‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar
ENGLISH ESSAY – ‘HOLES’ BY LOUIS SACHAR
Louis Sachar, the author of ‘Holes,’ uses the protagonist, Stanley, to explore the themes and main concerns of the novel. He does this by unfolding the plot into three different stories. He also uses Stanley to investigate the characters and their traits, for example, we found out that Zero could not read but could add and multiply number very quickly. In the book, Stanley is described as a friendless, self-conscious, overweight fifteen-year-old boy. Throughout the novel, the author slowly looks into how Stanley's family has a curse of bad luck, and whenever something is wrong, they always seem to blame it on Stanley's “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Stanley and his family don't really believe in the curse but they use Stanley's great-great-grandfather as someone to put the blame on, simply because it feels good.
Stanley Yelnats has a very unique name, “everyone in my family names their son Stanley, 'cause It is Yelnats backwards, It's this little... tradition.” Stanley is wrongfully accused of stealing a pair of a famous baseball player, Clyde ‘Sweet feet’ Livingston’s sneakers and is sent to a correctional camp for boys, in Texas. While he is there he loses a large amount of weight and develops physical strength by digging the required holes, five feet deep and five feet across, daily, “You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, it turns him into a good boy. That's our philosophy here at camp green lake.”
The benefits of forming solid friendships are clearly shown throughout the novel. Stanley is given the nickname ‘Caveman’ by the other diggers and for the first time in his life feels somewhat accepted by his peers. However, Stanley does not forget the fact that the other boys have the potential for violence and does his best to stay on the good side of X-Ray, their supposed leader. At first Stanley bends to the cruelty around X-Ray and develops an emotional
Louis Sachar, the author of ‘Holes,’ uses the protagonist, Stanley, to explore the themes and main concerns of the novel. He does this by unfolding the plot into three different stories. He also uses Stanley to investigate the characters and their traits, for example, we found out that Zero could not read but could add and multiply number very quickly. In the book, Stanley is described as a friendless, self-conscious, overweight fifteen-year-old boy. Throughout the novel, the author slowly looks into how Stanley's family has a curse of bad luck, and whenever something is wrong, they always seem to blame it on Stanley's “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Stanley and his family don't really believe in the curse but they use Stanley's great-great-grandfather as someone to put the blame on, simply because it feels good.
Stanley Yelnats has a very unique name, “everyone in my family names their son Stanley, 'cause It is Yelnats backwards, It's this little... tradition.” Stanley is wrongfully accused of stealing a pair of a famous baseball player, Clyde ‘Sweet feet’ Livingston’s sneakers and is sent to a correctional camp for boys, in Texas. While he is there he loses a large amount of weight and develops physical strength by digging the required holes, five feet deep and five feet across, daily, “You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, it turns him into a good boy. That's our philosophy here at camp green lake.”
The benefits of forming solid friendships are clearly shown throughout the novel. Stanley is given the nickname ‘Caveman’ by the other diggers and for the first time in his life feels somewhat accepted by his peers. However, Stanley does not forget the fact that the other boys have the potential for violence and does his best to stay on the good side of X-Ray, their supposed leader. At first Stanley bends to the cruelty around X-Ray and develops an emotional