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Chapter 5
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 wakes up to Rosa shouting at him. She takes him to a bathroom and furiously cleans him. She cuts his hair and dresses him in clean clothes. According to her, he’s about to meet the doctor and some important people, and he shouldn’t say anything about her or else she’ll kill him. Matt obeys because he still fears her. She walks him through the house. He sees the brightly painted walls and polished floors and windows which look out onto fountains and gardens.
Rosa’s threats show that she fears punishment from someone for how she has treated Matt. Her continued influence over Matt, even when he leaves the prison, shows the lasting trauma of her abuse of him. The luxurious decorations of the house contrast with the squalid conditions Matt has lived in within the same building, emphasizing the fact that his inhumane treatment is very much intentional.
Themes
Matt and Rosa stop in a big room with a luxurious carpet and a table set with tea and cookies. An aged, frail man, addressed as El Patrón, sits at the table and calls out to Matt. Celia appears in the room and tells El Patrón about Rosa and Tom’s mistreatment of Matt. Rosa denies this. El Patrón calls for the doctor.
Celia continues to show her love for Matt by advocating for him when he cannot advocate for himself, and her appeals to El Patrón suggest that the man is powerful enough to help Matt despite how old and sickly he looks.
Themes
The doctor comes and determines that Matt is malnourished and has a rash from the sawdust. Rosa says that the doctor knew about the sawdust, but the doctor denies this. Rosa attacks the doctor before two bodyguards drag her out of the room. El Patrón is amused by all the commotion. Matt decides that he likes El Patrón because the old man’s face looks instinctually familiar, somehow.
The doctor’s denial of Rosa, whom he previously appeared fond of, shows his selfish, calculating nature. El Patrón’s enjoyment of the chaos and violence of the scene suggests an underlying wicked nature despite Matt’s positive instinct about him. Matt’s automatic affinity for El Patrón suggests an inherent connection and kinship between the two characters.
Themes
This time, when El Patrón invites Matt forward, he obeys. El Patrón marvels at how young Matt looks and decides he will call Matt “mi vida”, just like Celia does. Matt still won’t speak, but Celia tells El Patrón that the boy is actually intelligent. El Patrón replies that of course Matt is smart, because he’s his clone.
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Celia and the doctor leave, and Matt and El Patrón have dinner together. El Patrón tells Matt about his childhood in the country of Aztlán, which used to be called Mexico. According to him, people from his hometown of Durango were called scorpions or alcránes. El Patrón then recounts how his siblings all died in childhood. Eventually, El Patrón falls asleep. Matt is worried he will have to go back his prison, but Celia takes him to her new apartment in the Big House.
El Patrón’s recounting of his impoverished, tragic childhood within moments of meeting Matt suggests the importance of these memories to his character. The dramatic change of environment between Rosa’s prison and Celia’s new apartment after El Patrón’s introduction to Matt suggests the old man’s power to change an individual’s life—for better or worse.
Themes
A few days later, María tries to provoke Matt into talking to her. She tells Matt that El Patrón is leaving that day, and everyone in the house needs to say goodbye. Celia comes in and snuggles Matt. She takes him to the front entrance of the house, which is flanked by white pillars and giant statues of fat, winged babies.
Matt’s continued inability to speak shows the lasting trauma of the prejudiced abuse he has experienced. The winged baby statues in front of the house suggest an obsession with or fetishization of youth, which is significant considering El Patrón’s feeble state as an elderly man.
Themes
Matt sees all of the Alacrán family and all their servants lined up outside the house. He becomes angry when he sees María holding hands with Tom. El Patrón sits in a wheelchair between his bodyguards. He invites Matt approach. He then tells the doctor to lead him around and introduce him to the entire family.
The presence of all the household suggests the intense reverence all the family and servants feel toward El Patrón—whether genuine or forced. El Patrón’s instruction for Matt to be introduced to the family implies that he wishes Matt to also be held in reverence, perhaps because he views his clone as an extension of himself.
Themes
The doctor introduces Matt to Mr. Alacrán, who was the man who threw Matt onto the lawn the first night he came to the Big House. Matt meets Felicia, a sickly woman who is Mr. Alacrán’s wife, and a very old man who is Mr. Alacrán’s father. Matt can tell that none of them are happy to meet him, but they all act politely toward him because they are afraid of El Patrón.
Mr. Alacrán’s politeness contrasts with his cruelty toward Matt when they first met, showing the domineering influence that El Patrón’s opinions have on everyone else in the Big House. El Patrón’s intimidation of the family is so strong that even Matt, a child and an outsider to this society, can perceive it.
Themes
El Patrón makes a speech to the whole family in which he says that Matt is most important person in his life and should always be treated with respect, just as they would treat El Patrón with respect. He declares Matt is to be educated and well-treated. He then asks Matt to pick one of his bodyguards to stay behind and protect him. The bodyguards are both burly, rough-looking men from Scotland because, El Patrón says, one should always pick his bodyguards from another country. Their names are Daft Donald and Tam Lin.
El Patrón appears to care deeply for Matt, as shown by his declaration that Matt is the most important person in his life and his promise to give Matt special privileges. Additionally, El Patrón’s comment about selecting bodyguards from other countries suggests the old man is involved in some form of international socio-political conflict.
Themes
Matt picks Tam Lin to be his bodyguard because he sees a hint of friendliness in his eyes. El Patrón says goodbye to him and leaves. Afterward, all the family members and servants, except for María, ignore Matt as they leave. Soon only Celia and Tam Lin are left with Matt.
The look in Tam Lin’s eyes offers hope for a friendship between the him and Matt. By contrast, the family’s indifference toward Matt proves that their respect for him is only a false display for El Patrón, implying that their reverence for the old man is performative, rather than genuine.
Themes
