Dystopic Vision in The House of the Scorpion

Abstract

Nancy Farmer depicts dystopic vision induced by a clone in The House of the Scorpion. There, her story is about a human clone. A clone is made, not naturally born. Thus the novelist differentiates human beings and a clone in modern genetic age. In Farmer’s novel, Matt is a clone created by a physician. His brain is not blunted, because he is made to implant body parts to his creator. Being a clone, he is ill-treated all the time by human beings. Gradually, he struggles for his identity, place and right. Then, he succeeds to meet his ends, and leaves his creator. From this grand story, Farmer presents possible difficulties of human clone in post-human society. A clone invites various difficulties: same appearance and activities, an incestuous relationship, immortal human, act of selling clones as commodities, the disrespect of original humans, and so forth that Farmer exemplifies in this novel. In such situation, the whole scenario of this novel de-valorizes the new experiment of human cloning by medical scientists. Moreover, we don’t know the future world after creating clones. Thus, Farmer makes us watch the hazardous sides of post-human societies.