The House of the Scorpion: Characterization

Hello everyone! Today I am going to be going over the characters in The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. I will be defining the type of character for each of them, but only go in-depth with one or two. I will also be sharing some of my initial thoughts that I had when reading the book. I hope you enjoy!

Initial Thoughts:
- So many characters were introduced in the first couple of chapters of the book! It's really confusing. (Page 7)
- I don't like any of the characters, really. The only ones that I can connect to is Maria and somewhat Celia. (Page 49)
- Tam Lin is sort of witty (Page 85)

In The House of the Scorpion we get introduced to a whole bunch of characters. Most of the characters had a purpose, but they got introduced in such a way that it's a bit confusing. It took away from the book a bit, but after reading more of the story I learned so much more about them and could connect to them.

Let's start with Matt. Matt is the protagonist of this book, and to be honest, he wasn't my favourite, at least at the start. He was a bit naive and just plain annoying. Later on though, he turned into a stronger person, and I adored that. He's defiantly dynamic and round.

Now onto El Patron. El Patron appeared to be dynamic, changing from a nice man into an evil villain, but later on we learn his true purposes, which gives us the information we need to know that he is static. Personally though, I didn't like him, even before I knew of the horrible things that he was going to use Matt for. He's very vain, which is a trait that I look down on.

Tam Lin was actually a very nice character. He isn't very dynamic, and doesn't have very much character development throughout, but he is also quite round. We learn quite a bit of his back-story, which readers can use to give them clues about the decisions that he makes. He is also a bit of a stock character. In many books that I have read, and movies that I've watched, I have seen characters like him. People that have does terrible things and have lived through terrible things, and that couldn't live with the reality. For example, Jerome, from Gattaca (see Film Study post).

Last but not least, Matt's allies that we meet in Aztlán. Chacho, Ton-Ton, and Fidelito are all very supportive of Matt. They accept him for who he is, not where he was made or whether or not he's a "zombie". I loved that. Although they were very flat, and static, they were a great addition to the story and they had a purpose.

What did you think of the characters? Comment below, and happy reading.