Monday, April 11, 2011

The House of the Scorpion

Celia snaps at Matt when he calls her mama. Then she says to him, "I love you more than anything in the world. Never forget that. But you were only loaned to me, mi vida." Why doesn't she explain the term loaned to Matt? Do you think that Celia was really protecting Matt by keeping him locked in her cottage and ignorant about his identity?

Emily
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3 comments:

  1. KLoveApril 14, 2011 at 9:57 AM

    I think Celia meant well, but she definitely did him a dis-service by not explaining the situation to him. It bothers me that she was aware that he would eventually be used as "spare parts" for El Patron, yet never made Matt aware of this. I feel she could have helped him, such as Tam Lin had done, to prepare for leaving Opium. She should have given him some kind of warning. If she would have been open with him as he was young, he could have had time to come to terms with his identity. Matt was an intelligent boy. It would have been nice if he could have been given some sort of explanation for why Celia kept him so isolated.

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  2. trhedstromApril 19, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    I think not allowing Matt to call her Mama was an effort by Celia to keep a distance between herself and Matt. If Celia accepted the role of Matt's mother, then she would be talking on all the responsibilities that being a mother would entail, and I don't think she was ready to accept this. I think she was in a personal dillema of caring about Matt and needing to protect herself and family.

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  3. Susan SteffenApril 28, 2011 at 9:21 AM

    I think that Celia meant well too, but I think she was very aware of her role as a servant. Her loyalty was to El Patron and her job. They had come from the same place. Although, she loved Matt, it was really different than a true maternal instinct. It seemed like more of the love that a nanny would feel.

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