When twins or triplets grow up they have the same genetic codes.

Some of these siblings grow up to be similar in personality, but others end up being total opposites. Their experiences in life differ and affect who they become. The nature versus nurture argument has been debated by sociologists for centuries. Nancy Farmers House of the Scorpion shows nurture prevailing over nature. The characters of Celia, El Patron, Matt represent this. Celia and El Patron grow up together, and Matt is El Patrons exact copy of DNA, but Celia and Matt do not become corrupt and evil like El Patron. Our environment growing up, the people we meet, the places we go, and the memories we make, determine who we are. We are more than, not just, our genetics.

Celias experiences as a child changed who she became as an adult. Celia grew up in the same poor village as El Patron; Durango. Her childhood was better than El Patrons even though they grew up together. Since she did not grow up with the loss of her siblings, Celia became a nice person. Celia is Matts mother figure and care taker. She is loving and caring of Matt, and even risks her life to sabotage Matts organs with arsenic so El Patron cannot use him for transplants. This shows her dedication for Matts well being. She became a herbologist, then a maid for El Patron, since he saved her from the border patrol and turning her into an eejit, a mindless zombie slave. Celia responds to El Patrons comparison to them as a pair of scorpions with Speak for yourself.(pg.235). She loathes him and is disgusted by him categorizing him with her. Even though El Patron led a more successful life, she lives as a good person. She became the better person of the two children from Durango.

El Patrons devastating childhood made him the despised person he grew up to be. El Patron, the original Matteo Alacran, is the antagonist of House of the Scorpion, and he is the cruellest character. After El Patron kills everyone at his funeral, Matt realizes Hed never intended to let Mr. Alacran or Steven inherit his kingdom. Their education was as hollow as Matts. None of them was meant to survive.(pg.376) El Patrons final ploy of insane greed was to keep everyone in his dragon hoard, his collection of treasures and people, by making sure nobody can inherit his country. He was the only survivor of eight children in the impoverished village of Durango. Because he watched his eight siblings die as a child, he developed a twisted sense of redemption and thought that he should get everything possible for himself, as if to make up for his siblings absence. This sense of redemption only became corrupted greed. El Patron compares himself to a cat (also hinting that Matt is his ninth clone/life) with his reason for living. You could say Im a cat with nine lives. As long as theres mice to catch, I intend to keep hunting.(pg.101) He wants to keep living to amass his treasure hoard as redemption. While talking about El Patrons past, his personal doctor threatens Matts caretaker, Rosa. Dont say that, not even to me. El Patrons rage is something you dont want to see.(pg.37) El Patron has grown to make others fear him, his power, his cruelty, and his intentions. Every event and person in El Patrons past has affected his outcome as the terribly twisted archaic man he is. As the power of the corrupt country Opium, he himself is even more devious and twisted than the country he runs.

Matts friends helped him turn into somebody else other than the cruel El Patron. Matt is El Patrons ninth clone and is the protagonist. Matt has some of the same personal traits as El patron, like a short temper and calculating brain, because they share the same DNA. On his birthday, Matts traits from El Patron really come out. He tells Maria One more thing, I demand a birthday kiss.(pg.109). Fortunately, unlike El Patron, he tries not to become angered, and remains calm, while El Patron encourages him to demonstrate his power. Matt has grown up without greed and with sympathy. He is happy with giving away possessions without consideration because Maria, his childhood crush, told him tales of Saint Francis. He is inspired by the stories of equality and adopts the nickname, Brother Wolf. His lonely thought on his fourteenth birthday party is The party went on with renewed spirit now that El Patron was gone, but no one talked to Matt. No one seemed to notice he was even there. (pg.110). He grew up being shunned by almost everyone he met. He considered El Patron his friend just because he was his clone, even though El Patron would not have given a second thought to sacrifice Matt to save his own life. Other family members, like Tom and Felicia, made sure to make living with them a pain and unpleasant. These people who despised and hated him helped Matt appreciate his childhood friends, Celia and Tam Lin, and gave him something that El Patron has never had; friendship. The people Matt met growing up helped him from becoming another El Patron.

The upbringing of all three characters has affected who each became. Celia and El Patron were both raised in the same poor village, but did not have the same tragedies in their lives. Matt was raised in the Alacran Estate but defies his genetic similarities to El Patron by

learning from his experiences. The people, location, and events all affected who each person became, just as all humans learn from their surroundings. Be careful who you surround yourself with.