The House of the Scorpions book report

The House of the Scorpion part 1

            In the book The House of the Scorpion the main characters full name is Matteo Alcrán, Matt for short. He is a clone and so most of people in the book are disgusted by him. They think that clones are disgusting creature that bark and droll. That is because most clones are. Except Matt, He is a clone that doesn’t droll and barks because at “harvesting time” his intelligence wasn’t dulled by one of the doctors. Other clones have their intelligence dulled when they are “harvested.” Matt is the only smart clone out there even though it’s the law that clones have to have their intelligence marred. He is the only smart clone because he is a clone of El Patrón one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, and so because he is rich he was able to stop his mind from being abated.

            Matt is a person who is exceedingly smart. In the book, it was established that he was able the read 10 year above his own and he could do math that astounded El Patrón. He is also a loyal friend because in the book, when he was trying to escape the plankton growing factory he kept remembering that he had to bring his friends Chacho and Fidelito with him. He also took a beating that was supposed to be for Fidelito. It would have killed him because he was so skinny and weak and his little body wouldn’t have been able to take the beating. Another great quality Matt has is that he is courteous. In the book the orphans say that Matt acts weird because he uses manners and talks differently. Matt is also a little bit insensitive because whenever María (his girly friend) was crying (which happened a lot) he was thinking she cries too much and stuff like that.

            The book doesn’t say much about Matt’s physical appearance. I, however picture Matt as an average height guy with brown hair. He is told in the book that he doesn’t have a mother. But he did have a person that raised him as if he were her son. Her name was Celia. Near the end of the book though, Matt mentions Celia to his friend Chacho and Chacho asked him who she was. That then, Matt realized that he had had a mother. It was Celia. Matt also had a body guard whose name was Tan Lin. Tan Lin soon became a father figure because he cared for Matt and helped Matt escape from being killed by El Patrón. He turned out to be a great person and Matt seemed to admire him.

The House of the Scorpion part 2

            In the book The House of the Scorpion there were a lot of times where symbolism was used. The main symbol in the book was the scorpion. It was uses in the book when Matt and María are in the secret passages in El Patrón’s mansion. When María makes the flashlight light get red they see a scorpion (that activates secret doors to open) on the wall and it only will open if it is El Patrón DNA is touching it. Matt being El Patrón’s clone had the same DNA as him and was able to activate the secret doors. Another scorpion appears after El Patrón’s death when Matt was in a rocky part of the terrain at sunset when the sky was all red. He saw a scorpion on a rock and he presses his hand against it and it opens a secret door to El Patrón’s “dragon hoard.”

 In the title The House of the Scorpion it is referring to El Patrón’s house, so it seems to be that El Patrón and his family are the real scorpions. Evil yet cunning with the power to be able to kill El Patrón I think is the main scorpion. That is why all the scorpions on the wall were for El Patrón use, but he never thought that Matt would be able to use them against him. El Patrón died when he was 148 because he had 8 other clones before Matt and he had taken their hearts and other vital organs so he would be able to live on.

            I think that is the big picture with the scorpions. Although El Patrón was evil and twisted, he also had a good side. He gave Matt good advice with the getting your bodyguards from another country and knowledge about life that were vital to Matt as the book went on. Like at the end when Matt was thinking about where he should get his bodyguards he remembered that think that El Patrón had told him about getting them from a different country so they don’t turn on you as easily as they would be able to if they weren’t from another country.

            The word alacran which is most of the people who live in the house is there last name means scorpion in English so most of the people that live in the house like Mr. Alacran are scorpions except Matt because his name is what El Patrón’s name is.