Holes

Louis Sachar’s 1998 children’s mystery novel, Holes, tells the story of Stanley Yelnats, a 14-year-old boy accused of stealing a pair of shoes. A judge sentences him to 18 months in a camp, where a tyrannical warden has the boys digging five-foot by five-foot holes that appear random. However, their activity hints at the town’s complicated past and an outlaw’s lost treasure. Holes was awarded the 1998 National Book Award and the 1999 Newbery Medal and was adapted into a film by Disney. The novel explores themes of Fate Versus Free Will, The Importance of Friendship, and The Connection Between Past and the Present.

Content warning: The guide contains discussions of child abuse and anti-Black racism that are present in the source text.

Plot Summary

Stanley Yelnats IV is a 14-year-old boy whose family claims it is cursed due to his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” (8). This curse is responsible for him being wrongfully convicted for stealing a pair of tennis shoes once owned by a famous athlete. Although Stanley tells the truth about how the shoes fell out of the sky and hit him in the head, the judge doesn’t believe him and sends him to a juvenile detention facility called Camp Green Lake.

When Stanley arrives at Camp Green Lake, he learns that the boys at the detention center must dig a new hole five feet wide and five feet deep every day. According to the Warden, who oversees the facility, this builds character. The boys are instructed to pay careful attention while digging; they will be rewarded for bringing the Warden anything interesting.

From here, the story flashes back to the 19th century, to the time of Stanley’s grandfather Elya Yelnats. Elya is desperately in love with a woman named Myra, but she has also attracted the attention of an older pig farmer, Igor Barkov. He has offered Myra’s father his heaviest pig in exchange for permission to marry Myra.

Elya thinks that Myra deserves better. He goes to his friend Madame Zeroni, who warns him that Myra is not very intelligent. However, Elya is in love and does not listen to Madame Zeroni. She agrees to help him since she sees that Elya is in love. Madame Zeroni gives him a tiny piglet and tells him that if he climbs the mountain with the piglet every day and lets the pig drink from the spring while singing to it, the pig will soon be bigger than Igor’s. Once this happens, he must promise to carry Madame Zeroni to the top of the mountain so that she can drink from the spring. If he doesn’t take Madame Zeroni, then he and his family will be doomed.

Elya promises and takes the piglet every morning up the mountain. He almost wins Myra’s hand, but his and Igor’s pigs end up being the same size. Myra is given the choice, but she cannot choose. Instead, she directs them to guess the number she is thinking of, but Elya has had enough. In his frustration, he forgets his promise to Madame Zeroni and moves to America. He only realizes his mistake while ocean-bound on the ship. Madame Zeroni’s curse follows him, affecting his entire family. The song he sang to the pig becomes a family lullaby.

The story moves to the story of Kissin’ Kate Barlow, which also takes place in the 19th century, 110 years before the novel’s present day. Kate, a local teacher, falls in love with a local Black onion seller, Sam. When she is seen kissing Sam, the town of Green Lake is in an uproar. Sam is arrested and a mob burns down the schoolhouse.

Kate and Sam try to cross the lake to escape, but Trout (a man whom Kate rejected) intercepts them and sinks the boat. Trout shoots Sam and rescues Kate against her will. After Sam dies, no rain falls on the town again.

Kate kills the sheriff and then becomes an outlaw who leaves a trademark lipstick kiss on those she robs. She robs Stanley’s great-grandfather, but instead of killing him, she leaves him in the desert where he is eventually rescued. Stanley later says he survived because of God’s thumb, but nobody knows what he meant. Stanley is taken to the hospital, where he meets and falls in love with a nurse, whom he marries.

Twenty years later, Kate goes back to Green Lake and stays in a little cabin, but Trout and his wife, who are broke and desperate for money, intercept her. They try to force her to tell them where she keeps her stolen treasure, but she is bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard and dies taunting them.

Back at present-day Camp Green Lake, the Warden is clearly looking for something while the boys dig holes. During one dig, Stanley finds a tube of lipstick that once belonged to Kate Barlow. He gives it to X-Ray, the leader of Group D, who convinces Stanley that he needs it more. The Warden is excited by the discovery. They sift through X-Ray’s hole, mistakenly believing this is where the lipstick was found.

Meanwhile, Stanley befriends a quiet boy nicknamed Zero. Stanley agrees to teach Zero how to read, and Zero offers to dig part of Stanley’s hole every day so Stanley has energy to teach. One day, the boys start to fight because of Zero and Stanley’s arrangement. Zero protects Stanley and then refuses to dig anymore. He hits the counselor Mr. Pendanski with his shovel and runs away. The Warden decides to let him die in the desert. After a few days, Stanley resolves to go after Zero. He finds Zero and notices a mountain that looks like a thumb. He remembers that his great-grandfather said he was saved by God’s thumb, so they decide to climb the nearby mountain instead of returning to camp. Zero isn’t feeling well, so Stanley carries him up most of the mountain. He gives him water that they find at the top, breaking the curse that Madame Zeroni put on Elya Yelnats. Stanley also finds a field of onions; he and Zero eat them for days to recover. While on the mountain, Stanley realizes that the hole where he found the lipstick tube might be where Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s treasure is buried. They descend the mountain and return to the hole, where they uncover a suitcase. The Warden tries to take it, but deadly yellow-spotted lizards appear, forcing her to back away.

The onions make Stanley and Zero invulnerable to the lizards, and they stay in the hole overnight. In the morning, an attorney demands Stanley’s release. Stanley and Zero get up, and the yellow-spotted lizards don’t bite them. The Warden tries to get the suitcase, but Zero tells her it belongs to Stanley: On the suitcase is the name STANLEY YELNATS. The attorney takes Stanley and Zero (whose records were erased when they thought he was dead) out of Green Lake and back to Stanley’s family. They open the suitcase and discover Kate’s treasure. The family’s fortunes turn around, and it rains in the city once again.

The book ends with a glimpse into Stanley and Zero’s lives a year and a half later. Stanley’s dad’s invention takes off, and he has a Super Bowl ad for their foot deodorizer. Zero reunites with his mother, who abandoned him when he was a young boy.