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 and Tam Lin ride a horse, just like the bandidos in the cowboy TV shows Matt likes to watch. Matt talks excitedly about all the nature he sees as he and Tam Lin ride through the poppy fields around the Big House. The poppy flowers are as tall as the belly of the horse and then the petals fall away to reveal seedpods. Matt sees the Farm laborers slashing the pods with knives. Tam Lin explains that the laborers do this to release the opium.
Matt’s love of cowboy television shows demonstrate his childish innocence and his desire for exploration beyond the confines of his isolation. Tam Lin’s explanation of the Farm laborers releasing opium shows his desire to help Matt understand the larger context of the society into which Matt has been born. Whereas others have only been interested in keeping Matt captive and ignorant, Tam Lin clearly wants to open the young boy’s mind and encourage him to think for himself.
Themes
Matt sees that the laborers don’t speak or wipe away sweat from their faces. Matt spots a man lying on the ground. Tam Lin inspects the man, then keeps riding away with Matt. Matt begs Tam Lin to go back and help the man until Tam Lin shouts at him and explains that the man died either from the heat or dehydration.
The laborers inability to swipe the sweat from their faces and the man’s death from heat or dehydration suggests that for some reason, these individuals are unable to act in their own interest.
Themes
Tam Lin and Matt come to a range of hills and stop underneath a cliff. The horse doesn’t drink water until Tam Lin orders it too. Tam Lin tells Matt that it’s a Safe Horse, meaning it will neither leave the Farm nor do any action unless told to.
Tam Lin’s explanation of the Safe Horse shows that this animal cannot act in its own interest, relating the animal to the laborers Matt observed in the previous scene. The lack of agency these people and animals have over themselves suggests that Matt is far from the only member of this society who is thoroughly and inhumanely controlled.
Themes
Tam Lin and Matt walk up the hills alone. They climb a boulder and find an oasis with a pond and trees. Tam Lin explains that no one else knows about the oasis and Matt must keep it a secret. Tam Lin says he wants to teach Matt important information, because he’s a clone and has no parents to tell him such things.
The natural landscape of the oasis contrast with the artificial nature of the manmade poppy fields. Tam Lin’s shared secret with Matt suggests that both characters are beginning to diverge from the rest of their society.
Themes
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Matt asks if he is a machine. Tam Lin explains that scientists took a piece of El Patrón’s skin and grew it into an exact copy of the old man. Matt is this copy. Thus, according to Tam Lin, Matt is like a photograph. He tells Matt that because he is a clone and therefore different, many people will hate him. But some people, like María and Celia, will still love him.
As an outsider (being a foreigner from Scotland), Tam Lin is able to be honest with Matt unlike anyone else in his life. His words encourage Matt to prioritize genuine relationships, like Celia and María’s love, over shallow societal approval.
Themes
Tam Lin says no human teachers will consent to teaching a clone, so El Patrón assigned an eejit to Matt. An eejit, Tam Lin explains, is someone who has a computer chip implanted in their head, making it so they can only perform simple tasks. Matt realizes the Farm laborers are all eejits. Tam Lin explains that the Farm’s overseer forgot the man in the field, causing the laborer to work until he died.
Tam Lin and Matt spend the rest of the day exploring the environment. Tam Lin teaches how to identify different parts of nature. They leave through the now empty fields. Matt realizes that Teacher is, in fact, an eejit.
Tam Lin’s expansion of Matt’s knowledge in the freedom of nature contrasts with the Teacher’s limited lessons, and suggests that Matt (unlike other subjugated members of society) still has the capacity to choose between what has been predestined for him, and what he truly desires. Matt’s newfound understanding of the eejits contrasts with how he used the term as an insult before Tam Lin expanded his perspective—the eejits are not inherently bad or stupid, they have been unjustly robbed of their ability to think and act for themselves.
Themes
