69 pages • 2 hours read
The House of the Scorpion
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaPart 4, Chapters 23-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “Age 14”
Part 4, Chapter 23 Summary: “Death”
Matt is strapped to a hospital bed surrounded by machinery and guards. He struggles with his straps until a doctor comes in to run some tests. When he is freed to use the bathroom, he tries to run before the guards stop him. The doctors are baffled by the fact that Matt’s liver function is off and he is anemic, but they decide to go ahead with the transplant.
The bodyguards take Matt to El Patrón’s room, which is elaborately decorated. El Patrón invites Matt to sit down and have some cookies, calling him mi vida. When Matt refuses to speak, El Patrón shares that his clones always forget the years of good treatment at the end of their lives. El Patrón chose to give Matt the childhood he never had. In the distance, Matt believes he hears a dove calling, “no hope.” El Patrón then deviates from the usual story, arguing that he is owed the lifetimes of each of his siblings. Celia retorts that he already took thousands of lives in the form of the buried eejits. El Viejo was the only good man in the family because he accepted what God gave him and didn’t argue when it was his time to go. El Patrón calls El Viejo a fool as a doctor enters to announce that the operating room is ready.
El Patrón believes he created Matt as God created Adam, and that without him Matt would have never enjoyed the pleasures of life. Celia retorts that Matt owes him nothing. She admits that she poisoned Matt with foxglove from her garden and arsenic after El Patrón’s first heart attack, making Matt’s organs too unstable to transplant. El Patrón starts yelling in a murderous rage as the doctors rush him to the operating room. When the bodyguards take Celia away, Matt is left alone in the room. Matt waits and wonders how powerful the arsenic in his blood is, then proceeds to distract himself by imagining María. Tam Lin and Mr. Alacrán enter the room, and Mr. Alacrán tells Matt that the family no longer needs him. Matt understands that El Patrón is dead and is unable to stop himself from crying. When Mr. Alacrán commands Tam Lin to euthanize Matt, Matt argues that El Patrón educated him so he can help run Opium. Tam Lin calls Matt a poor fool—El Patrón had seven clones exactly like him who believed they would govern. Matt protests in disbelief that his friend could turn against him. Tam Lin hits him—he now works for Mr. Alacrán as a mercenary, and Celia has been turned into an eejit. When Mr. Alacrán tells Tam Lin to get rid of Matt, Matt realizes that Tam Lin led both Matt and Celia into a trap.
Part 4, Chapter 24 Summary: “A Final Good-bye”
Daft Donald holds Matt down as Tam Lin wraps him in duct tape. Tam Lin carries Matt off on a normal horse. Matt struggles with the tape, deciding that he has to wriggle his way out. When they come to a stop and Tam Lin lifts Matt down, Matt drives his head into Tam Lin’s stomach. Tam Lin swears and tells Matt to observe his surroundings first—they are at the oasis. Tam Lin unties Matt and begs Matt to let him explain. However, Matt attempts to escape and asks how he can trust a man who killed 20 children. Saddened, Tam Lin turns towards the mountain trail. Matt decides to follow and hopes that he can trust him.
When they reach the pond, Tam Lin explains that if he hadn’t found the oasis, he would have gone crazy a long time ago. He only came to work for El Patrón because he accidentally killed those children when trying to kill the prime minister, who deserved it. He was drawn to El Patrón’s power, and it was only when he met Celia that he realized the monster he was. Tam Lin reassures Matt that he hid Celia in the stables so she wouldn’t be turned into an eejit. Matt has to travel over the mountains into Aztlán, and neither Celia nor Tam Lin can accompany him. Tam Lin wishes to face the moral consequences of his actions—his time with Celia has made him realize he has to make things right while he has the chance. He hands Matt a backpack of supplies and gives Matt a cover story. Matt is to tell people that he is a refugee and his parents were arrested by Farm Patrol.
Matt is instructed to leave first thing in the morning when the majority of the Farm Patrol will attend the funeral. Tam Lin also shares that El Patrón kept Opium frozen in time so that even the TV shows are from a hundred years ago. Matt is likely to be confused by the technology in Aztlán. Panicking, Matt insists that Tam Lin come along. Tam Lin admits sadly that though they will never see each other again, Matt is the one possession El Patrón will lose. He then directs Matt to find María and Esperanza in the convent at San Luis. Tam Lin climbs back through the rock without looking back.
Part 4, Chapter 25 Summary: “The Farm Patrol”
At the oasis, Matt builds a fire and hopes the Farm Patrol doesn’t see. He ravenously eats dinner and examines the map Tam Lin gave him, which has been marked for his journey in detail. When he wakes up at dawn, he hears sounds from all around him but sees nothing but nature. While preparing breakfast and filling water bottles, he worries about Celia pretending to be an eejit. He double-checks his supplies before heading into the forest. Matt finds the trail easy until he reaches a canyon filled with bushes. He struggles to breathe as he cuts the bushes and uses his inhaler. He arrives at a giant cliff that the map directs him to climb. Matt struggles and worries he will fall to his death. However, seeing a buzzard overhead rejuvenates his willpower and he reaches the top. After throwing a rock at the vulture, Matt celebrates with cookies. He has hiked five miles and has only five more to go. Matt looks toward Aztlán, which is blocked by the mountains, before looking back at the poppy fields and the Alacrán estate. He gives himself over to grief and cries for Celia, Tam Lin, and even El Patrón.
That night, Matt camps out on the top of the cliff and sees more wildlife than ever before. The sounds of nature please him as the sounds of music did when he was lonely, taking him to a world without hatred and disappointment. Before falling asleep, he takes one last look at Opium. The next morning, Matt wakes up strong and confident. He heads down the trail after one last look at the map. When he approaches the top of the mountains, he hears a new noise that sounds like the roar of Celia’s stove. As he continues onward, the sound becomes louder until he can make out the individual sounds of grinding machinery, blasting horns, and music.
On the other side of the pass, Matt steps into a new world. Beyond the quiet hills below him stand a mass of factories, skyscrapers, roadways spiraling among the buildings, and a sea of hovercrafts. The noise startles Matt so much that he sits down to think. He realizes that what he sees before him is Aztlán, and he could never have imagined such technological advancement. He wonders how people could live in all that noise and breathe the air. As he makes his way down the hill, he spots Farm Patrol agents patrolling the border. Matt hides behind a rock until a group of men run across the border and the Farm Patrol follow. He races towards the border and hears stun guns behind him. When an agent on a horse grabs his backpack, Matt slides out of the straps and stumbles across the border into an oily black pool. Covered in black slime and without possessions, he knows he will have no difficulty convincing people he is a refugee.
Part 4, Chapters 23-25 Analysis
El Patrón reveals the reason behind his regard for Matt when he reveals that there were seven clones just like Matt who were used for transplants. El Patrón sees this as taking the lives that were taken from his brothers and sisters in their childhood. A deep sense of entitlement exists in El Patrón’s reasoning. In his own twisted perspective, he believes that giving his clones the opportunity to enjoy a life and grow up with luxuries he was never granted is a mercy on them. Comparing himself to God and Matt to Adam, El Patrón reveals that he believes himself to be divine. Through this belief he has allowed himself to become almost immortal. His disregard for the lives of his clones is evidence of the side effects of the kind of power such ethically questionable advancements can grant to people like El Patrón.
Despite such heartbreaking revelations, Matt still cares deeply for El Patrón and is unable to harden his heart towards him. Matt proves himself to be entirely different from El Patrón, as the core of his character is built upon mercy and love for others, rather than power-hungry greed and entitlement. Celia’s bravery and Tam Lin’s careful preparations, however, save Matt from the same fate as the previous clones. Tam Lin reveals that Celia’s morality impacted how he now views his life. It is due to his own moral journey, it seems, that Tam Lin insists Matt always choose the higher moral routes when faced with the choice between good and evil. In the face of his own dark mistakes, Tam Lin is adamant to make things right and accept whatever is in store for him.
Matt’s passage through the mountains and first sighting of Aztlán marks a transition to an entirely new setting and world that Matt will have to come to terms with. Matt realizes just how far removed Opium is from the rest of the advanced world, as El Patrón froze his country 100 years in the past. In this climactic moment, Matt feels free from the oppression and control of El Patrón for the first time in his life. The peace he feels in nature in contrast with the foreboding mechanical nature of Aztlán and the control of Opium suggests that the struggles Matt will face in Aztlán are no less than those he dealt with in Opium.
Unlock all 69 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Nancy Farmer
