The House of the Scorpion

by

Nancy Farmer

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The House of the Scorpion makes teaching easy.
Rosa is a servant in El Patrón’s house and the mistress of Dr. Willum. She imprisons Matt as a child and neglects and abuses him. She treats him like an animal because he is a clone. Matt fears her cruelty and her anger. As punishment for hurting him, El Patrón has her turned into an eejit. Seeing the contrast between her former violent self and her passive state as an eejit causes Matt to realize the cruelty of the scientific process which turns people into obedient machines.

Rosa Quotes in The House of the Scorpion

The The House of the Scorpion quotes below are all either spoken by Rosa or refer to Rosa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Free Will vs. Predetermination Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

Celia said the Virgin loved all kind and gentle things. She wouldn’t approve of throwing a rotten orange in Tom’s face, even if he deserved it. If She looked inside Matt, She would see the bad thoughts about Rosa and the doctor and be sad.

Related Characters: Matteo “Matt” Alacrán, Celia, Tom, Rosa, Willum / The Doctor
Related Symbols: El Virgin
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

For the first time he realized what a terrible thing it was to be an eejit. He hadn’t known any of the others before their operation. They were simply there to do boring jobs. But Rosa had been a real, though cruel and violent, person. Now she was merely a shadow with the life sucked out of her.

Related Characters: Matteo “Matt” Alacrán, Rosa
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The House of the Scorpion LitChart as a printable PDF.
The House of the Scorpion PDF

Rosa Quotes in The House of the Scorpion

The The House of the Scorpion quotes below are all either spoken by Rosa or refer to Rosa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Free Will vs. Predetermination Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

Celia said the Virgin loved all kind and gentle things. She wouldn’t approve of throwing a rotten orange in Tom’s face, even if he deserved it. If She looked inside Matt, She would see the bad thoughts about Rosa and the doctor and be sad.

Related Characters: Matteo “Matt” Alacrán, Celia, Tom, Rosa, Willum / The Doctor
Related Symbols: El Virgin
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

For the first time he realized what a terrible thing it was to be an eejit. He hadn’t known any of the others before their operation. They were simply there to do boring jobs. But Rosa had been a real, though cruel and violent, person. Now she was merely a shadow with the life sucked out of her.

Related Characters: Matteo “Matt” Alacrán, Rosa
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis: