When Farmer decided to name the book "The House of the Scorpion" I had many ideas and thoughts as to why. For example, I thought the book was going to be in ancient Egypt, I also thought Matt was possibly going to be trapped in a house. But most of all I knew that there was supposed to be some significance, or symbolic meaning of the word scorpion.
While reading the book my thoughts had definitely changed. I amended my thoughts when I read these few lines in the 3rd chapter of the book: "On either side were orange trees, and all at once lamps went on among the leaves. Lights outlined the white walls of a vast house above, with pillars and statues and doorways going who knew where. In the centre of an arch was the carved outline of a scorpion" -Farmer. Pg.21. I looked at these lines and instantly thought this is the house of the scorpion. Unfortunately I still had no idea who or what was the scorpion, and why it had such relevance to the story.
Eventually later on in the book I started to develop a fairly good idea as to who this scorpion was. I believe the scorpion is El Patron. The reason I believe this is because of the following: "People from Durango are called alacrane- scorpions- because there are so many of them scurrying around" Pg. 57-58. El Patron also remarks to Celia: "We make a fine pair of scorpions, don't we?"- Pg. 235. There is also a part in the book where Maria remarks that the Scorpion is: "The mark of the Alacrans"- Pg. 221.
If you think about Scorpions, they are feared. No one wants to bother them or make them irritated. Mostly because they are afraid of what might happen. If you think about it, in the book everyone fears El Patron, they do not want to anger him because they are afraid of the consequences of their actions. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that all this evidence I have provided has led me to the conclusion that El Patron is the Scorpion. I now believe the title is referencing to the house of El Patron. All in all I think Farmer has done a fantastic job providing us with small evidence to uncover the meaning behind the title.
I think you could have looked a little bit deeper into why the name would have been the House of the Scorpion. However I did like how you took the challenge of talking about it, and talked about how your thoughts on it definitely changed throughout the book. You had good supporting detail. The only thing is for you to look deeper into the book! :)
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