Isolation In 'The House Of The Scorpion'

The world as we know it might look pretty, but there are problems. Phone addiction and social seclusion have lead people to be split apart, voluntary or not. In The House of The Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer, Matt is a clone who lives in the country of Opium, where drug production and distribution is legal. The book starts out with him living in the mountains with his caretaker Celia. As he grows up, he moves into the Alacran estate, where the ruler of Opium, and Matt’s original lives. The longer Matt lives in the giant estate, the darker Matt’s life becomes. In a short story written by Ray Bradbury, “The Pedestrian”, a man named Leonard Mead lives in solitude, with no family or friends. However, at night time, he takes long walks, thinking about life, and how technology presumably took over humanity. Dystopian authors demonstrate symbolism to prove isolation is a disease which if not removed can lead to long-term damage.

In The House of The Scorpion, Nancy Farmer uses symbolism to show how much isolation can damage a person's mentality.

A symbol Farmer uses is bugs. When Matt becomes so bored out of his mind, he begins letting food to rot, to allow bugs in, so that he can watch them. Before, Matt was very clean and didn’t seem particularly interested in bugs. He becomes so lonely that rotten oranges and cockroaches are his best friends. “Matt was swept with such an intense feeling of desolation, he thought he would die.” This quote shows how sad he becomes without human companionship despite his bug friends. When he gets out of the room he was locked in, with the help of his friend Maria, he develops a fear to talk. Maria even thought he would never be able to speak again. Nancy Farmer wants to criticize that isolation, voluntary or not is something that can lead to long term mental

damage.

In “The Pedestrian”, Ray Bradbury uses symbolism to show how isolation could damage a person’s mental health. A symbol Bradbury uses is the TV. The human race seems to have developed such an addiction to their screens that they almost never communicate with each other. This seems to be true for everybody except for Leonard Mead. Although he does seem to live a happy life, deep down, there is sadness. “He was alone in this world or 2053 A.D; or as good as alone” this quote shows that even though he might seem happy, in the tone makes it feel as though he is depressed. When the cop asks if he has a wife, he responds in a sad way. When the cop asks why he is not on his TV, Leonard says it is broken. What the author might be saying, is that even though life can be fixed for others with TV’s, his can only be fixed by human companionship. Ray Bradbury wants to criticize that life is getting taken over by phones, and humans are communicating less and less face to face.

In The House of The Scorpion and “The Pedestrian”, the authors use symbols such as TV’s and bugs to show the problems in our everyday society, from social seclusion to addiction to screens that are tearing apart everybody from social interaction. Most people are aware or unaware of becoming isolated. In conclusion, dystopian authors today use symbolism to show how some people have lost their lives due to isolation.