Setting-Cameron

The novel takes place in a strip of land between the United States and Mexico. This strip of land is known as Opium. Opium is under the authority of a powerful drug lord, El Patron. The entire country is devoted to large poppy fields that become the main ingredient in the expensive drug, Opium. The novel takes place in a time that we have yet to reach, the future. The setting is implied as the future due to the presence of cloning and computer chips planted in human brains. Drug sale seems to be one of the most profitable trades. The state is filled with criminals and others who have chips planted in their brain. These people are otherwise known as “Eejits”. The Eejits harvest the opium in the fields and can only do that task until they die in the fields, as we saw with Matt’s experience with Tam Lin. Other than the summary on the back cover, Farmer hasn’t explained the setting with incredible detail but we can picture the setting through the description of large poppy fields when we first met Matt in his small home and when Tam Lin led Matt on his first picnic. We can also infer the setting using the summary of the novel on the back cover where it describes the country of Opium. The Characters in the novel up to Chapter 15 are Matt, Celia, Tam Lin, Rosa, Maria, El Patron, Tom and the Senator Mendoza. At this point, Rosa has been established as the antagonist as well as Tam Lin, El Patron, Celia and Maria as an aid to Matt. Tom serves as Matt’s foil. Tom jeered Matt from the window in the room where Matt was held in the Big House. He is almost of the opposite of Matt, he is rude and ignorant as well as brash. We know this from his interactions with Matt in his “prison” and his surprise drink he gave to the younger children. Another possibility as an antagonist could be the reality of Matt being a clone and how he must understand and cope with his differences from everyone else in the estate and the world.

The entire cast of characters has one thing in common: they live in an Opium estate. The entire cast is involved in the growing of opium, some may not be directly linked but El Patron owns the estate and all children except Matt and the Mendoza’s are part of the Alacran family who are responsible for the estate. The Mendoza’s are the children of a friend of El Patron’s, Senator Mendoza and Matt is the clone of El Patron. As of now, the feel of the novel is quite dreary and dark. A family is responsible for harvesting miles and miles of poppies into an expensive drug, Opium. The family employs criminals and anyone else they can find as robots, more or less to do their dirty work. I look forward to seeing the development of the relationship between Matt and Maria.