House of the Scorpion (6)

I always say the truth is best when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how rats are. It's what makes them rats. But a human doesn't run and hide in dark places, because he's something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is.

The government and how El Patron runs the society is relies heavily on lying and manipulating the way the people think. They lie to the people by vaccinating them and taking control of their thoughts. They also lie to the children of Lost Boys and the rest of the people by saying obedience will give them privileges and how they are less than the Keepers. When a government turns to lying to gain the control and trust of the people, they are considered a dystopian government. This government promises the people privileges, however all they do is work until they are told to stop or, like the field worker, until they die from being overworked.

The government presented in House of the Scorpion shows their cowardice through controlling the people with a vaccine. They feel that their own power is not strong enough to gain the loyalty of the people. They need to enforce obedience rather than gaining their trust. As things seem to be comfortable, Matt is created and ruins the government's plan. Everyone was being obedient until Matt was given the opportunity to think for himself by not receiving the vaccine. In the presence of Matt, the government that El Patron created is the rat while Matt himself is the human that never hides in the dark. He pushes himself to free the people of Lost Boys and Opium and realizes the lies that the government has been telling. Their act of cowardice does not earn them the power to control the people and eventually lose that power because of Matt. 

House of the Scorpion (5)

Matt rose from the floor and saw that the room had darkened. Chacho and Fidelito were watching him from the top bunks near the ceiling. Someone was going to be sincerely sorry that he put Fidelito on the top bunk. Chacho pointed at the door and made an extremely rude hand gesture. Fidelito lifted his nightshirt and mooned the missing Jorge. Matt had to swallow hard to keep the tears from rolling down his face. He wasn't alone after all. With friends like these, he would triumph, as El Patron had triumphed over poverty and death so long ago.

Throughout the book, Matt has always been neglected and isolated because of who he was: a clone of El Patron. In this society, mindless slaves were common, however clones who were here for the original's protection were not common and were often alone because they were different from the rest. Matt has struggled to fight against this government and he hasn't gotten the support he needed at first because the society has trained the people to oppose those who were different. The government has complete control over the people, however they do not control Matt. Because he is free from El Patron's brainwash, Matt is the only person who can fight against the government and its ideologies.

Matt was taken to Lost Boys, an orphanage for children who lost their parents on the frontier. This transfer gave the chance for Matt to make his move against the El Patron and his government. Matt faces a struggle against El Patron throughout the book. Since he is the clone of El Patron's life, Matt is bound to fall under his footsteps. El Patron triumphed to get to where he is: the ruler of Opium and the Mexican-American border, so it is obvious that Matt will triumph in what ever he wants to accomplish. Matt faces isolation in Opium, but he takes the negative times in life and overcomes it when he makes big accomplishments. Matt works towards the freedom of the Lost Boys, and he is able to reach that goal. Matt works towards the freedom of the people in Opium, and he is able to succeed in that. Like El Patron when he was young, Matt overcame all the obstacles presented to him and rose to the top.Because of his determination to triumph like El Patron, Matt put an end to the corruption of the government of Opium and set everyone free for El Patron's control.

House of the Scorpion (4)

"The aristocrat is only a snot-faced boy who thinks he's too good for the rest of us. I am a true citizen. I've earned my privileges through hard work and obedience. No food for you tonight...No food for any of you! You will learn to obey the will of the people if it takes the next fifty years." Carlos rode off in a plume of dust and salt. "I'm proud to be with you," the little boy cried. "You're my compadres!"

 In the city of Opium, the perfect and "true citizen" is the person who obeys every single command and who performs their task without rebuttal. El Patron only wants people who listen to him and who give him absolute control over them. For that, he had scientists create the vaccine that allows him to control their thoughts and actions. El Patron makes everyone have the vaccine. Since the majority of the people are under control and obeying him then it would be normal and justice for everyone to obey him. People hypnotized by this drug promote and spread the loyalty to El Patron across the land. The Keepers of the Lost Boys orphanage tell the boys that they are worthy because they are obedient and hardworking. They convince the boys that with obedience comes a lot of rewards and privileges.

Though everyone in this world is under the control of El Patron, Matt does all that he can to free these people from this corrupt government. Matt fights against the words of the the Keepers and tries to get the boys to follow his word and his quest for freedom. Because Matt is a rebel and different from the rest of the people, the Keepers try to make him look unworthy in front of the children. The Keepers fear that Matt's different personality will spread and influence the children. Therefore, they call Matt a "snot-faced" aristocrat who thinks he is better than all of them. However, Matt works past all of his criticisms and gains the respect of the boys. Together, they do what they can to fight against the Keepers, and then against El Patron and his Opium Farm.

House of the Scorpion (3)

When the day came, Eduardo received the newborn into his hands as though it were his own child. His eyes blurred as he laid it in a crib and reached for the needle that would blunt its intelligence. "Don't fix that one," said Lisa, hastily catching his arm. "It's a Matteo Alacran. They're always left intact." Have I done you a favor? thought Eduardo as he watched the baby turn its head towards the bustling nurses...

 The main character, Matt, of the book House of the Scorpion is shown to be different from the rest of the people born in Opium. In this part of the book, Eduardo the scientist is told to vaccinate all the children with a drug that "blunts its intelligence". Their lack of intelligence makes it much easier for El Patron to gain their loyalty and control their every move. However, El Patron assigned the scientists to create a clone of himself so that when he becomes ill, he would be able to take the clone's organs in order to survive. Matt is chosen to be the clone of El Patron. As a clone, Matt is allowed to keep his brain untouched and he is allowed to use his brain to its fullest potential; however, he will be watched over and neglected because of who he is.

Matt is the main focus of the book, making him the dystopian protagonist. The world in which he lives in is controlled by El Patron, the richest and most powerful man in the land between Mexico and the United States. Being the only child not vaccinated by the scientific-developed drug, Matt is the only child in Opium unaffected by the results of the drug. His brain does not function on the commands of El Patron. Matt has a mind of his own and can think for himself. Because he is a clone, he is allowed to see what is right and what is wrong. The incident where him and Tam Lin find a worker dead in the fields makes him see the evils of the way El Patron makes the world work. Since Matt is given the freedom to think, he is the only hope the people of Opium have. Towards the end of the book, he is told that he is the only one who can save those people from the tyrannical control of the walls of Opium. Matt sees this world from the inside, seeing how El Patron controls the people. He then sees a different perspective, the view of the children from Lost Boys. Able to combine the information to make his own inferences, Matt works to stop the rule of El Patron. He sees the dystopian society for what it is and does all he can to end this tyranny.

House of the Scorpion (2)

"Drink," said Tam Lin. The horse trotted forward and dipped its muzzle. It blew noisy bubbles as it drank ravenously. "We'll walk the rest of the way." "Can't we take the horse?" said Matt, looking doubtfully at the streambed snaking into the hills. "It wouldn't obey. It's programmed to stay on the Farm...It's a Safe Horse, which means it has an implant in his head. It won't bolt or jump. It won't even drink unless you tell it to."

The people in House of the Scorpion are possesed by the ideologies of El Patron. They do not have a mind of their own and they are not able to develop their own thoughts and beliefs. Because of El Patron, the people are not able to be "normal people" because they do not have the same privileges as El Patron and his family. In this world, the social classes are very strict. All of El Patron's family are at the top of the social pyramid, compared to the eejits and other workers in Opium. The eejits and the rest of the people must obey every single command the chief family gives them. They must attend to all their problems and must put them in front of everyone else, including themselves. In the orphanage home, Lost Boys, the keepers are at the top of the pyramid. The boys placed in this orphanage must work hard without good treatment and they must not expect anything in return for all that they do. The boys are worked to death, only being fed when the keepers feel their work is sufficient.

These social distinctions make it easier for El Patron to control the population of Opium. The people at the bottom have no privileges are can not defend themselves. El Patron has established a society in which the people praise him. He is the center of their world and everything good that is discovered or made belongs to him. The people do not have any freedom and do not need it because of the life that El Patron made for them.

The people were vaccinated at a very young age. Growing up obeying the laws, the people feel that it is normal for them to not think and work hard for someone much "superior". El Patron attacked them at a young age, which makes it easier for them to obey him. All the years that the people live, they live working for him. They never had the opportunity to see how much they are worth. They feel that being servants is normal and their freedom is much different than what we feel is freedom. According to their lifestyle, the people feel free when they please El Patron. They can not live without him controling them and telling them what and what not to do. The amount of control El Patron has over the people clearly shows that the society he created is a dystopian.

House of the Scorpion (1)

He has his good side and his bad side. Very dark indeed is his majesty when he wants to be. When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other. He grew large and green until he shadowed over the whole forest, but most of his branches are twisted.

The person who the quote is referring to is El Patron. He is a very rich drug lord who controls the land between Mexico and the United States, Opium. El Patron owns every aspect and controls everything that goes on in Opium with the help of scientists who are hired to create a vaccine. The vaccine is then implanted into the people and the result is them obeying anything El Patron requests. Because everyone is under his control, no one is able to recognize the negative side of what he is doing and no one is able to stop him.

El Patron is "very dark...when he wants to be". In our eyes, the way he carries out his plan for absolute control is corrupt; however, in the eyes of the "eejits" and others in Opium, they do not see El Patron as an evil man manipulating them. They can not see what he truly is doing and for that the people accept every task they are told to complete. His plans for absolute rule is compared to a tree. In the beginning of his ultimate plan, he took small steps and worked his way up to the top. The small steps he took is compared, in the quote, to the growth of the tree. Tam Lin has witnessed its growth and is aware of its size. He has come a long way from where he started (that is, a poor boy) and has made great accomplishments to have thousands of people work on his farm. El Patron truly has "twisted branches". The use of this word makes the readers believe that Tam Lin understands what he is doing. His actions of implanting people by force is twisted; however, El Patron is unstoppable and no one can match up to his power.

El Patron is a personified representation of a dystopian government. Under his rule, the thoughts of the people are neglected when the vaccine is placed inside of them. He manipulates their minds and does not allow them to have their own personality. One the farm, one man was never told to stop working in the fields so he continued working without rest. His mind has been so brainwashed from the vaccine that he could not decide when to stop working on his own. He was left on the field until he died of thirst, starvation, heat, or many other things. The people living in Opium do not have a mind of their own; they can not make their own decisions and they don't have their opinions. They are trapped in El Patron's twisted branches and there is no escape unless they realize what is going on and stop it.

The Declaration (6)

Both her parents put their hands to their mouths, and looked like they were eating something, and then her mother smiled, like she was laughing, like she'd just been given something she'd wanted all her life. And she turned to the Catcher, and she said, 'You can't touch them now,' and he frowned, and then her mother stumbled slightly, and she fell to the ground, followed by Anna's father. But they were both smiling, and their hands found each other. 'Anna,' her father said. 'Anna, you're free. You and Ben are free. A life for a life. It's in the Declaration. We've been waiting for this moment. Wanting it to come. Waiting to give you life again. A real life. A real future. We're so sorry, Anna. So sorry...' (pg. 291)

Anna struggled and suffered because of all the lies that Mrs. Pincent filled her mind with. She was told that her parents never loved her and that she was a waste of space. The government used their corrupt methods to manipulate and gain control over the people in the society. Anna was one of many that were under their control. Everything she did was for the sake of the government because she accepted the fact that she was a Surplus and her parents’ mistake. She cleaned for the Legals because they were thought to have a higher value than the rest of the people in the world. The government took complete control of the life of Anna. They kept her in Grange Hall to keep an eye on her and they never let her on the Outside because they feared she would absorb different ideas. Like Mrs. Pincent said in the novel, “Anna doesn’t have a mind of her own”. She was easily manipulated until Peter came to the hall and shared his view on society. He told her that she had a valuable life and that her parents loved her.

The moment Anna’s parents swallowed the pill to end their life, Anna’s life was saved from all the corruption of the government. She was no longer a puppet; she had a mind of her own and could make her own decisions. The author creates a world in which the people are conformists and must hate on the same group of people and praise the same group of people. Anna searches for a way out of this world and into a life filled with freedom and happiness. A world where every behavior and thought is the same is a dystopian world. Conformity only allows one person to take charge of the rest of the world. One leader leads to dictatorship and dictatorship leads to destruction. Hitler was a dictator who manipulated the Germans to follow every move he wishes to make. History can tell us that his rule did not result in a positive manner. A certain group of people (like Surpluses) were targeted and ignored, which led to the Holocaust and the extermination of millions of Jews.