Power and Control

Power and control are two different things that are actually related to each other. However, I think that control is the big theme for power. In the novel I read called, The House of The Scorpion, the story begins with the procedure of cloning a powerful drug lord called El Patron. During his youth, El Patron had a hard time trying to survive in harsh conditions and poverty. Out of 8 siblings, El Patron was the only one to survive and grow up. However, as he started selling and trading opium all over the world, he became rich and powerful enough to have control over people although it may be illegal and brutal. To live longer, he also cloned himself for 8 times, the main character, Matt is the 8th clone, killing the clones and using their young, healthy body whenever he needed one. Later on his book, El Patron tells Matt the reason why he must sacrifice himself for El Patron which is: he feels that he owed the lives of his siblings and ought to live longer for them but also for his own greed. Even though all these reasons seem bizarre, no one dare try to disobey him and his evil orders. All this is due to the control El Patron has over the people and the workers. He uses eejits to do all the harvesting of opium, who are not able to think but only listen to instructions. Some of the "alive" workers and body guards know that this is not right and know that El Patron's way of thinking is absolutely wrong. However, they have no right to tell El Patron what they think of him and his rules because they "owe" him. In the book, one of the body guards of El Patron tells Matt that he can't help craving for his power and that most of the body guards El Patron has gathered owe him for not sending them to jails. He knows how to gain control over people by making them feel quilty and obliged to serve him.