In terms of literary theory the thing that I am going to be talking about is characterization. Matt is the protagonist of the book, seeing that the whole story is centred around his life. Though he is a rather interesting character because, he gets a lot of angst from his fellow peers. He seems to the people who don't consider him an animal (such as Tam Lin), to be a shadow or reflection of El Patrons past. He is obviously a very round and dynamic character, as he experiences change frequently. I find the way that Farmer introduced Matt to be very good. Matt is a very kind hearted human being, who for the most part does not enjoy seeing other peoples sadness and pain.
Farmers setting also causes all the change that occurs with matt both psychologically, and physically. In the prison that he is trapped in with the vile Rosa, he undergoes physical change through the pain in his feet, and also the other conditions gained from his "nest/kingdom". However the worst is the psychological changes. He became a more quiet and depressed character (containing many thoughts and feelings), aside from the naive kind-hearted protagonist that we knew at the beginning of the story. This can be found from the quote Matt said after Celia and Maria came to the prison to rescue him. The quotation is: "They were an unwelcome intrusion in the orderly world he had created"
I agree that Matt generally does not like to see peoples pain although he does like to see Willum not happy and rightfully so seeing as Willum helped put him in animal litter. I have the same thoughts as you when you talk about how the setting makes Matt change. I found it especially noticeable when he was in the litter like you mentioned. I found the same thing in the text and change in setting.
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