Louis Sachar’s Holes is about Stanley Yelnats, a mere teenager from a poor family, who is sent to a correctional facility for delinquents, for his alleged crime of stealing a pair of shoes, which is in fact by happenstance, landed with him. Unfortunately, Stanley is quite ridiculed by his peers at school for being significantly overweight.
Louis Sachar incorporates the themes of coming-of-age, while friendship also ties into the interesting plot. The family is apparently haunted by the curse of a "no good dirty rotten pig stealing great great grandfather”, the reason for all the bad luck they endure. At the correctional facility, Camp Green Lake, Stanley is forced to abide by strict rules and regulations. He quickly finds out that the area does not in fact look as it sounds, quite the opposite actually; nothing even slightly resembling a lake to be seen. Vast, barren land with scorching hot weather to add to the already unpleasant scenery. Everyone there had a nickname which fit their appearance, Stanley being Caveman and his best friend, Zero. His one and only arduous task consisted of waking up at 4:30 in the morning and for some unknown reason to him at the time, digging holes with minimal water to drink in the Sahara-like venue. He soon realises that this tough labour was not to build character, but to find something valuable for the tough warden on the dried-up lakebed. His parents are unaware of his struggles as he hides the truth as he writes letters to them when he can. Sachar ties up this story with a tone of contentment, with Stanley and Zero find a cure for foot odour and expect to make it big outside of the wretched place. The cruel warden is forced to sell the land, which has plans for being a pleasant Girls Scouts camp in the future. Moreover, Stanley’s family is rid of the long, untoward curse of bad luck.
Overall, Holes is a very intriguing book to read with a gripping plot line, interesting characters filled with significant values to be engraved in the mind.
Anouksha
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