Plot
Matt is a clone growing up on the Alacran estate, struggling with his realization that he is clone, whose only purpose in life is to serve as a source of fresh organs for the family patriarch and leader of the country of Opium: El Patron. As he grows up, he is treated with disgust by most of the family, because they believe he does not have a soul. The only people who care for him are his caretaker Celia, his bodyguard Tam Lin, and his only friend his age, Maria.
When Matt is 14, El Patron suffers a heart attack and Matt is taken to the hospital to have his heart transplanted to El Patron. Before the operation starts, however, Celia reveals that she had steadily been feeding him food laced with arsenic, making his organs unusable. She believes that after seven clones, El Patron has had enough lives. The family is furious, and El Patron dies. Tam Lin is instructed to kill Matt, but he instead manages to smuggle him out of the estate.
Armed with the knowledge that Tam Lin had been giving him for years, Matt escapes to Aztlan (formerly known as Mexico). He discovers it to be an extremist communist state, and he is taken to an orphanage run by hypocritical authoritarian leaders. He eventually manages to escape the orphanage and make it to the Catholic convent where Maria and her political activist mother are, his only hope. Esperanza (the mother) reveals to him that because he is an exact clone of the dead El Patron, he should be the heir to the empire of Opium, and he is instructed to go to Opium to take control.
Matt goes to Opium, where Celia and some of the servants are waiting. He is informed that El Patron had left several cases of wine to be drunk after his death. The wine was in fact poisoned, and the entire Alacran family had died after drinking it. Matt is left to take control of the empire and begin his life anew.
When Matt is 14, El Patron suffers a heart attack and Matt is taken to the hospital to have his heart transplanted to El Patron. Before the operation starts, however, Celia reveals that she had steadily been feeding him food laced with arsenic, making his organs unusable. She believes that after seven clones, El Patron has had enough lives. The family is furious, and El Patron dies. Tam Lin is instructed to kill Matt, but he instead manages to smuggle him out of the estate.
Armed with the knowledge that Tam Lin had been giving him for years, Matt escapes to Aztlan (formerly known as Mexico). He discovers it to be an extremist communist state, and he is taken to an orphanage run by hypocritical authoritarian leaders. He eventually manages to escape the orphanage and make it to the Catholic convent where Maria and her political activist mother are, his only hope. Esperanza (the mother) reveals to him that because he is an exact clone of the dead El Patron, he should be the heir to the empire of Opium, and he is instructed to go to Opium to take control.
Matt goes to Opium, where Celia and some of the servants are waiting. He is informed that El Patron had left several cases of wine to be drunk after his death. The wine was in fact poisoned, and the entire Alacran family had died after drinking it. Matt is left to take control of the empire and begin his life anew.
Questions:
1. What event forces Matt in to a brand new environment at the beginning of the novel?
2. What caused Matt to become mute, and how does he start talking again?
3. What happens to Matt to further antagonize him among the family?
4. What are Tam Lin's expeditions with Matt leading up to?
5. As the story progresses, how does the relationship between Matt and Maria evolve?
6. After what event does Matt begin to understand his actual intended purpose in life.
7. What events foreshadowed this revelation?
8. What drastic plot twist happens to completely change the setting?
9. How do Matt, Chacho, Fidelito and Ton-Ton escape the plankton factory?
10. What is revealed at the end the story that makes Matt the only logical leader of Opium?
-W
1. Matt had been forced into a new environment at the beginning of the book since he had been found by the children of the Big House. When Matt had landed on the glass, the children had carried Matt all the way to the Big House where he was treated for his glass wounds. Shortly after this, a tattoo on Matt's foot led to the discovery of him being a clone. All of a sudden Matt was deemed to be lower than a dog and was thrown into an empty wing of the Big House, left to be alone.
ReplyDelete2. Matt's experiences in the empty wing led to him becoming mute. Here, Matt was tortured by Rosa and was isolated. He had become accustomed to not using his voice for several months. When the time came for him to finally use his voice, no sound would come out and Matt had realized that he had become mute. Matt had been awoken for his muted state at a tutoring lesson. An eejit was sent over to teach Matt how to count and how to read. Since the woman was an eejit, she would constantly repeat the same things to Matt over and over again. Finally, Matt had become so frustrated with constantly counting beads and writing the same letters that he burst out in words. "Matt suddenly snapped. 'I'm not a good boy!' he screamed. 'I'm a bad clone! And I hate counting and I hate you!'" (Quote taken from Matt, on page 73)
4. On Matt's expeditions with Tam Lin, Tam Lin would teach Matt about plants, animals and survival. At first Matt had simply assumed that Tam Lin was obsessed with nature and survival. When Tam Lin had left to be with El Patron, he had left a chest full of nature books and food for Matt. At this moment Matt did not fully comprehend the purpose of this package. Later on, after El Patron had died and Matt had become hated once again, Matt understood the real purpose of the chest and his expeditions. Tam Lin had done all of these things for Matt so that when the time came, Matt would be able to escape his deathly fate in Opium and escape to a much safer place in the United States.
6. Matt discovers his true purpose in life after El Patron had had his heart attack. At Steven and Emilia's wedding, El Patron received a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. Matt was hiding in the dark passageway when he started realizing what was about to happen. With the help of Maria, Matt had realized that he was simply made so that El Patron could receive transplants and could live an extremely long life. Matt had realized that he had been used by the one he loved the most for El Patron's selfish reasons.
5. Their relationship evolves as they mature and learn to care for each other more as they age. Maria learns not to get as mad to Matt as she should and Matt learns to talk again.
ReplyDelete7. The events that foreshadowed this happening was that Matt had El Patrons name tattooed on his foot, signaling his property. He was kept a secret from El Patrons family and treated like an animal for slaughter. Later, Matt overheard El Patron talking about how his earlier transplants and how they did wonders for his health.
10. Near the end of the story, El Patron wrote in his will that he wishes everyone to drink the wine he had stored. This wine was poisoned but he told no one that. So once they all drunk the wine, they died, leaving Matt as the only heir to the empire of Opium.
2. Matt became mute when Rose started yelling at him for whatever he did at the beginning of the novel. If he tried to do anything, it somehow ended up looking wrong and he would be punished. Matt eventually came to the conclusion to stop talking and to cowering a corner whenever she was near and was demoted to acting like an animal. Even after Rosa was taken away, he found he still couldn't talk, perhaps an unconscious fear to be punished if he did, so he continued to act more human, but in silence. The moment he started talking again was when it was decided that Matt needed to be taught. Seeing as how he couldn't talk, he was given a kindergarten teacher to start at the very beginning. The only problem was that she only knew one teaching method. They did the same things for six days before Matt couldn't take it anymore and snapped, screaming at the teacher and her stupid teaching methods. He had found his voice though anger.
ReplyDelete(did not realize Maleeha had already done this so I shall post an eleventh answer and this one can be ignored if need be.)
Delete