The Giver And Nancy Farmer's The House Of The Scorpion

Submitted By ciaragaertner
Words: 2061
Pages: 9

Stephenie Meyers once said, “Books have been thought of as windows to another world of imagination.” Reading books can open up a whole other world, that the reader can then become a part of. Fictional Disney fairy tales that children grow up with are truly stories that allow the children to imagine that they are a part of it. The conflicts brought up in these fairy tales are usually ones that are easily solved and left with a “happily ever after”. However, books like Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion, while also fictional have issues that happen in real life and don’t necessarily end with the classic”happily ever after.” There are many problems that appear in fictional books that are present in the real world. To begin, The House of the Scorpion connects to the real world through the issue of drug smuggling. In this book, the idea of smuggling drugs to make a profit is one that is clearly brought out. El Patron was a powerful man and a well-known drug dealer. He advised the United States and Mexico that they should both give him some of their land, promising that he would keep the drugs and the drug trading within the area of land that he was given. He told the United States and Mexico that he “would peddle their wares in Europe, Asia, and Africa instead” (Farmer 168-169). This drug trafficking example relates to the real world because the drug trade between Mexico and the United States is prominent today. Just as El Patron was a powerful drug dealer who was behind the trade and smuggling of drugs between Mexico and the United States, in the real world there are drug lords in Mexico and other countries that are in control of the trading and smuggling of drugs. In the United States today, the Mexican drug operations are more sophisticated than any other in America’s history. In 2005, “2.2 million kilograms of cocaine and 11.6 kilograms of marijuana were smuggled.” The Sinaloa and the Gulf cartel have been fighting for the control of the over one billion dollar drug trade (Taylor 1). Similar, to El Patron these cartels wanted to be in control of the drug trade. Recently, the “U.S. drug enforcement reports a significant increase in drug trafficking activity” (Taylor 2). In the fictional and Mexico illegal drug trade is a serious issue.. Additionally, The House of the Scorpion connects to the real world through the concern of human smuggling. As people attempt the cross the Mexican border into the United States both in the real world and in fictional writing there are specialized people who are in charge of “safely” bringing others into the United States. Celia met a coyote,a person who helps others cross the border, and paid him to take her over the Mexican border into America. The coyote instantly turned Celia into the Farm Patrol (Farmer 142). Consequently, in the real world the coyotes, who bring people over the Mexican border, are often caught by a patrol group that are set there to capture illegal immigrants. “Coyotes can get up to $5,000... coyotes even take a percentage of immigrants pay once they have arrived and found employment” (Staeger 3). The Border Patrol in the United States like the Farm Patrol in Aztlan, are in charge of apprehending anyone who is attempting to illegally cross the border. In 2002, the Border Patrol caught over 955,000 illegal immigrants which is over 79,500 people a month. 25,500 illegal immigrants were not arrested in the southwest (Staeger 1). In both The House of the Scorpion and the real world, human smuggling is an issue that is always presented. Lastly, in both The House of the Scorpion and the real world terrorism is a serious problem. Tam Lin, Matt’s body guard, was a terrorist. He “set a bomb outside the prime minister's house in London” (Farmer 176-177). Instead of Tam Lin succeeding in his original plan to blow up the prime minister’s house, “a school bus pulled up... the blast killed twenty kiddies” (Farmer 176). Tam Lin’s