Patron's family. El Patron doesn't know about this at first, but Matteo was kept in a room full of saw dust like what is in a chicken pen. He was fed chicken food and wasn't given a bathroom also he was harassed by Maria's brothers. Eventually El Patron rescues Matteo. What really intrigues me is in this book is that people are harvested and made into slaves by putting computer chips into their heads. It is cool to read about how the author thinks the future will be like. I hope that all these people will be set free and that slavery like this would never happen. I think that this book used the right language, the right amount of detail, and the right amount of action.

3.  For this book, I can't decide between two themes it is either greediness or perserverance. The theme could be greediness because El Patron never gives anything away and always wants more, and he is never satisfied with what he has. For example, he gets many very expensive and cool gifts from people in his country and outside of his country. He just stores all those presents underground and doesn't even say thank you to his guests. The theme could be perserverance though because Matteo tries so hard to fit in and he works so hard to get people to like him, but he hasn't succeeded yet. Matteo has his caretaker and his friend Maria. Matteo perseveres throughout the story.  He is made fun of by many people and does not get respected, but he keeps on pushing through.


4.  My favorite character is Tam Lin. He is a body guard for El Patron and is assigned to Matteo. Tam is a good guy he teaches Matteo many things about the enviorment and really wants him to escape from El Patron. Tam resolves many problems between Matteo and his "family". Tam  is like a big brother to Matteo. He always does the right thing. I would love to have a big brother like him. Tam is fun to hang with and is very thoughtful. When El Patron dies Tam is without a job. Mr. Alcaran, El Patron's great great grandson, offers Tam a job as his security guard. This makes Tam a bad guy, but not a "bad guy". I think Tam is a good guy and this will show eventually. He might even save Matteo. The only thing that bothers me about Tam is that when he lived in Ireland he was a terrorist. He had a problem with the Prime Minister so he planted a bomb at his door step. Ironically just as the bomb blew up a school bus was driving down the road. Tam had killed 20 children. El Patron hired outlaws from around the world to be his body guards he says it is easier to trust someone from out of the country. Tam had nothing better to do so he became El Patrons body guard. Underneath Tam Lin's muscles and his past I think he is good person.


5.  My least favorite character is Tom. Tom is Maria's brother. He very sneaky and mean. He is innocent on the outside but completely evil on the inside. Tom shot Matteo multiple times with a air soft gun from point blank when Matteo was unprotected. He also attempted to kill Maria's dog by drowning it, he failed. He later succeeded but blamed it on Matteo and everyone believed him. Tom is like a little brother times three. From my experience little brothers always get away with things and they get all the attention. El Patron and Rosa, a maid that has been turned into an eejit are close runnerups to Tom for the least favorite character. El Patron just doesn't care about anyone, but he has his good parts and bad parts. Rosa treated Matteo with no respect at all when El Patron found out about what she was doing she was turned into an eejit. That's how bad she is. I think Tom is going to do something really bad and finally be caught. The worst thing about Tom is that Maria enjoys spending time with him, she has no idea how bad he is. Maria freaked out when at El Patron birthday Matteo put Tom at the baby table instead of the adult table. Matteo only did it as a joke. Tom has done much worse things. One day Tom is supposed to marry Maria. I think Matteo would kill himself if this happened. Some how I think this will be avoided and Maria will marry Matteo. She will forget about him being a clone and they will live happily ever after.


6.  I predict that Matteo will try to escape because he has a supply of food hidden in the mountains. I think Tam will help him escape. I also think that Maria will come back to help Matteo. Mr. Alacran is now in control of the mansion and the country and his farm. I think that Mr. Alacran will treat Matteo badly. His caretaker Cecelia will most likely be turned into an eejit for opposing El Patron. Tom will run the farm but he is going to do something stupid and get killed for it. I also think that Benito, Maria's other brother will get a clone and he will rise to ruler of the country Opium. After this Maria and Matteo who escaped come back and take over and kill all the bad guys. Soon after that I think either the U.S.A. or Mexico, their bordering countries will demolish them. Tam Lin is a good person so he will help Matteo. Maria and Mateo are really close so they will always be together. Tom will die because of his lack of intelligence and karma. Benito will take over because he is the oldest son. Mr. Alcran will lose his throne to Benito because Mr. Alacran is an easy target. The author, Nancy Farmer seems to make you believe that you definitely know what's going to happen but just before you get there something different happens. Taking that into consideration I think that Maria will die and it will be Matteo's fault. You never know what is going to come next but you can always make a guess.