Characterization is the most interesting literary aspect to me so far in The House of the Scorpion. Farmer has done an excellent job of developing the characters while moving the plot along. Using other characters to tell more about one specific character is strong and effective. Specifically, Tom is a foil towards Matt, they may seem totally opposite but in some ways have similar aspects. Many events throughout the book include Tom instigating fights with Matt, which then shows the reader the other side of Matt’s personality. For instance, when Matt is locked in the prison, Tom comes along and starts insulting him, Matt decides to throw a rotten orange at his face. I believe many factors led Matt to reacting this way, including being locked up, Rosa treating him worse than an animal, and Tom insulting him. I feel that Matt is unsure of himself and how he should react, he deals with this by acting before thinking.
Caring, considerate, and thoughtful would be some words to describe Matt in the first few chapters of the book. Reading further along, I discovered Matt has somewhat of a malicious behaviour when he’s provoked (such as the rotten orange incident described above). Whenever Matt causes trouble oracts unkindly, he later regrets his actions and feels sad. I can conclude that Matt is raised to have certain beliefs about the Virgin. “Celia said the Virgin loved all kind and gentle things. She wouldn’t approve of throwing a rotten orange in Tom’s face, even if he deserved it. If She looked inside Matt, She would see the bad thoughts about Rosa and the doctor and would be sad.”Although the Virgin isn’t really a character, She is integral to the storybecause she affects Matt greatly.
Another feature of characterization is the physical aspect. So far, there has been no physical description of Matt, we know that he is a clone of El Patron, but there is not a very specific description of him either. I can make some inferences that since El Patron is very old, he most likely has white hair and wrinkles. Of course Matt wouldn’t look like this because of the age difference. I can also conclude that Tom has red hair and freckles because of this passage: “It was a boy somewhat older than himself, with bristly red hair and freckles.” I’d like to find out exactly what Matt looks like to visualize him easily, but I don’t believe it would add anything to the story at this point.
I completely agree with you when you say the characters are a very interesting aspect! Despite the fact that there are a number of people mentioned in the book, Farmer finds a way to express each character when provoked (like you mentioned with Matt and Tom's fighting) and how they are as an individual (Matt and his horrible experience in the sawdust-filled room). Personally, I would not agree with Matt having a malicious behaviour. I feel that Rosa and the Doctor, mainly Rosa, abused him to such an extent that he eventually snapped. He got angry, and thus, threw the worm-infested orange. Like you described Matt, caring, thoughtful and considerate, his true personality was tainted after his youth stuck in the room. You truly have gotten the small details and words from Farmer's writing and have explained it to the average reader with beauty and pizzazz. Awesome Job!
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