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
The next morning, Raúl gives a speech to the Lost Boys about how aristocrats may seem attractive, but they are actually evil. Chacho and Fidelito still call Matt a hero afterward. Raúl assigns Matt a job measuring pills, and makes his quota twice as high as the other boys to teach him the importance of work. Matt is not concerned because he knows he will leave for the convent soon.
Raúl shows his cruelty by specifically targeting Matt and trying to turn the Lost Boys against him, which would be especially upsetting for Matt because he finally feels like he belongs. Chacho and Fidelito show their characteristic loyalty and rebelliousness by remaining on Matt’s side.
Themes
Raúl gathers Chacho, Fidelito, and Matt to go to San Luis. He tells them the work will be much harder there, but if they behave, they will receive full citizenship when they turn 18. Raúl takes them to a hovercraft, where they have to continue to make sandals while they travel. Fidelito vomits from motion sickness. Matt remembers the last time he was in a hovercraft, with Steven and Emilia. He wonders how they are doing now, as Steven will be crown prince of Opium and Emilia will be surrounded by her child eejits. He feels horror at the knowledge that those eejits were just children like Fidelito, running from the Farm Patrol.
Raúl’s promise of citizenship, and therefore human rights, to the boys if they obey shows how he weaponizes dehumanization in order to suppress dissent. The fact that Chacho, Fidelito, and Matt can never stop working also emphasizes their oppression. Matt’s empathy of the child eejits after forming a friendship with Fidelito highlights how personal relationships lead one to humanize otherwise dehumanized groups, like the eejits.
Themes
The hovercraft lands, the boys exit, and Matt is overwhelmed by the smell of rotting fish in the heat. They run past white hills and red pools into the nearest building. Inside the building, boys their age are fishing in large tanks. Matt asks the boys who is in charge and they point out the Keepers. A Keeper immediately recognizes Matt as the aristocrat and tells him that if he causes any trouble, he will be sent to the “boneyard.”
The description of the rotten, barren nature of the plankton factory highlights the harsh conditions under which Matt and the other Lost Boys must live. The continued classification of Matt as an aristocrat shows the erasure of his individual identity—though he is now discriminated against for being superior, rather than inferior, to others. The warning of the boneyard suggests the Keepers are willing to use physical harm to control him.
Themes
The Keepers force Matt and Chacho to clean Fidelito’s vomit out of the aircraft. Then the head Keeper, whose name is Carlos, teaches them how to fish plankton out of the tanks so that it can be made into food. Carlos speaks very highly of the potential of plankton. Matt looks at the security fences around the facility and asks where San Luis is. Carlos refuses to tell him. He points out the salt mountains, which the boys will also be harvesting to be sold.
Carlos’s praise of the potential of the plankton factory suggests that this society values factory technology’s ability to promote production and profit even at the cost of human lives, similar to how Opium values scientific progress above the clones’ wellbeing. The presence of the security fence and Carlos’s refusal to tell Matt where San Luis is suggests a restrictive, oppressive environment surrounding the factory. His redirection to the mounds of salt shows his singular focus on profit.
Themes
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Carlos calls all the boys to lunch in an area he has decorated with plastic flowers and a weathervane. The workers still seem miserable as they eat their meals of plankton. Carlos scolds them for being ungrateful for their food, which is supposed to be the best food because it is shared equally by all of them. Off in the distance, Matt can see the Gulf of California, which is now mostly dried up. Carlos says that Aztlán diverted the water from the Colorado River because it was so polluted, but once they started harvesting the gulf for plankton, the water ran out with nothing to replace it.
The plastic flowers and weathervane represent a hollow attempt on Carlos’ part to raise the moral of the boys, showing how he does not genuinely care about their quality of life. The pollution of the river and the drainage of the gulf suggests environmental devastation brought on by the society’s focus on profit with an indifference toward other concerns such as resource use and human suffering.
Themes
Carlos puts Matt, Chacho, and Fidelito to work caring for the plankton tanks. Matt enjoys caring for the plankton, but eventually his body begins to hurt from the hard labor. Matt notices the tanks run off to a distant channel. He asks Chacho and Fidelito if they can swim, but only Fidelito can. Fidelito, being perpetually friendly, tells Matt about how he and his grandmother used to live by the sea until a hurricane forced them into a refugee camp. His grandmother became sick in the camp and the Keepers there force-fed her. Matt wonders if all of Aztlán is so corrupt. Chacho says the country is fine, as long as one is not under the authority of the Keepers.
Fidelito’s story reveals that the Keepers do not just abuse orphans, but other vulnerable members of society such as refugees. The knowledge that the rest of Aztlán is unlike the Keepers offers hope Matt may escape from this oppressive system. Matt’s observation of the runoff channel and his questions about the rest of Aztlán suggest he is already considering his escape from the Keepers. The hurricane suggests further environmental issues within Aztlán.
Themes
Carlos pulls up in an electric cart and chastises Matt, Chacho, and Fidelito for taking a break. Matt says Fidelito is overheating and Carlos tells him to eat some salt. He informs the boys they should begin walking back now before dark. Matt asks if Fidelito can ride in the cart, but Carlos insists they all walk so as to be equal. Matt points out that Carlos is riding in the cart, but Carlos argues he has earned the right not to walk. He declares that the boys will not have dinner and rides off. Together, the boys curse the Keepers.
Matt explicitly states the hypocrisy of the Keepers’ collectivist dogma when he points out that Carlos does not walk despite saying that everyone must walk. Carlos’s comment that he has earned the right to walk references how one who suffers hardship may wish to force hardship on others. The boys’ collective cursing of the Keepers hints at future rebellion.
Themes
