The House of the Scorpion Compassion and Forgiveness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Why shouldn't María be his girlfriend? Why should he be different from everyone else because he was a clone? (11.78)

Matt the clone is just looking for some love. We can't blame him for that. But we can blame him for his treatment of María at the birthday party. It's a moment of weakness from an otherwise nice guy.

Quote #5

Matt held his tongue. He wanted to say that he hadn't poisoned Furball and didn't need forgiveness, but he didn't want to spoil María's mood. (16.21)

Way to take the high road, Matt. We were not big fans of María in this scene. Though we ordinarily like her, her dismissal of Matt means deep down, she still thinks of him as not quite human. And that's not quite cool, María.

Quote #6

"You aren't evil, only [...]"

"Only what?"

"You don't have a soul, so you can't be baptized. All animals are like that." (16.35-37)

Yikes. We cringe. As a young girl, María still can't quite rise above all those prejudices that the world has taught her. This must have been hard for Matt to hear, but he's a forgiving guy, so we're betting he'll get over it.