Roundtable response:

• What did you think of the final section of the novel, LA VIDA NUEVA, in terms of plot?

I thought it was confusing and hard to follow, despite the normally enjoyable fast-moving plot. and it was kind of Hard to follow.

• How did Farmer develop the characters throughout the novel, and did she do a good job? How do you know?

She did a good job, except at the end where there is really no further way to develop the charecters. she developed them by explaining their thoughts, their motives, and then mentioning their reactions to events that carried a message about their responsibility.

• In terms of plot development, was the novel well crafted? Why or why not?

In general terms, the novel was well crafted as far as the plot concerned, but at the end it was almost as if the author thought: “NO! i still have all these events to write about”, and the story became condensed and frantic, and that caused me to lose the storyline. in the last 4 chapters.

Tegans 3rd Post

Tegan’s 3rd Blog Post

Article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/illegal-migration-from-mexico-falls-but-local-fears-persist.html?_r=1&ref=illegalimmigrants

At the End of chapter 14 Celia tells Matt about her past. Basically, Celia met a coyote which was a man who takes people over the border as it says on page 142. Celia was taken by the farm patrol. A real world applications that relate is illegal immigration. Celia lived on The border of Aztlan and the United states. She had lived their all her life until she had met the Coyote who tried to take her accross the borders where she was caught by farm patrol. After this she belonged to El Patron. I Think that Celia turned to the Coyote because she didn’t want to live in that same grey building the rest of her life with other workers. Celia always dreamed of going to the United States even though she knew how dangerous it was.

There is an article in the new york times about how in Mexico and Arizona the amount of illegal immigrants have decreased but now the illegal immigrants that do come over are potentially more dangerous and sometimes bring illegal substances. I think that this relates to what happened in The House Of The Scorpion because Celia illegally crossed the border to the United States and this happens quite alot in the real world.
In the article, it says that There was an expansion of border patrol of more then 21 000 agents along with survalience systems. A recent arrest was found with nearly 40 pounds of herion in his backpack. There were nearly 500 assaults on federal officers along the arizona border. It just goes to show what people would do to get into a country.

S.T. Blog post #4!

I DID NOT read the whole book yet, so what i say should be completely in the first 25 chapters.

At the beginning, I was really confused because I didn’t read the character connections thing, until about two or 3 chapters in that is, and after that, I came to the realization that... It still didn’t make sense! I am still confused about this, even after a complete rewrite of twenty five chapters, the book being well written, and having an easy to read interface, as well as trying to get people explain it to me. Although this is true, I can get both the basic, and advanced gist of the majority of the storyline The House Of The Scorpion  provided I don’t need to be somewhat familiar with the family bonds and such of the characters. This being said, i still can’t understand a few of what i have come to realize are fundamental sections and mini stories of the book, prompting me to get into a infinite loop of more confusing content later on in the book, such as why Matt hates Felicia as a result of i really don’t know what. Thats only one example out of about 20, if someone could help me with understanding this, PLEASE DO.

The part where matt is being dumped into the eejit pens, my only thought was: “what in the world prompted you people to even consider doing that?” because in my eyes at least, even if I did have the rotten-child approach of El Patron, that is NOT what i would have done, and i don’t see any reason today, or in the near future popping up to create motives for these actions (short of creating eejits, and that's not going to happen).

Remember, I still need help.

Holly's 4th Blog Entry

In chapter 23, El Patron’s motives start to unravel and truly show. In that chapter, I think that El Patron finally showed his true colours to Matt. Everyone else seemed to know El Patron, but never informed Matt. Tam Lin thought he was clever enough to figure it out. In Chapter 15, Matt describes the mansion with everyone gone. He says The house was like a stage with all the actors missing.” on page 146.The first thing that came to my mind was that El Patron is the director. He controls everything. Who people marry, what people do, and which people he owns. “Everyone had known for years that Steven and Emilia were going to get married. El Patron had decreed it. He wanted to bind the Alacrans to the powerful political machine Senator Mendoza ruled in the United States. It was simply good luck that Steven and Emilia liked each other. If they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered.” Matt says on page 204. El Patron does everthing for a certain reason. The decisoun might be for his personal desires, or it might be for the gain of his whole empire.

I am also curious about this idea of eejits. The History Of Opium, written by Esperanza in the book, states that it is an evil way to control and manipulate people. It is sick and inhumane, which I agree with. Of course it is inhumane to control people by putting a computer chip in their brain, but in this sort of situation, some might think it is the most humane option. Instead of allowing the people to deal with their own emotions and mental state, just put them to sleep. The way Matt acted when Rosa put him in a cell was how he dealt with his situation. How would the workers deal with their situation? Should they just have to deal with what they have done and what has happened like Tam Lin, Or should they be put to sleep? I think that it depends on their certain situation. The workers that slash the opium fields everyday and nothing more should be m an eejit because that job is cruel to begin with. On page 202, Matt decides he wants to run away, “Esperanza’s book had opened his eyes to the horrors of the empire El Patron had built, and he had seen for himself the low, dark dwellings of the eejits that were no better than coffins.” but he chooses to wait until after the wedding because Maira would be there. i think that this is foreshadowing of what might happen later in the book. Matt will run away with Maria, or to be with Maria. The flower girls however, was a sick idea to make into eejits. Weddings are supposed to be a happy and life filled occasions. Farmer chose well to make the flower girls eejits because it really elaborates on what kind of kingdom El Patron runs. The reason behind the eejit flower girls in the book was that normal girls would not be able to do the job correctly. This idea that normal girls unable to do a good job is quite interesting as well. Perhaps it will be elaborated or surfaced later in the book.

Holly’s 3rd Blog Post

Holly's 3rd Blog Post

At the end of chapter 14, Celia talks about her past for the first time with Matt. This story has many connections to the real world today. Celia was an illegal immigrant trying to leave Mexico to escape her poor town she grew up in. “Nothing grew there except weeds, and they were so bitter that they made the donkeys throw up. Even roaches hitchhiked to the next town. That’s how bad it was” says Celia, page 140. This may be how some illegal immigrants feel about where they came from. They desired change, and a better life, like Celia did. There is a news article on BBC News (Glasgow & West Scotland) titled “Illegal immigrants at Glasgow and Clydebank nail bars” on December 13, 2011. A nail salon had employed illegal immigrants, and could be charged a fine of £100,00 if there were no legally required checks, such as requesting for their passports, were not in fact carried out. Illegal immigrant employment exploits vulnerable workers and undercuts wages.

What I did notice about this particular article, was that nothing was said about the Vietnamese workers. Why would they choose to leave country and illegally enter West Scotland? What persuaded them to make such a rational decision? Celia’s reason was that she wanted a better and easier life in America. “We knew that under that glow was the most wonderful place. Everyone had his own house and garden. Everyone beautiful clothes and ate only the best food. And no one worked more that four hours a day. The rest of the time people flew around in hovercrafts and went to parties.” said Celia, on page 141. She desired elegance, wealth, and an easier life. This was a greedy, yet very human, desire. The grass is always greener on the other side. This may have been what the illegal immigrants in this article thought. They wanted change. They wanted to leave their life they knew behind, and start over fresh. The similarity of Celia’s story and the article is that both were caught to be punished for their actions and choices.


View the article here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16159166

S.T Blog Post #1 and #2

Post #2:

The reason I call characterization versatile is that it really embodies all the things that make a good book, not just those that relate to the character. Although information on the character such as their physical appearance, and their daily lives is a large part of what characterization is, but another large part of describing the character is the way that the the character reacts to their environment. Although this may seem trivial at first glance, the way someone reacts to their environment conveys many things about them. Most of the time, this is how an author gives the reader a good idea of what a given character in a given book is like, such as in the Harry Potter books, when Harry is battling Voldemort, you can tell that Harry’s personality allows him to be very independent. In this book, (The House Of The Scorpions) Farmer (The author) used this strategy to completely introduce all of the characters in this book (at least up to page 100) and has done an amazing job with it!

Although characterization is the best, the other writing element (setting) is close behind, and isn’t to be forgotten. The setting of a story comes in two flavors: general, and scene-specific. The general setting would be some place like a city or province, but not a building or small place. Scene-specific on the other hand, is really only used in one scene, and is a small, usually well-described place.

Post #1:

I'm wondering... not a whole lot to be honest. After this point in the novel, thereare really only two things. The first of these things is why is the book namend that's on page 21, where it's used as a logo for maids in aho"House Of The Scorpion" because there is so far only one scorpionmentioned, ausehold. This could be seen as the reference to the house they're in as"The House of The Scorpion". Maybe this will be confirmed later on in

chapters) Rosa gave him sawdust. Fromexperience (I used to have a rabbit that lived on wood chips) I don't ththe story, or maybe there's a stronger link to be introduced.  I'm also wondering why when Matt was trapped in the jail (basically the first 5 ink that the story's author meant saw dust, but my best guess is that Nancy Farmer (the author) meant wood chips, although the difference is almost impossible to notice, but that is only a small inaccuracy. Last but not least, I'm wondering why he wanted clones in the first place, and why being a clone is such a badthing. So far, it does not explain these things, as if the whole book is justone big hook, or at least it is to this point.

In the first roundtable discussion, we talked about how the Table of contents isdivided into sections based on ages. This post is based on reading pages 1-50(that’s chapter 1-5, if you wanted to know), classified as “Youth ages 1-6” inthe table of contents. I now get why this is as the story it’s self correspondsto the table of contents. This makes sense as the story, in chapters 1-5 (“Youthages 1-6”), Matt (the main character) is those ages. It makes sense, and is kinda of cool!

Tegan's 2nd Blog Post

I really like the way the characterization is organized in this book. Since the book is written in third person, you never really know what emotions Matt is going through. I wish the author had kind of gave more hints as to what Matt looks like so that I would have had a better visual in my head of him while I was reading. The author only gives little hints of each character of their personalities. The author tells us about Matt’s hatred for Tom and also shows Tom’s ignorance and rudeness. The author has also shown Matt’s affection towards Maria.
Celia is a mother figure towards Matt as she is his care giver, but not his real mother and at the beginning of the book she got mad at Matt for calling her mama. However, Celia does care alot about Matt because when Matt was in prison Celia came for him and was worried sick about him. The thing I like about Celia is that she sees Matt and treats him as an actual human being and not as an animal. I picture Matt as tall, skinny, very tan since he lives somewhere near Mexico, brown eyes and messy ear length black hair. I also picture him not wearing shoes for some reason, and I think I do just because in my mind it seems to fit with the setting.
I find that in this book you learn alot about Matt’s traits from Tom because Tom is Matt’s foil and is almost the opposite of Matt. Tom brings out Matt’s anger and gives us a bit more information about Matt. Without Tom, we wouldn’t know very much about Matt.

Holly’s 2nd Blog Post

I find that the characterization in the book interests me a lot. The way that Farmer describes each character’s actions are very interesting and intriguing. Bit by bit you are able to chisel away and discover more and more about a certain character.  The way that Tam Lin treats Matt like a regular boy whereas others wont even acknowledge him shows us that Tam Lin is kind hearted. The way he treats and talks to Matt only supports this more. he took Matt out for a picnic as soon as Matt started to talk and he told him about eejits, clones, and fun things like nature. This may have been foreshadowed when Matt chose Tam Lin as a bodyguard because he saw a hint of kindness in his eyes, and El Patron told him he made a good choice.

Also, I enjoyed how Farmer allowed the reader to learn more about Celia by telling us about Rosa through Matt’s mind. Rosa treated him like an animal by filling his cell with deep litter, not feeding him well, and not even talking to him. Rosa was a foil to Celia. Celia acted as a mother figure to Matt, and this was elaborated when she came to get Matt out and by comparing how Rosa treated him.

And of course, the way that Farmer characterizes Matt is brilliant. On page 66, “Matt wished desperately that he could get over things that fast. Whenever he was hurt or angry or sad, the feelings stuck their claws into him until they were ready to let go. Sometimes it took hours.” when Tom invaded Matt’s home, his safe haven, and tore off the ear of his teddy bear. Tom quickly apologized for teasing Matt as soon as Tam Line came in. I remember feeling the way that Farmer described when I was little. I find that more of a “human” emotion than to quickly apologize, like Tom did. Also, on page 68, Farmer describes how Matt felt satisfied when he was able to prove people cared through their reaction to something. Again, this a very human trait. I am also learning more about Matt through Tom’s actions, for he is his foil character.

Holly blog post #1 - About the setting

Thinking about the setting, I noticed the author does not bluntly tell you the location. This might drag out because Farmer wants the reader to make certain connections with today's society and characteristics with the book's. I think that because of the line “I didn’t think anybody was allowed to live in the opium fields” on page 9 of the book implies that the location is quite possibly in Mexico. To further support this theory, the names Celia, Alacran, and El Patron are all Spanish names. Also, on page 7 it says “Matt could read - both English and Spanish. In fact, he and Celia mixed the two languages together, but it didn’t matter. They understood each other.” which could be because Celia is employed by English people at “The Big House”. 


In the beginning of the book, it describes the creation of a clone. Not specifically Matt, but that may have been implied. “‘The cells were frozen over a hundred years ago. They can’t be as healthy as samples taken yesterday.’” Said by Lisa, Page 3. This implies that this technology is very advanced, and that perhaps the idea of clones had arisen hundreds of years ago. This leads me to believe that this book is set in a future setting. I think that Farmer intentionally put this at the beginning of the book to firstly, capture the reader's attention, and to set in the idea of these certain clones being unique. In chapter 4 the doctor says "You should have called me at once. It's my my job to make sure it stays healthy." which tells us he knows something that the others don't. In the family tree, it does it says El Patron's former family was unknown, and that his siblings had died young. I find this rather suspicious and very interesting. If Matt is El Patron's clone, he has the same name, and in the beginning of the book it talks about how the Matteo Alacran clones are not fixed, meaning their intelligence is left intact. Is El Patron a clone as well?



So far, this book is almost forcing you to inquire about what might be going on. For example, on page 4, it says “‘Don’t fix that one,’ said Lisa hastily catching his arm. ‘It’s a Matteo Alacran. They’re always left intact.’” which begs the question, why? What is so special about those clones? There is obviously more than one "Matteo Alacran". He is locked inside of Celia’s house, and “He had been warned by Celia never, never to show himself at the window.” meaning that he was intended to be kept hidden. This may explain why all the maids, the doctor, and the big man was so disgusted when they found out Matt was a clone, also that they expected him to be brain dead. That might have been what Lisa was referring to as “fix” in the beginning. All the people in The Big House were considering Matt as an animal, "'Don't,' said Emilia. The seriousness in her voice made the little girl pause. 'Matt's a clone. You mustn't go near it.'" Although, the doctor had second thoughts about Matt on page 43, "'It' a sullen, evil-tempered animal,' she said. The doctor sighed. 'Clones go that way in the end. I did think this one was brighter than most.'" Why would the doctor think Matt was brighter than most clones?

Tegan Blog Post #1

BLOG POST 1

Im wondering how the title fits into the story. Some title references I have found is that some of the servants at "The Big House" were wearing scorpion pendants. I wonder how Matt feels about all this because since it is in third person it doesn't really tell you about how he is feeling while all this is happening. 


Some hints of the setting i have found:
Page 6 - “He’d looked out the window where the fields of white poppies stretched all the way to the shadowy hills.”

What i get from this is that the setting is in a sunny and nice place so that the poppies would grow in such a number.
page 9- “I didn’t think anyone was allowed to live in the opium fields.”
Knowing it was around opium fields makes me believe it could be near mexico. Also the names of the foods they eat sound quite Mexican. page 11- “quesadillas and enchiladas for dinner.” it also says that matts care giver was cooking Aztlano food. Also matt speaks both english and spanish and alot of the names in this book are spanish: Pedro, Marîa, Benito, Emilia.
Page 57- El Patron rambled to matt about his youth in Aztlan which was called mexico and he came from a place called Durango. People from durango were called alacran which means scorpion.

• 
  

• One thing that struck me about this section was the way people treated Matt. Everyone was 

• so mean to him and he almost didn't even care. There were a lot of words that I had no idea  

• what they meant: Carted, rapped (different context), warren, valiantly, bleating. 

• I think that she kept matt intact because on page 4 it says that Matteo Alacran which are always intact. So basically she stopped Eduardo from 

• 
  using a needle that would lower Matt's intelligence. I kind of wonder why they would make them not as intelligent in the first place but she wanted to keep him the way he was. In the beginning chapter it suggests that there were other Matteo clones created because she said they were always left intact.