2. Plot Summary. Matteo Alacran has grown up on land belonging to El Patron, the ruler of Opium - a strip of land between the United States and what was once Mexico. His "mother" has been Celia, and until he was almost six, she was the only person he ever saw. She warned him that no one else must EVER see him. But one day, three other children, including a little girl named Maria, wander close to the little cottage where Celia and Matt live, and while Celia is at work, Matt makes friends with the children. On one of their visits, Matt crashes through a window, and once he is carried to the main house in order to fix his cuts, he realizes that something isn't quite right. At first everything is fine, but suddenly everything changes, and he is locked up and treated like an animal. One day, Matt asks El Patron's body guard when Matt's birthday is, and the body guard's response is "you were harvested." Matt was created in a test tube and grown inside a cow, and most people see him as a beast rather than a human. However, El Patron treats Matt as the special person that he is - the person who holds El Patron's life within his own body. And once Matt realizes why he has been created and what his purpose is, he begins a race to save his own life.
3. Critical Analysis. Farmer has created a story full of suspense as Matt goes on a quest to find out the truth about his existence and figure out how to stop the trajectory his life has been created to follow. The House of the Scorpion takes readers into a science fiction world of the future where humans create clones to be used for organ harvesting later. At first, Matt cannot believe that El Patron will use him this way, but it becomes evident that this is exactly what El Patron intends to do. With the help of Celia, and one of El Patron's body guards, Matt concocts a scheme to escape from Opium, a feat that is supposedly impossible to accomplish, but he does it. And at first, it seems that Matt has gone from the frying pan and into the fire when he ends up crossing the border only to be placed into child labor with other orphans.
The emotions displayed by Matt lead the reader through a range of feelings from confusion about Matt's origins, to horror as his fate is realized, into fear as he tries to escape that fate, and finally relief as Matt's perseverance, intelligence, and determination lead him and three other boys to safety. In the end the real savior of the situation turns out to be a very unlikely, and perhaps unrealistic, source in Maria's long-lost mother; Maria who was the only friend who always treated him like a human during the years Matt lived in El Patron's house. As a seeker on a quest to find the truth about his existence, Matt's journey is compelling, if sometimes unlikely. Young adults should admire his tenacity when the journey become extremely difficult, his courage when he is faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and his concern for others when he is unable to leave his young friends behind. And while the ending seriously stretches the logic of what is possible even in a futuristic world, young adult readers will be glad to find that Matt is successful in his journey to find a new life.
The House of the Scorpion won The National Book Award, and was named as both a Newbery Honor Book and a Printz Honor Book. Students who like science fiction should appreciate Farmer's story-telling.
4. Review Excerpts.
*"Farmer's novel may be futuristic, but it hits close to home, raising questions of what it means to be human, what is the value of life, and what are the responsibilities of a society. Readers will be hooked from the first page."--Publishers' Weekly, starred review
*"...Farmer has a talent for creating exciting tales in beautifully realized, unusual worlds. With undertones of vampires, Frankenstein, dragons' hoards, and killing fields, Matt's story turns out to be an inspiring tale of friendship, survival, hope, and transcendence. A must-read for SF fans."--Kirkus Reviews, pointer review
[A] solid modern classic."--U.S. News & World Report.
*"[A] remarkable coming of age story...."--Booklist, starred review.
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