Farmer, N. (2002). The House of the Scorpion. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Matt has always lived on the Farm with Celia, who loves him. But when El Patron calls, everyone jumps, including Celia and Tam Lin, who is El Patron’s henchman. Young Matt doesn’t know where he fits into the whole system. Is he a favored son? It doesn’t seem like it. Is he a peon? Then why has El Patron taken such a fancy to him? Matt slowly comes to the realization that he is a clone of El Patron—built to be spare parts for the ancient man! After a very close call, Matt escapes and finds himself in one horrific situation after another. Is there nowhere in this Dystopia that he can be free? His only hope is to reach Esperanza.
My View:
Matt is certainly his own person. He has thoughts and feelings and dreams for himself. He wants to find Maria, for one thing. That is a huge motivator, as is the fact that El Patron has just tried to annihilate him. Survival is a very big motivator as well. He also hopes to reach Esperanza, which means Hope. Something about the very significant word and meaning makes me think of a poem by Rumi. It has a line that says, “When you ask the question, the answer will come.” Matt asked certain questions, and he thought about things hard enough that when the answers did come, he recognized them: for example, his organizing the orphan boys. They were without hope, he gave them Esperanza. Now, inevitably, the question comes around to the personal. What do I hope for? What is my life all about? Just as I can’t believe a clone’s life doesn’t have value, I believe my own also has value. Of course I’m not writing in any sort of despair or melancholy—I’m just stating that I recognize that everyone, clone or regular human, librarian or mom or both, each has value. As Roger said, questions trump answers. I think the hardest part is finding the correct words or images or thoughts or feelings or whatever it is, to mix together to formulate an effective question. And like the I Ching, an answer is something that can take a multiplicity of forms. Learn to ask, then to listen, then to act.
“The House of the Scorpion is a many layered, complicated novel about a clone becoming a man. Despite the science fiction aura of the tale, it is a coming-of-age story about a boy striving to find out who he is. Is he nothing more than a beast, a photograph of another human being, a repository of spare parts?”
Schneider, D. (2005). A clone becomes a man. Book Links 15(2), p23-26.
Ideas for the library: So often, when I recommend a book, I imagine the child or teenager embarking on a journey into another land. Because I have already taken that particular trip, I really want to know what they thought of it. Did they meet the same people, did they have similar impressions of the landscape and the activities? How were they affected by some situation or other? I often ask kids to tell me what they thought of a book I’ve recommended. In a way, those conversations become, as it were, an impromptu book group or community of the mind. This book is one that I especially wonder about. It would be a good book group selection—for a REAL book group, not just my little impromptu one-on-one ones. So, I’ll put this on the list as a potential candidate.
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