Setting and Characterization

Setting in the book “House of the Scorpion”

             The setting in “The House of the Scorpion” is based in the future.  It is set in the area of Mexico but it is not called Mexico anymore.  The setting is like this because the main character, Matt, is a clone and we don’t have the technology to make clones now so if we did it would be in the future. The setting is also set in the future I think because the future has limitless possibilities and that intrigues the reader to almost believe that this could happen and might be possible.  Also the book is written as a first person narrative which intrigues the reader even more because the emotions of main character which is Matt.

             The setting is based in the location of modern day Mexico that is called Aztlan in the book.  The people in this book almost belong and are controlled by El Patron. El patron is the hierarchy in the book and has all of the power.  The setting to me almost felt like it was not in the future as I thought of it, except for the cloning and the eejits.  I felt like it was set back in time, but there was just a war so that could be a factor to why it seems that way.

Characterization in the book “House of the Scorpion”

             In this book different character were introduced at different time depending on wherever Matt went in his life.  I have to say that it is hard to keep track of all of the characters in the book because there are so many of them.  I don’t think that the actual introduction of the characters contributes the development of the story, but I think that it will be the actual development of the characters as he know them contributes more to the story.  I think that everyone in the story will change their opinion about Matt.  Most of the characters were introduced because of the few main characters.  But I think that all were introduced to get Matt (the main character) through his life. 

             The characters in this book almost belong and are controlled by El Patron.  This is because they are afraid of things that he has done probably in his past and what he is cable of doing now.  With the characters being introduced like they are there is no doubt that in the end everyone will have a different and more positive opinion about Matt than they had previously had at the beginning of the book.  I especially think this about Maria because she has mixed feelings about Matt right now and I am sure that he will do something to change that.