Holes (novel)

Stanley's Latvian great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, is in love with Myra, the most beautiful girl in the village. However, he faces competition from the local pig farmer Igor Barkov, who is offering Myra's father Morris his fattest pig in exchange for her hand in marriage. Elya goes to his friend Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian fortune teller with a missing foot, for help. Despite not approving of Myra as a partner for Elya due to her lack of intelligence, Zeroni takes pity on Elya and gives him a tiny piglet, instructing him to carry it up a mountain every day and let it drink from a stream while singing a special song to it. Each time, the pig will grow bigger. Zeroni says that in return, Elya must then carry her up the mountain and sing to her. She warns him that if he does not do this, his family will be cursed, and it is a curse that can only be broken if one of his descendants carries one of her descendants up a mountain, let that descendant drink from a stream, and sing to that descendant.

Elya follows her directions and the pig grows to be just as large as Igor's. However, after realizing Madame Zeroni was right about Myra's lack of intelligence when she's unable to choose between him or Igor, Elya leaves in disgust and decides to move to America, but forgets his promise to Zeroni. Though he falls in love with and marries the kind and intelligent Sarah Miller, he becomes beset by bad luck. Elya tells Sarah about the curse and tells her to leave him. Sarah refuses to leave Elya and the song that he sang to the pig becomes a lullaby that is passed down among his descendants.

In the year 1888, the town of Green Lake is a flourishing lakeside community. Katherine Barlow, the white local schoolteacher, falls in love with Sam, an African-American onion farmer, while rejecting advances from the wealthy Charles "Trout" Walker. There is an uproar in the town after Katherine and Sam are seen kissing. Seeing a dangerous mob gather, Katherine finds Sam and they attempt to escape across the lake in Sam's rowboat, but Walker and the mob intercept them with Walker's motorboat. Sam is shot dead, while Katherine is "rescued" against her wishes. From then on, rain stops falling upon Green Lake.

Three days later, Katherine kills the town sheriff as revenge for his refusal to help. She then becomes a prominent outlaw called "Kissin' Kate Barlow", nicknamed so for her calling card of leaving a red lipstick kiss on the cheeks of the men she kills. For the next twenty years, she robs multiple banks across the state of Texas. Among her victims is Stanley's great-grandfather, who she leaves stranded in the desert; he survives after finding refuge on "God's thumb". She returns to the ruins of Green Lake and is found by a now-destitute Trout Walker and his wife Linda, one of Katherine's former students who married Trout for his money. They try to force her to reveal where she buried the money she'd stolen, but she refuses, telling them they and their descendants can spend the rest of their lives digging in the desert and never find her loot. She is then bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. As she succumbs to its venom, Katherine laughs and tells them to start digging for her lipstick, because finding the lipstick is the only way to break Green Lake's curse.

The Warden allows the inmates the rest of their day off if they find anything "interesting". Stanley begins to suspect the Warden is looking for something. During one dig, he finds one of Barlow's lipstick tubes. He gives it to X-Ray, the ringleader of his group, who pretends to find it the next day. The Warden is excited by the discovery and orders them to enlarge X-Ray's hole. Stanley later befriends Zero, a camper who quietly keeps to himself, and teaches Zero to read in return for Zero digging part of Stanley's holes. This leads to an argument with the other inmates, and then the staff. Zero then flees. The camp staff decide to erase their records of Zero, whose full name is Hector Zeroni, and let him die in the desert.

A few days later, Stanley escapes the camp to look for Hector and finds him taking refuge under the remains of Sam's boat, subsisting on preserved jars of Kate Barlow's spiced peaches, which he calls "Sploosh". Hector refuses to go back to the camp. Stanley then notices a mountain in the distance that resembles a thumbs up sign, and recalls his great-grandfather claimed to find "refuge on God's thumb" after being stranded in the desert by Kate Barlow. They journey across the desert and up the mountain, where they discover a field of onions that was once Sam's. The boys eat the onions and find water by digging in the ground, and Stanley sings Madame Zeroni's song to Hector, breaking the family curse. Hector then reveals that he was the one who stole Clyde Livingston's shoes. Wondering if their meeting was destiny, Stanley asks Hector if he wants to help him dig one last hole.

They return to camp and dig in the hole where Stanley first found the lipstick tube, unearthing a suitcase and venomous lizards. The Warden and the staff appear and demand they hand it over, but retreat because of the lizards, which are passive to Stanley and Hector due to the onions they consumed. The Warden is revealed to be Trout Walker's granddaughter and she's been using the camp and the inmates to find Kate Barlow's stolen treasure. Stanley's attorney appears at the camp, explaining that Stanley has been exonerated. Hector reveals the suitcase belongs to the Yelnats family, stopping the Warden from taking it. Fearing that the Warden will kill Hector if they leave him behind, Stanley refuses to leave unless Hector can come along. The attorney asks for Hector's file, but the camp staff are naturally unable to find it, so Hector is also released. Stanley and Hector then say goodbye to the other campers, and as they drive away, the drought in Green Lake comes to an end.

The suitcase contains financial documents that are worth close to two million dollars, which is split evenly between Stanley and Hector. Stanley's family buys a new house and Hector hires a team of investigators to find his missing mother. Stanley's father also makes further money by inventing an antidote to foot odor, made from peaches and onions, and named "Sploosh", which is endorsed by Clyde Livingston. Meanwhile, Camp Green Lake is closed and sold to become a Girl Scouts' camp.

• Stanley Yelnats IV (also known as "Caveman" by the rest of the campers, but referred to in the book by his proper name): Stanley is a 14-year-old boy who does not have any friends from school and is often picked on by his classmates and the school "bully." Stanley's family is cursed with bad luck, and although they do not have much money, they always try to remain hopeful and look on the bright side of things. Stanley shares these traits with his family and, although he does not have a lot of self-confidence, he is not easily depressed, a characteristic that helps him adjust to the horrendous conditions of Camp Green Lake. However, he has a bad habit of blaming his great great grandfather when he gets in trouble. This habit made him impudent.[2] As the book progresses, Stanley slowly gains strength. He identifies the people who threaten him, like the Warden, and while he tries not to get in trouble he also stands up for himself and his friends and family. Stanley rebels for the rights of his friends when he steals Mr. Sir's truck to look for his friend Zero in the dry lake bed.[3]
• Zero (Hector Zeroni): Zero is known to be the best digger at Camp Green Lake. So often, he is considered to be "stupid" or a mere nothing by the other boys and the counselors alike. He lacks an education, meaning he cannot really read or write. However, he is smart and manages to stand for himself in the face of adversity, breaking Mr. Pendanski's nose with a shovel after one too many snide remarks. Typically he is noted as the character that hardly speaks due to the fact that he is wary of those who mock him. He is said to always have a scowl on his face and does not like to answer questions. Zero is shown to be an honest character after becoming close friends with Stanley. Zero is the one who stole the shoes that Stanley was arrested for and accused of stealing. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni, the woman who put a curse on Stanley's family. He has been homeless for most of his life, as well as being abandoned by his mother at a very young age. Although he suffers quite a bit, he always seems to persevere and come out on top.
• X-Ray (Rex Washburn): X-Ray is the unofficial head of the boys in Group D. X-Ray decides that Stanley will be called Caveman and fixes the order of the line for water. X-Ray maintains his position as the leader of the boys even though he is one of the smallest and can barely see without his glasses. He convinces Stanley to give him the lipstick tube that Stanley finds in his hole so that he can have the day off instead of Stanley. X-Ray is able to maintain his position at the head of the group through a system of rewards and allies. Every time that Stanley does something nice for X-Ray, X-Ray is nice to Stanley and stands up for him when the other boys pick on him. When Stanley becomes friends with Zero, however, X-Ray's system is threatened and he becomes hostile towards Stanley. His nickname X-ray comes from it being pig Latin of his actual name, Rex.
• Squid (Alan): Squid is a member of Group D at Camp Green Lake. He is often the one for taunting Stanley for sending and receiving letters to his mother. Just like X-Ray, Squid is very tough but very subservient to X-Ray's rules and directions. However, he does have a sensitive side to him, as Stanley wakes to hear him crying one night, and Alan asks Stanley to write to his (Alan's) mother when Stanley leaves Camp Green Lake.
• Magnet (José): Another member of Group D. Magnet earned his nickname because of his ability to steal, he got into Camp Green Lake for stealing animals from the zoo and refers to his fingers as "little magnets".
• Armpit (Theodore Johnson): One of X-Ray's close friends at camp, he pushes Stanley when Stanley calls him Theodore. His nickname Armpit is due to him being stung by a scorpion at camp and the venom traveling up into his armpit, causing him to complain about his armpit hurting.
• ZigZag (Ricky): Zigzag is described as being the tallest kid of Group D, constantly looking like he has been electrocuted, with frizzy hair. Stanley often thinks he is the weirdest and craziest kid at Camp Green Lake. Zigzag is the one who hit Stanley on the head with a shovel and did not apologize for doing so. Zigzag suffers from paranoia, highlighting his displayed "craziness".
• Twitch (Brian): A car thief who arrives at camp after Stanley.
• The Warden (Ms. Walker): Running Camp Green Lake, she is known to be violent, abusive, and quite rude. She uses her power and privilege to get what she wants and make members of the camp do as she pleases. She has hidden cameras, using them to spy on the members of the camp. She is often thought to have hidden cameras in the showers, causing Stanley to be paranoid whenever he takes a shower, rushing out as fast as possible. She wears nail polish traced with rattlesnake venom, and scratches those who displease or go against what she says. She has the members of Camp Green Lake digging holes to look for Kate Barlow's hidden treasure. She is the granddaughter of Charles "Trout" Walker. Her family had been digging the treasure out since her birth, but to no success.
• Mr. Sir (Marion Seville): One of the counselors at Camp Green Lake, he is constantly eating sunflower seeds. He took up this habit after deciding to quit smoking. He is known to be rude and tough.
• Mr. Pendanski: In Group D at Camp Green Lake Mr. Pendanski is in charge. Mr. Pendanski may seem friendly, but he is just as mean as the Warden and Mr. Sir. He never stops making fun of Zero ever since he has been at the camp, which comes back to bite him when the boy cracks him in the face with a shovel.

• Katherine Barlow (Kissin' Kate Barlow): Katherine Barlow is a sweet and intelligent woman who teaches in a one-room school house on Green Lake one hundred and ten years before Stanley arrives at Camp Green Lake. She falls in love with Sam, a man who sells onions in the town. Although the rest of the white people in the town are racist and enforce rules that prohibit black people from going to school, Kate, who is white, does not care about the color of a person's skin and she loves Sam for the person that he is. When Kate and Sam kiss, the angry townsfolk kill Sam and destroy her beloved schoolhouse. Kate is devastated by Sam's death and becomes Kissin' Kate Barlow, one of the most feared outlaws in the West. She always leaves her mark by kissing someone when she finishes killing them; if she had only robbed them, she would leave them in the hot desert. She is the outlaw responsible for robbing Stanley Yelnats I (Stanley's ancestor). Kate dies when a yellow-spotted lizard bites her foot, but dies laughing because the Walker family will never find her treasure. The lipstick tube that Stanley finds during his second week at Camp Green Lake was owned by Kate Barlow.
• Sam: Sam is an African-American farmer in the town Green Lake, Texas who grows onions. He believes onions are the cure to everything and makes many remedies from onions. He also has an immense love for his donkey, Mary Lou. His relationship with Kate begins when he exchanges his onions for some jars of peaches. He is murdered in cold blood by Charles "Trout" Walker.
• Charles "Trout" Walker: Charles "Trout" Walker is an extremely spoiled son of a rich family in Green Lake. He gets upset when Kate denies his request to date her. This adds on to the reason of causing him to lead the townspeople to burn down the schoolhouse and kill Sam. His nickname Trout comes from his foot fungus that causes his feet to smell like dead fish. After Kate leaves to become an outlaw, he marries Linda Miller but his family loses everything after the lake dries up. He is The Warden's grandfather, who upon his death, opens up the juvenile detention camp to increase the efficiency of finding Kate Barlow's hidden treasure.
• Stanley Yelnats I: Stanley Yelnats I is the son of Elya Yelnats as well as the great-grandfather of Stanley Yelnats IV. He was the one whose treasure was stolen by Kate Barlow while he was moving from New York to California. He is known to have survived by climbing to the top of a thumb-shaped mountain (God's Thumb) which happens to be Sam's old onion field.

• Elya Yelnats: Elya is the great-great-grandfather of Stanley. He is often referred to as his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather", constantly being blamed for everything that goes wrong in Stanley's life. He is considered to be the reason why the Yelnats family has such bad luck. After he fell in love with the woman in Latvia, he travels to America, forgetting to go through with the promise he made to an old woman named Madame Zeroni. This causes generations of bad luck to trickle down the Yelnats family tree. However, he does pass down an important song that Madame Zeroni taught him in Latvia.
• Madame Zeroni: Madame Zeroni is the great-great-great-grandmother of Hector Zeroni (Zero). She is great friends with Elya Yelnats, and she gives him a pig. Because Elya breaks his promise of carrying her to the top of the mountain, she is considered to be the one who put a "curse" on the Yelnats family.
• Myra Menke: Myra is the most beautiful girl in the Latvian village of Elya and Madame Zeroni. Madame Zeroni compares her to a flowerpot. Myra's father promised to award her hand in marriage to whichever suitor can raise the fattest pig. When the pigs were the same size, Myra asked Elya and Igor Barkov to guess a number between 1 and 10, showing her inability to make her own decisions.
• Igor Barkov: Igor was Elya's competitor for the hand of Myra Menke. He was already old and fat, but was a successful pig farmer.

• Mr. Yelnats (Stanley Yelnats III): Mr. Yelnats is Stanley's father. He is an inventor and quite smart, but extremely unlucky. He attempts to discover a way to recycle old sneakers and because of this, the Yelnats' apartment smells bad. However, he eventually discovers a cure to ridding foot odor and is able to hire a lawyer, Ms. Morengo, to get Stanley out of Camp Green Lake.
• Mrs. Yelnats: Mrs. Yelnats is Stanley's mother. She does not believe in curses but always points out the terrible luck that the Yelnats have.
• Barf Bag (Louis): An inmate who left Camp Green Lake before Stanley arrived. He deliberately got a rattlesnake to bite him in order to be hospitalized.

The themes typical of a folk or fairy tale are present throughout the novel, notable in both Stanley and Elya's narratives.[5][6] Elya must go on an adventure to win his love's approval and prove his own worth and he is eventually placed under a witch's curse. Stanley's bad luck is blamed on the curse left on his great-great-grandfather and the Yelnats family easily believes in the power of this curse.[5] Both Stanley and Elya are similar to fairy tale characters and are morally good, heroic protagonists who must overcome the challenges predestined for them.[6] Both story lines are accompanied by a magic that is seen in the mountain stream, Madame Zeroni's song, and the healing power of the onions. Each of these elements in Holes mirror elements frequently found in fairy tales.[5]

Throughout the novel, names act as a theme that allows the characters to disassociate their lives at Camp Green Lake from their lives back in the real world. Names also demonstrate irony—Camp Green Lake is not actually a camp, it's located in a desert, and there is no lake. The "campers" all label themselves differently and identify with names such as Armpit and X-Ray and the guards are referred to as counselors. One of the counselors is referred to by the boys as "Mom", representing the absent parents at Camp Green Lake.[7] Only the woman in charge is referred to in a prison-like way and is called "Warden". The different names allow the boys to bond and form a team based in their hatred for their work and the counselors.[8] Many of the characters also have names that connect them to their family history, like the passing down of "Stanley Yelnats" and Zero's last name of Zeroni, and remind them how the actions of their ancestors affect their modern-day lives.[6] Stanley is the fourth "Stanley Yelnats" in his family, a name that is passed down due to its palindromic nature and adds to the connection to family history.[6]

Labor is seen throughout the novel as the children are forced to dig holes while at Camp Green Lake. This theme is unusual in children's literature as many authors portray children as carefree and without responsibility.[9] If they do engage in work, it is synonymous with play. Critic Maria Nikolajeva contends that Holes is set apart through the not just manual, but forced labor Stanley and the other campers do daily.[9] This is first referenced at the beginning of the book when the purpose of the camp is stated: "If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy".[10]

As Louis Sachar states: "Should you ever find yourself at Camp Green Lake—or somewhere similar—this is the guide for you." Written from Stanley's point of view, the book offers advice on everything from scorpions, rattlesnakes, yellow-spotted lizards, etc.[19]

In this sequel to Holes, former inmate Armpit is now 17 and struggling with the challenges facing an African American teenager with a criminal history. A new friendship with Ginny, who has cerebral palsy, a reunion with former friend X-Ray, a ticket-scalping scheme, a beautiful pop singer, and a frame-up all test Armpit’s resolve to "Just take small steps and keep moving forward".[20]