The House Of The Scorpion Character Analysis

Power. The definition of power is: “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events.” When one thinks of power, they likely think of police officers and other law enforcement, presidents and other government ranks or royalty. One might even think of someone who is barely above them as a hierarchy, like their parents, co-workers, or teachers. Seemingly ordinary people can get into a powerful position, but unfortunately, not all who are in power use it for a good cause. In the novel The House Of The Scorpion, there are multiple powerful characters throughout it. Between a royal drug lord, the family of Scorpions, and the evil keepers of the orphanage; the protagonist of Nancy Farmer’s novel, Matteo

The three keepers we see most in this novel are Jorge, Raúl, and Carlos. At one point, after Raúl tells Matt, Chacho, and Fidelito to work for the entire flight to San Luis, Matt thinks, “What is it with these people? They couldn’t seem to relax until they had total control” (278). Additionally, the Keepers show multiple times throughout the story that they are of the higher power and that the boys should be afraid of disobeying them. Once Matt comes into the orphanage, he is automatically dubbed as a “nasty little aristocrat” (275), “swanky” (280), a “troublemaker” (280), “evil” (284), and “rotten” (284) by The Keepers. Following this, The Keepers’ response to Matt’s abrupt personality is, instead of just sorting out their problems with Matt, they starve him, humiliate him, verbally abuse him, and beat him and the other Lost Boys; hence, using their power for evil purposes. Almost everything that Matt says or does once he gets to Aztlán is offensive and insulting to The Keepers, which gets him into trouble with not only all of The Keepers, but the pilot of the hovercraft, The Lost Boys’ trust and views on him, and other characters along the way. Moreover, Matt tries to resist Jorge once he almost beats

At the start of the novel, when Emilia, Steven, and María first bring Matt to The Big House, he is treated well– until Mr. Alacrán figures out that he is a clone. He instantly tells Rosa, the housekeeper, who then immediately stops taking care of him and dumps him out onto the lawn. Once the doctor, Willum, orders Rosa to bring him to the servants’ quarters, that is where Matt stays for a while. Every day, Rosa uses her power over Matt to make his life as insufferable as possible. Between scowling, snarling, yelling at him, blaming him for things that were not his fault, forcing him to live in a bed of sawdust, and more, Matt’s life is as hellish as can be. Additionally, while he is living in the servants’ quarters among the sawdust, Tom comes and makes fun of him. “You’re ugly, you look like a pig in a sty” (45), “You smell like a pile of dung” (45), “I forgot. You’re too dumb to talk. You’re a stupid clone who wets his pants and barfs all over his feet” (45). He then continues to grunt and snort like a pig, using his power over Matt to make fun of and bully him. Throughout the book, Tom continues to do foul things. Inasmuch as he is MacGregor’s son, he can get away with much more than Matt can. Between showing MacGregor’s clone to Matt and María; almost drowning María’s dog Furball; nailing a frog’s legs to the ground, then using