Holes by Louis Sachar Negation

¶ … Holes by Louis Sachar [...] negation of self-pity. Self-pity can be many different things, from social ineptness to a chip on the shoulder or a contrived rebel rejecting popular culture to feel sorry for themselves. Whatever the reason, people who pity themselves often take their frustrations out on others, and allow self-pity to poison themselves and their relationships. "Holes" as a novel negates self-pity by showing it for what it truly is, a useless emotion that does not make life better, it only makes it worse.

Holes" is the story of Stanley Yelnats, a young boy sent to a correctional camp for something he did not do. He believes his family is followed by a curse, and that the curse has come to rest on him as he digs his holes under the burning Texas sun. Stanley often feels sorry for himself and the predicament he is in.

One night he thinks to himself "For once in his unlucky life, he was in the right place at the right time, and it still didn't help him" (Sachar 64). Stanley does not wallow in self-pity, but he definitely uses it when he gets depressed or feels lonely. However, as the story progresses, Stanley learns how to appreciate even the little things in life, and how to stop feeling sorry for himself and create his own, positive future.

Stanley takes the blame for things he does not do, but it creates more status in his small group. However, the best thing Stanley does is not dig holes, lose weight, or take responsibility. It is teaching Zero to read. Stanley discovers he can teach, and that he can complete a difficult task. It makes him feel better about himself, but it also makes him give up his thoughts of self-pity and depression.

In a novel twist, it is Zero not only who really teaches Stanley, it is Zero who is the most positive member of the group, even if he has nothing. He tells Stanley, "When you spend your whole life living in a hole,' he said, 'the only way you can go is up'" (Sachar 160). That is funny, but it is also true, and it takes a "Zero" to make Stanley finally feel like a real person.

Throughout the story, Stanley has to struggle with despair and hope, just like most everyone does. The author makes the images of hope and despair funny, just as he makes the characters funny. Sometimes, it is hard to tell the hope from the despair in the novel. Stanley learns much from teaching Zero, but he still has to dig holes - there is no end to the digging and the despair of digging.

However, the book makes it clear that it is Stanley's destiny to be at Green Lake, and it truly is. He may be able to remove the "curse" that has followed his family for so long by carrying the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni up God's Thumb to drink the water and eat the onions. In fact, there was no curse, there was just fate, and Stanley had finally found his.

It becomes quite clear Stanley is supposed to be at Green Lake, because he is supposed to find the treasure and discover the spot where his great-grandfather was robbed. He is also supposed to learn to take responsibility for himself, and he does. When he steals the truck to look for Zero, he thinks to himself, "He couldn't blame his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather this time. This time it was his own fault, one hundred percent" (Sachar 148).

Stanley finally finds happiness in the most unlikely of places, an onion field on the side of a mountain. The onions heal Stanley and Zero because they are what is left of the Onion Man's field, and he was a good, decent person. Stanley discovers he is a good, decent person too, and he begins to like himself, and that is the beginning of his transformation. Stanley's ordeal at Green Lake really shows that life has many twists and turns, and everything that happens is supposed to happen, like destiny.

The Yelnats were supposed to suffer so they could fully enjoy their success. Stanley was supposed to get hit by those tennis shoes to make the entire story fall into place. He was supposed to go to a camp run by the relative of the woman who robbed his great-grandfather so he could find the remnants of his grandfather's fortune.

However, Stanley would have never discovered the strength within himself if he had not have gone to Green Lake, and that was the real reason he was supposed to go there. He was supposed to see what self-pity and anger could do to a person. The Warden was a lonely, angry, bitter woman, and it destroyed her and those around her. She was evil, and it took Stanley to expose her to the rest of the world.

Stanley had to go on his journey across the lake to save Zero, but more than that, Stanley had to take that journey to save himself from a life of self-pity and sadness. In the worst situation, Stanley discovered he could be happy, and it was all downhill from there. Holes" is deceptively simple. The book is written for children, but it has very adult themes. It is a.