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Chapter 4
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
Rosa tells Matt that María has gone home and is never coming back. The doctor comes every day to check Matt’s wounds. The doctor treats Matt coldly but gets along well with Rosa. The doctor tells Rosa that El Patrón hasn’t asked about Matt in years, not because El Patrón doesn’t care, but because he has become senile in his old age. Matt can tell both Rosa and the doctor are afraid of El Patrón. Matt knows he is El Patrón’s clone, but he doesn’t understand what that means.
The loss of María is especially devastating for Matt because she is the only one in this new environment who treated him as an equal. Though the doctor’s job is to provide care, his coldness suggests the larger indifference of the medical establishment to Matt’s suffering. Rosa and the doctor’s fear of El Patrón implies that there is something sinister about this mysterious man.
Themes
Rosa and the doctor leave the room and lock the door. Outside the room’s one barred window, Matt can see a wall and a little piece of a garden. He looks out at and appreciates the small bit of sky he can see. His foot has now healed into a scar, disrupting the sentence, “Property of the Alacrán Estate.”
Matt’s appreciation of nature brings him comfort and joy despite his demoralizing conditions. The disruption of the stamp of ownership on Matt’s foot is symbolic of his newfound awareness that he is a clone, and foreshadows a future disruption in Matt’s status as property.
Themes
One day, Rosa and the doctor are arguing because the doctor is leaving to care for El Patrón. Rosa begs to come with him, but he leaves without her. Rosa screams and pulls Matt’s hair. She threatens to kill Matt if he doesn’t obey her. She takes his bed and his waste bucket away from him, so he must sleep and relieve himself on the floor. From then on, Rosa ignores him whenever she brings in food. Matt longs for the days when he at least had stuffed animals with which he could talk.
Rosa further dehumanizes Matt by worsening the conditions in which he must live. Her view of him as inhuman allows her to abuse him, even though he is just a small, innocent child. Her cruel treatment serves as a foil to the incredible selfless love Celia has shown for him. Matt’s desire for human interaction amidst all of this mistreatment shows his suffering in isolation, and refutes the misconception that he is fundamentally different from the people around him.
Themes
Matt cries as he eats the bland food Rosa brings him, missing Celia’s cooking. As days pass, Matt desperately tries to speak with Rosa, but she continues to ignore him. After the bare room begins to smell, Rosa has the idea to fill the room with sawdust like a henhouse. Matt is happy to at least have something different in his small world. He plays in the sawdust until he becomes bored.
Rosa constructs Matt’s environment like a chicken pen to further enforce the idea that he is an animal and not a human. Matt resists this dehumanization by displaying the human traits of imagination and playfulness, but the misery of his isolation persists.
Themes
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The doctor eventually returns and scolds Rosa for filling up the room with sawdust. He doesn’t care about Matt’s happiness, only his health. Rosa says the sawdust is fine because it keeps other livestock clean. The doctor agrees that Matt is healthy, but he wonders why Matt no longer speaks. Matt decides not to say anything because he worries about making Rosa or the doctor angry.
The doctor is indifferent to Matt’s emotional distress, showing his singular focus on his job and his view of Matt as merely a specimen, rather than a complex individual. Rosa’s classification of Matt as livestock shows how her language and actions intend to turn him into an animal. Matt’s decision to suppress his own speech represents how his own language and personal agency have been lost in his imprisonment.
Themes
Matt spends his boring days staring out the window and dreaming of Celia’s house. He realizes Celia has probably forgotten about him, and it becomes too painful for him to think about her anymore. He tries to entertain himself by hiding food in order to attract bugs. One day, a dove appears at the window and leaves a feather, which Matt treasures. He sings songs to himself in his head.
Matt still longs for love and connection like he experienced with Celia. The comfort Matt takes in both nature, as shown by his pet bugs, and music, as shown by his singing, highlights his attempts to appreciate beauty in order to cope with the isolation and abuse he suffers.
Themes
One day, a red-headed boy appears at the window and calls Matt ugly. Matt realizes this boy is the evil little boy of the Big House known as Tom. Tom tells Matt to do something interesting so he can report it back to María. Matt flinches when he remembers María. Tom calls Matt a stupid clone who’s too dumb to talk. Matt throws a worm-infested orange at Tom’s face, and Tom runs away.
Tom demonstrates his characteristic cruelty that Celia warned Matt about, which is particularly mean-spirited considering Matt is completely powerless. Matt fighting back against Tom shows how, despite the extreme abuse he has suffered and the lack of control he has over his own life, he is still able to use his free will to defend himself. This also shows that he has the capacity to hurt others, just as they hurt him.
Themes
Matt feels at peace again, alone in his little world. He has hidden pieces of food in the sawdust to use as toys. He fantasizes about imprisoning Rosa and the doctor. Matt holds the dove feather and remembers how Celia said that the Virgin loved gentle things like this. He realizes the Virgin wouldn’t like that he thinks dark thoughts about Rosa and the doctor, or that he threw a rotten orange at Tom.
Matt worries about his immoral actions or thoughts show his internal struggle to be kind, as Celia taught him to be, in the face of abuse and cruelty from people like Rosa and Tom. The Virgin represents Matt’s capacity for good, as he struggles with his own conscience to make sense of what is right and what is wrong.
Themes
Tom comes back to the window with a peashooter and shoots at Matt’s bare skin. Matt runs around and cowers in the corner until Tom gets bored and leaves. When Matt looks up, he realizes his sawdust kingdom is all messed up. He begins to rearrange the sawdust. When he looks up, Celia and María are at the window. Celia sticks her hands through the window and begs him to come and talk to her. But Matt believe if he moves, his dreams of seeing Celia and María will turn into a nightmare. Celia cries, but María assures her that Matt is just traumatized and will get over it soon.
The depth of Rosa and the doctor’s abuse is shown by Matt’s continued fear, even when something positive happens to him, like seeing Celia and María. María shows her emotional intelligence despite her youth and innocence by advising Celia when she is upset. Celia and María’s continued concern for Matt shows that their love withstands the separation forced upon him by Rosa and the Alacrán family. Their kind treatment serves as a positive example for Matt that starkly contrasts the inhumane abuse to which he has been subjected.
Themes
Celia tells María that there’s only one person who can save Matt. Celia will give María a letter to take to her father. Celia assures Matt that she’ll save him now that she knows where he is. After Celia and María leave, Matt is grateful to be left alone again in his sawdust kingdom.
Celia’s plan to save Matt hints at her ability to manipulate the larger power system in her society in order to protect her loved one. Matt’s happiness to be alone shows how he has embraced his isolation as a means of coping despite his deep-rooted desire for closeness with others.
Themes
