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Examples Of Power Corrupts In The House Of The Scorpion

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The House of the Scorpion Thematic Essay In the novel The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer writes about a clone named Matt who lives in a futuristic society, and escapes the evil drug lord named El Patron. During his journey, Matt meets a young girl named Maria, who loves him and helps him escape. After he escapes, he goes to Aztlan where he meets his new friends Chacho and Fidelito. Many themes are present in this book, the most prominent of which being power corrupts. Throughout this story, she uses the actions and words of two distinctly different characters, Tom and Matt, to demonstrate the powerful theme of power corrupts. One character who often personifies this theme is Tom, the child of Felicia and Mr. MacGregor. …show more content…

Matt… P.S. Don’t tell anyone or you’ll never see him again!!!” (131). Even though Matt knows this action of his is wrong, he still makes the wrong decision. This is because, in his past experiences, everyone has forgiven him for everything simply because he was a clone. Even though he doesn't like this, it is still a form of power. A third instance in which Matt demonstrates the theme of power corrupts is when Matt says, ”One more thing… I demand a birthday kiss” (109) After the people react negatively to his request, he continues by saying, “It’s my party too… and I can have anything I want. Isn’t that so, mi patron?” (109). This sequence of dialogue shows Matt taking his power that El Patron gave to him, and choosing to abuse this authority. In this situation, Matt is corrupted by El Patron’s authority to overstep his boundaries and harm his relationship with Maria. This establishes a theme of power corrupts because the prescience of power in Matt’s life causes him to do many bad things, even though he is arguably a good person. In Matt’s case, his authority is not his, but is El Patron’s. Therefore, even this second hand influence leads to corruption, further illustrating the

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