The stereotypical human. How can a person choose the technically correct answer to that? Both Vincent and Matt face discrimination throughout their lives because they are not the stereotype in their world. First, let's review Matt's trying years of imperfection. Starting out in a household of educated people believing that a clone has no soul and no place in their lives. Was it fear that decided this? Or was it just the fact that this clone was a living double of El Patron, the opium lord? Even though they banished Matt from their "normal" world, he still does all he can to be noticed, to be accepted. From piano, guitar, and the excessive amount of education he receives, he sees his potential and knows that he can accomplish. Vincent saw that in himself when he sought out his dream of being an astronaut. With a rough life starting out with the belief of being chronically ill, Vincent was supposed to be doomed to be a cleaner all his life. People like his father and Caesar taunted him saying, "Listen for God's sake, you gotta understand something, the only way that you'll see the inside of a spaceship is if you're cleaning it." and, ""What about you, your majesty? You're dreaming of space? Come here. You have to start by cleaning this space right here!" Despite these cruel ways to explain the truth to the determined Vincent, he never gave up. Taking risks was how Vincent could reach his goal. For a person to go to extreme lengths of physical and mental trauma was exasperating to watch and read. Both needed to jump into the unknown and face the horrible futuristic world that had changed to their disadvantage. Another connection that sparked me as interesting was the fact that both Matt and Vincent changed their names. For Matt, switching his last name from Alacran to Ortega was a near escape from becoming known as a clone, a zombie in page 280. This happened to Vincent a number of times, but it was more on his identity, not his name. In fact, he changed his name at the near beginning and sacrificed his own existence to become a new image. Jerome Morrow. And when you think about Jerome and Tam Lin, they both have the similarity of befriending the two protagonists. As mentioned in page 246, Matt really is afraid of losing his one true friend, the one who saved his life and then released him to carry on to freedom. Jerome, or Eugene Morrow was Vincent's friend by the bond of a shared identity. This friendship became something more than a mere acquaintances as Vincent got closer to the launching date of going to Saturn's moon Titan. Operating as one body and two minds, Jerome was able to successfully foster Vincent's fantasy of going into space. A final thing that relates both to our high-spirited protagonists is the fact of the impossible being disguised as possible.
Without a doubt, it can be clearly seen from the beginning of Farmer's writing that in Matt's childhood he did have a soul. He acted like any child would, colouring, reading books, and wanting to play with other children. Even before the discovery of the label on his foot, Maria, Emilia and Steven all thought of him as just a child that had wanted to come out and see the lively children on the other side of the glass. Matt, after believing he could never be human, Tam Lin pointed him in the right direction on page 245 and exclaimed, "No one can tell the difference between a clone and a human. That's because there isn't any difference. The idea of clones being inferior is a filthy lie." I found this to be slightly different with Vincent's journey of becoming someone else to obtain his dream. At the near end of the story, when Vincent is found out by the unexpected urine test, it is Dr. Lamar that explains to him that his son also has this dream and then allows Vincent on his flight to Titan.
As I have compared the "House of the Scorpion" and "Gattaca" together, there are much more exact details and examples to be looked into. Regardless of every fact, there is a reason for both to be so alike. A story is to be told from both angles, and in this case we have a way of seeing both the positives and negatives to cloning and genetics. Both the film Gattaca and the book Farmer has provided are a way into the future, to fix mistakes that our society might make generations after our existence.
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