#2: Setting

"The cells were frozen over a hundred years ago. They can't be as healthy as samples taken yesterday." (Farmer 3).
Reading that quote, I knew that this story would take place many years into the future. Now, why would Farmer write a story about the future? As we explore further on into the book, we can make inferences that Farmer was trying to allow readers to understand that consequences come out of everything. She writes about the possible result of our future if we don't change a few things in our world today. 
The first location that Farmer introduces is the Little House in the Poppy Fields. (5) This is explained to be a small house in the middle of a poppy field where Celia and Matt live. For Matt, he has lived in this house for his whole 6 years and has never stepped foot into the outdoors. So, when Celia leaves for work, Matt always tries to stop her and asks her to bring him. Of course, he is never successful; until one day, his curiosity must be taken out and he breaks out through a glass window.
I believe that Farmer decided to introduce the novel with this setting to show that Matt was not normal. Being confined to this little house must have meant something. Matt was different.


Alacran Estate was the second setting that was introduced.
"They started up a flight of wide, marble steps that shone softly in the darkening air. On either side were orange trees, and all at once lamps went on among the leaves. Lights outlined the while walls of a wast house above, with pillars and statues and doorways going who knew where. In the centre of an arch was the carved outline of a scorpion." (20, 21).
With this description, I knew that Steven, Emilia, Maria and Matt were heading to a large building of some sort. When I was informed that the house had a giant outline of a scorpion, I became extremely skeptical and confused. As I read on, I then knew that this building was where Steven lived. It was a mansion with maids and servants. Then I came upon the question, why was Matt taken here? Steven, being only 13, carried the boy; which meant that the little house must have not been too far away from this mansion. 


Farmer then unveils that the mansion and the little house in the poppy fields are in a country called Opium. I found it extremely clever that Farmer would write a book about a drug lord making so much money, that a country was formed in between the United States and what used to be known as Mexico. Drugs are very popular around the world right now, especially around the Mexico area. By using this kind of setting, we can tell what Farmer believes will happen to our future if we continue this obsession of drugs. 
With this information of the country Opium, it seems apparent now as to why there would be a mansion that Matt was taken to. Obviously, El Patron; who made this country, is an extremely rich man from all the money he makes from planting and growing Opium. Therefore, we can tell that the people who live in this country are either filthy rich or are working for the wealthy.