HOLES BY LOUIS SACHER

CONFLICT

Protagonist

The protagonist is Stanley, around whose ordeals the story centers. Holes is about how he overcomes his problems, both those created inside of him and the ones imposed upon him at Camp Green Lake. He grows stronger, physically and emotionally, and emerges a happy, confident young man.

Antagonist

The antagonist is not an individual person, but the severe conditions and people at Camp Green Lake. Stanley struggles at first to survive then eventually to prevail over the injustice there. Ultimately, he fulfills his destiny and breaks the family curse through his friendship with Zero and their experiences together at Camp Green Lake.

Climax

When the other boys see that Zero is digging part of StanleyÂ’s holes the stress level increases. The resulting fight causes Zero to run away and forces Stanley to take a stand. The climax occurs when Stanley attempts to steal the water truck and ends up running away to find Zero.

Outcome

Stanley finds Zero and their friendship is proven as they survive together on “God’s thumb”. They return to Camp Green Lake intent on finding Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s treasure and escaping. There the friendship endures one last test as Stanley refuses to leave Camp Green Lake without Zero.

SHORT PLOT/CHAPTER SUMMARY (Synopsis)

Camp Green Lake is a boysÂ’ juvenile detention center in Texas. There is no lake there. The boys spend each day digging five-foot holes in the dried up lakebed. Stanley Yelnats, a boy who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, is sent there for stealing a pair of used sneakers that had belonged to a famous baseball player. The sneakers had actually fallen from an overpass and landed on top of StanleyÂ’s head. Stanley believes his bad luck is because of a curse placed on his family after his great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, stole a pig from a gypsy, Madame Zeroni.

When Elya Yelnats was fifteen he was in love with an empty headed girl. Madame Zeroni gave Elya a piglet to raise so that he could win the girl’s hand by gifting her father with a fatted pig. In return, Elya promised to carry Madame Zeroni up a mountain to drink “where the water runs uphill”. When the girl chooses not to marry Elya, he is so distraught that he catches a boat to America, forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni. The Yelnats family has had bad luck ever since.

At Camp Green Lake Stanley is given the nickname “Caveman”, indicating that for the first time in his life, Stanley has some acceptance from a peer group. He grows stronger and tougher as he battles the harsh conditions at the camp, digging in the desert heat. He befriends a boy called Zero by agreeing to teach him how to read in exchange for help digging. This upsets the other boys and causes a fight. In the aftermath, Zero hits a counselor with a shovel and runs away into the desert. It is presumed that Zero will die out there and no one will care. His records are destroyed.

Deciding to help his friend, Stanley attempts to steal a water truck and go out after Zero. He drives the truck into a hole, gets out of the truck and runs away. He heads out across the desert toward a rock formation that looks like “God’s thumb,” the place where his grandfather, the first Stanley Yelnats, survived after being robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow.

One hundred ten years before, Green Lake was a beautiful place where Katherine Barlow taught school. She fell in love with Sam, the onion man, who sold onions as food and medicine in the town. Sam fixed up the schoolhouse for Katherine in exchange for jars of her famous spiced peaches. Because Sam was black and Katherine was white, when they were seen kissing, the townspeople were outraged. A stupid, arrogant man, Trout Walker, lead a riot and burned down the schoolhouse, then killed Sam. Grief stricken, Katherine became the outlaw, KissinÂ’ Kate Barlow. On the day Sam was killed, rain stopped falling on Green Lake forever. Years later, Trout Walker and his wife tried to force Kate to tell them where in the dried up lakebed she had buried her treasure. Kate refused and died from being bitten by the fatal yellow-spotted lizard before any treasure was found.

The Warden at Camp Green Lake is a descendant of Trout Walker. She tells people that the boys there dig holes to build character. In reality, she is continuing the search for Kate BarlowÂ’s treasure. While digging one of his holes, Stanley finds a gold lipstick tube with the initials K.B. engraved on it, but he gives it to another boy to turn in to the Warden. The Warden has the boys dig frantically in the area where she believes the lipstick tube was buried. Only Stanley knows where it was really found.

Stanley continues to walk across the lakebed and finds Zero under the remains of a boat. Zero survives by eating the remains of preserved peaches that had sunk with the boat. Stanley convinces Zero to head toward “God’s thumb” with him. Zero is weak and sick. They make it to the mountain, but Zero is too weak to climb so Stanley carries him up. They find wild onions and water that seems to have run uphill at the top of the rock formation.

After a few days the boys have regained their strength and decide to go back to the camp to try and dig up Kate BarlowÂ’s treasure. Under cover of night, the boys return to the hole where Stanley had found the lipstick tube. Stanley digs and unearths a suitcase, just as the Warden arrives. In the light of flashlights, the boys see that they are covered with yellow-spotted lizards. They stay completely still until the sun rises and the lizards go down into the shade, off of the boys.

By then the State Attorney General and a lawyer hired by StanleyÂ’s father arrive. The Warden tries to claim the suitcase as her own, but Zero, using his newly acquired reading skills, deciphers the name Stanley Yelnats on the side if the suitcase. The Attorney General and the lawyer take Stanley away. Stanley refuses to leave without Zero. There are no longer any records to keep him there, so Zero is released with Stanley.

It turns out that ZeroÂ’s real name is Hector Zeroni. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni, the gypsy that had cursed StanleyÂ’s great-great-grandfather. By carrying Zero up the mountain, Stanley had broken the curse.