en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Scorpion
1 correction found
When she finds out Matt's heart is due to replace El Patrón's, she begins to poison Matt with tiny amounts of arsenic- not enough to kill Matt, but certainly kill someone with a weaker immune system.
This leaves out an important part of Celia’s method. She first says she poisoned Matt with foxglove, and only later switched to arsenic because foxglove was too dangerous to keep using.
Full reasoning
The book’s own text gives a two-step sequence, not just arsenic from the start.
In the hospital scene, Celia says: “When you had your first heart attack, I poisoned Matt with foxglove from my garden.” She immediately adds that she couldn’t keep on giving Matt foxglove because it was too dangerous, and then explains why she turned to arsenic later.
So the article’s claim that Celia simply “begins to poison Matt with tiny amounts of arsenic” is incomplete and misleading. According to the text, Celia’s initial poison is foxglove; arsenic is the later substitute she adopts for long-term protection.
2 sources
- House Of The Scorpion
“When you had your first heart attack, I poisoned Matt with foxglove from my garden,” said Celia. “I couldn’t keep on giving Matt foxglove, though. It’s much too dangerous.”
- House Of The Scorpion
Celia then explains the later switch: “I needed something like the poison in monarch butterflies… Arsenic creeps into the whole body.”