Control in The House of the Scorpion

In the book The House of the Scorpion, I can see control used in many places. During the time that El Patron had been living, he had control over the state of Opium where all his control was so respected, he had turned those necessary into eejits. He had control over everyone, including the workers and his family in Opium. Everyone respected him fully, and always listened to him. On page 139, Tam Lin tells Matt of how much control he has.

“Once El Patron decides something belongs to him, he never lets it go.”

“Never?” said Matt. “

Never.”

This shows how strong El Patron has control over people. In addition, he had implanted chips into loads of people’s brains so they could only do a certain number of things, and that only. They didn’t have a brain to think for themselves, or feelings either. Whatever he told them to do, they had to follow, like robots. Also, the fact that El Patron can help save Matt from everyone else that hates him is a strong use of control. Since Matt is a clone, many others don’t view him as human. But El Patron, having all the control over everyone, made sure Matt was unharmed, and safe, until he could use him. After the story carries on, Matt starts to grow more control over the people just like El Patron

Later on in the book Matt tries to escape across the border to Alacran, when he knew why El Patron had given him so much. In Alacran, the control slipped from the state of Opium to the keepers who controlled the boys. There, Matt had lost most of his control and had to listen to the keepers. Page 280 describes Matt’s conversation with one of the keepers.

“What’s your name?” said a Keeper

“Matt Ortega,” Said Matt

“Ah. The aristocrat.”

News had spread around that Matt was an aristocrat, and the keepers had treated him even more harsh knowing he was smarter than others.