Power In Nancy Farmer's The House Of The Scorpion

Friedrich Nietzsche presents several ideas on the concept of power and what humans do with it in his work “On the Doctrine of the Feeling of Power.” Such ideas can also be found interspersed into the personalities of characters in Nancy Farmer’s book The House of the Scorpion. We conceive power as a person’s ability to have others do what he wants, and Nietzsche highlights this points in various parts of his text. Having power is not bad, but people do not always use theirs for good. Finally, aspects of Nietzsche’s ideas run through each person’s individual everyday life. Power is an important part of the world and how it runs, but those who possess it do not always see it this way. Power is an extremely abstract idea. One can find many different variations of the word when asking for a definition person to person. The dictionary simply puts it as, “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others…” which is a common theme that could be found between most people’s definitions of the word. We conceive power as a person’s ability to have others listen to him, and, most importantly agree with him. Obtaining power is done through various methods.

Nietzsche’s ideas on hurting and benefiting others to control our power, our need to be correct, and the people we chose to show our power are all true. The House of the Scorpion’s cast of characters shows many ties to his ideas on power, especially the character El Patrón. His philosophy runs through the veins of our everyday lives, whether it be in hated societies or the allies of the top 1% of the world. Purposely seeking out power is not a negative characteristic if the person searching is motivated by intentions of well-doing instead of evil. Power is a complex thing that controls how we treat