Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The House of the Scorpion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Free Will vs. Predetermination
Scientific Ethics and Abuse
Language, Law, and Dehumanization
Abuse of Power and Corruption
Summary
Analysis
Matt wakes up the next morning and knows he must make amends with María once her temper subsides. With the party over, the servants and the family treat Matt with the same coldness as always. He tries and fails to amuse himself with music and the nature book Tam Lin gave him. In addition to giving him the book, Tam Lin has taken Matt on many nature excursions that would be deemed too dangerous for El Patrón’s clone if others were to find out.
Matt’s commitment to apologizing shows his capacity to make moral decisions, although he shows apprehension over the consequences of María’s anger. Tam Lin’s breaking of the rules to teach Matt nature skills suggest Tam Lin has a greater motivation behind these excursions.
Themes
Felicia unexpectedly comes to see Matt. She complements Matt on his music ability. She talks about how El Patrón used to listen to her play when she was a concert musician, before her nervous breakdown. Felicia says that she has come to help him, and tells Matt that María is waiting for him at the hospital.
Matt’s immediate acceptance of Felicia’s sudden empathy for him emphasizes how Matt is still desperate to be accepted by members of the family who acts indifferent or hostile toward him.
Themes
The hospital is a part of the Alacrán estate Matt does not like to visit. He finds María in the waiting room. María reveals that she thought Matt had invited her to the hospital. Matt admits he was wrong to act like he did at the party, but he did really like her present wrapped in the special gift paper. María is silent for a moment. Matt wonders if he could kiss her now, to make up for the night before.
The presence of the hospital on the Alacrán estate suggests the importance of science and medicine to the family. Matt’s anxiety surrounding the hospital hints at his discomfort with the unnatural and unethical ways science is used in his society. Matt’s desire to kiss María once they reunite shows how he now sees intimacy not as something he is owed, but as the expression of a loving relationship.
Themes
Tom appears in the waiting room. He was the one who told María that Matt wanted to meet her at the hospital. He tells them he wants to show them something scarier than Halloween. With a gleeful smile, Tom leads María and Matt down the hall. Matt holds onto María’s hand. They hear yowling, like a cat, in the distance. María thinks there’s a cat somewhere in need of rescuing.
Tom’s delight in frightening Matt and María emphasizes his characteristic wickedness and cruelty. Matt and María’s act of holding hands shows their restored friendship after Matt apologized, showcasing their mutual capacity for kindness and genuine connection in contrast with Tom’s coldness. María shows an instinctual compassion and righteousness by her impulse to rescue the unseen cat—not unlike the virtues of El Virgin that Matt admires.
Themes
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Tom takes them to a room where a creature Matt does not recognize lies strapped to a bed, screaming. María realizes that the creature is actually a boy, but now its body is twisted and trapped. Tom says that this is a clone. Matt has never seen another clone before. He has only wondered why humans hate clones, if clones are supposed to be like pets. María lets go of Matt’s hand and Tom holds her as she looks terrified.
The description of the clone as trapped and tortured hints at the general suffering of clones in Matt’s society, suffering Matt has largely been prevented so far from witnessing firsthand. María’s release of Matt’s hand suggests that this harrowing sight has reminded her of Matt’s status as a clone, and that this association disturbs her despite her ambiguity toward clones as a lesser subspecies of humans.
Themes
Tom reveals that the clone belongs to Mr. MacGregor. Matt cannot comprehend how he could be similar to the clone on the bed. He realizes the clone looks a lot like Tom. María begs to leave until Tom agrees to go with her. Matt stays behind for a moment, but then follows them.
María’s abandonment of MacGregor’s clone contrasts with her righteous passion back when she thought the suffering clone was a cat. This shows how María’s sense of activism is still immature and easily crushed by the reality of suffering in her society.
Themes
