Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why did El Patrón save Matt's brain in the first place?
- If you watch the news you might see some of the issues featured in Farmer's book. Did The House of the Scorpion give you a new way to look at any of these issues? Did it change the way you think about cloning, for example? If so, how?
- Farmer's vision of the future is pretty dark. Do you think the future Farmer depicts is possible, even likely? Why or why not? What are some of your predictions for the future?
- We get the novel from Matt's perspective, so we don't hear conversations between other characters that happen outside of Matt's hearing. Try writing a conversation between two characters that we didn't get to hear in the novel, like, say, the reunion between María and her mother. What do they say?
- Based on the clues we get in the novel, when, specifically, do you think the novel takes place?
- If you had to pick a place to live, would you choose Opium or Aztlán? What do you think about the overall living conditions and the governments in those places? How are they similar? Different?
- If you were casting a movie version of House of the Scorpion, who would you cast in what role? and why?
- Matt seems to appreciate Tam Lin's book recommendations for him. What books would you recommend for Matt, and why?
- How is Matt similar to other heroic characters, like Harry Potter? How is he different?