The House of the Scorpion Summary

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How It All Goes Down

The House of the Scorpion is a dark, twisted, but ultimately hopeful story about a young clone named Matt who grows up in a dystopian world under the control of a drug lord. Oh, and this drug lord happens to be the man from whom he was cloned. As it turns out, this guy, called El Patrón, cloned our protagonist so that he might harvest Matt's organs to keep himself alive later in life.

Matt's early years are peaceful. He lives in seclusion with his caretaker Celia, who works for the wealthy Alacrán family, of which El Patrón is the head. But when Matt is taken to live in the Big House on the Alacrán estate in the country of Opium, Matt's life takes a dark turn. He faces a never-ending series of hard-knocks: isolation, prejudice, imprisonment, violence, illness, and the threat of death – all before the age of fourteen!

Matt fortunately finds some allies in the mostly mean Alacrán clan: his surrogate mother Celia, his bodyguard-turned-mentor Tam Lin, and his friend-turned-love, María. With the help of these friends, Matt eventually escapes from Opium (and death-by-organ harvesting) and travels to Aztlán, formerly known as Mexico.

After more abuse, hard work, friendships, and near death experiences, Matt finally makes it to safety with María and her mother Esperanza, who is heavily involved in politics and protests in Opium. At the end of the novel, Matt returns to Opium and takes over as the leader of that country, now that El Patrón has died. The novel ends on a fairly optimistic note as the intelligent and idealistic Matt sets out to undo the damage the ruthless El Patrón did during his rule.

The House of the Scorpion Questions

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Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

  1. Why did El Patrón save Matt's brain in the first place?
  2. If you watch the news you might see some of the issues featured in Farmer's book. Did The House of the Scorpion give you a new way to look at any of these issues? Did it change the way you think about cloning, for example? If so, how?
  3. Farmer's vision of the future is pretty dark. Do you think the future Farmer depicts is possible, even likely? Why or why not? What are some of your predictions for the future?
  4. We get the novel from Matt's perspective, so we don't hear conversations between other characters that happen outside of Matt's hearing. Try writing a conversation between two characters that we didn't get to hear in the novel, like, say, the reunion between María and her mother. What do they say?
  5. Based on the clues we get in the novel, when, specifically, do you think the novel takes place?
  6. If you had to pick a place to live, would you choose Opium or Aztlán? What do you think about the overall living conditions and the governments in those places? How are they similar? Different?
  7. If you were casting a movie version of House of the Scorpion, who would you cast in what role? and why?
  8. Matt seems to appreciate Tam Lin's book recommendations for him. What books would you recommend for Matt, and why?
  9. How is Matt similar to other heroic characters, like Harry Potter? How is he different?