Top Highlights

• The loss of María is especially devastating for Matt because she is the only one in this new environment who treated him as an equal. Though the doctor’s job is to provide care, his coldness suggests the larger indifference of the medical establishment to Matt’s suffering. Rosa and the doctor’s fear of El Patrón implies that there is something sini...
• Matt’s appreciation of nature brings him comfort and joy despite his demoralizing conditions. The disruption of the stamp of ownership on Matt’s foot is symbolic of his newfound awareness that he is a clone, and foreshadows a future disruption in Matt’s status as property.
• Rosa further dehumanizes Matt by worsening the conditions in which he must live. Her view of him as inhuman allows her to abuse him, even though he is just a small, innocent child. Her cruel treatment serves as a foil to the incredible selfless love Celia has shown for him. Matt’s desire for human interaction amidst all of this mistreatment shows h...
• Rosa constructs Matt’s environment like a chicken pen to further enforce the idea that he is an animal and not a human. Matt resists this dehumanization by displaying the human traits of imagination and playfulness, but the misery of his isolation persists.
• The doctor is indifferent to Matt’s emotional distress, showing his singular focus on his job and his view of Matt as merely a specimen, rather than a complex individual. Rosa’s classification of Matt as livestock shows how her language and actions intend to turn him into an animal. Matt’s decision to suppress his own speech represents how his own ...

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