Who is Matteo Alacran?

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“It had doughy, unhealthy skin and red hair that stuck up in bristles. It seemed never to have been in the sun, and its hands were twisted like claws above the straps that held it down.” “Its tongue protruded from its mouth and drooled saliva down its chin.” -Nancy Farmer The House of the Scorpion (Chapter 12 pg.112). Macgregor’s clone is a textbook example of what clones are in Opium and why they are regarded as animals. Matteo Alacrán is more than just a drooling mess of a clone. He’s a human being, which means he has qualities that define him just like any other person.
A certain personality trait that defines Matt is his outlasting resilience. He has been thrown into many rough situations since the age of six. Including extremely unfeasible ones, yet he manages to come out on the other side somewhat unharmed every time. His first encounter with isolation gave us a glimpse of his ability to overcome the cruel treatment of Rosa. Kept in practical solitude within sawdust for six months could have done more to Matt than just render him mute. (49) At one point he understands that his tormentors would harm him further if he presented any form of vulnerability.(46) Besides the mentioned he also had to operate while pumped up with arsenic unbeknownst to him. Even though Celia slowly fed him the poison, it benefited him in the end by rendering his heart unstable for transplant. (208) One of the most obvious actions of resilience was the entirety of being in the orphanage, specifically the plankton factory. There he was insulted, outcast, and even physically punished by a whipping via cane. (255)(264) Being the new overlord of Opium has resilience in the job description. Matteo Alacrán is required to have it inherently in him to dismant...

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...he didn’t have resilience the book would have been very short. You can’t exactly have a protagonist thrown into a chaotic existence without them being able to withstand the lifestyle. Naiveté is an interesting considerably neutral trait. He is in youth through the book but this trait demonstrates how much he grows and learns. His desperation fueled his escapes to get out alive and determines how much he longs, craves, needs friends, family, ect. Remove a single one and you no longer have Matt. Of course there are innumerable traits that all contribute to make him up. The main idea is they make him up, as a person. Not as a drooling, morphine high, permanently damaged, primal mess of a clone that inhabitants of Opium are accustomed to, also not as a mere copy of El Patron. He’s a human being, which means he has qualities that define him just like any other person.

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