Holes – Knowledge Organiser
Plot summary:
Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, for a crime he did not commit. Stanley and the other boys at the camp are forced to dig large holes every day. Stanley eventually realises that they are digging these
holes because the Warden is searching for something.
When he was a boy, Stanley's great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, received a pig from Madame Zeroni, a gypsy, in exchange for a promise that after the pig grew strong, Elya would carry Madame Zeroni up a mountain and sing her a song
that she had taught him. After becoming disillusioned with the girl he thought he loved, however, Elya travels to America, forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni. Elya marries and has a child in America and always thinks about Madame
Zeroni, who he believes has cursed him because of his failure to fulfill his promise. He knows that Madame Zeroni's son lives in America, but Elya never finds him.
110 years before Stanley arrives at Camp Green Lake, the town of Green Lake was home to a schoolteacher, Katherine Barlow, who falls in love with Sam, the onion seller. When people witness Sam and Katherine kissing, there is some
prejudice against their relationship because Sam is black and Katherine is white, and this was perceived unacceptable at the time. Due to this, the richest man in town, Charles ‘Trout’ Walker, who is already angry at Katherine because she
does not want to date him, gathers the town to burn the school down and attack Sam. Katherine and Sam attempt to escape but their boat is destroyed and Sam is killed. After the day that Sam is killed, rain stops falling on Green Lake and
the lake dries up. Katherine is driven mad by her grief and becomes known as Kissin' Kate Barlow. Her name refers to the fact that she kisses the men she kills, leaving a lipstick imprint of her lips on their faces. In her twenty years of robbing
people in the west, she happens to rob Stanley's great- grandfather (also called Stanley) while he is on his way from New York to California. She buries Stanley's great-grandfather's money somewhere and even though Charles ‘Trout’ Walker
and his wife Linda try to torture her into revealing its location, Kate dies before anyone can find out where the money is hidden.
Back in the present day, Stanley makes friends with the other boys at Camp Green Lake, especially a boy named Zero. Although Stanley and Zero, also known as Hector Zeroni, do not know it, Hector is the great- great-great-grandson of
Madame Zeroni. Zero eventually runs away from camp and Stanley, in an effort to save him, follows him after a few days. The two help each other to reach the top of a big mountain, which turns out to be Sam's old onion field. Because Zero
is very weak, Stanley carries him up this mountain. They survive on onions for more than a week and then return to camp, planning to search for Kate Barlow's treasure.
Stanley and Zero find a suitcase that has the name Stanley Yelnats on it. Although the Warden attempts to take the suitcase from them, Stanley's lawyer, Ms. Morengo, arrives to say that Stanley has been proven innocent and Stanley and
Hector are able to leave the camp with the suitcase. It turns out that the suitcase contains many valuable items and is in fact the same suitcase that Kate Barlow took from Stanley's great-grandfather.
Key characters
Stanley Yelnats
The novel's protagonist.
Zero
Zero is another camper at Camp Green Lake who
becomes friends with Stanley.
The Warden is a very cruel character, and she is a
descendent of Charles and Linda Walker.
Warden
Kate Barlow
Kate Barlow was a schoolteacher who lived on Green
Lake 110 years ago. The murder of her beloved Sam
turns Kate into a violent character.
Sam
The onion man who fell in love with Katherine Barlow.
Charles ‘Trout’ Walker
Charles is the son of the richest family in Green Lake.
Charles also has bad foot odour and for this reason
people call him Trout.
Elya is Stanley's great-great-grandfather and the
reason that Stanley's family has such bad luck.
Madame Zeroni is the great-great-great-grandmother
of Hector Zeroni.
Mr. Sir is one of the counselors at Camp Green Lake.
He is tough and mean.
Key themes
Context
Stylistic features &
relevant terms
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Holes was first published in 1998, and most of the novel is set around the end of the 1990s. It is a
contemporary novel of the time.
There are flashbacks to the fictional town of Green Lake, which existed one hundred ten years earlier before
the lake dried up.
There are also flashbacks to a village in Latvia in the mid-1800s, and in the 1990’s, Eastern Europe was in the
news greatly due to the fall of communism. Countries borders were being remapped and immigration had
increased due to people seeking a new life in other countries, like Stanley’s ancestors did.
Although Sachar is never completely sure where the inspiration for his books comes from, though his
knowledge of the unbearably hot Texas summers did serve to set the scene for Camp Green Lake. Sachar
wanted to create the impression of being a teenager working hard in horrible conditions, just like he had to
when working hard at home in Texas in the hot July heat.
Many of Sachar's books, including Holes, are about children who don't fit in or who have low self-esteem. Like
these other books, the main character in Holes gains self-confidence by the end of the book and makes some
friends in the process.
Stanley is not a typical hero. He feels like he has no friends and feels like his life is cursed, but his perception
of life changes throughout the novel.
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Magic realism
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Protagonist
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Antagonist
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Flashbacks
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Chronological
order
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Simile
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Imagery
The West is an important theme in American history. It is the story which includes the stereotypical cowboys,
gun fights and robberies. Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s character introduces this Western stereotype in the novel.
The novel has examples of The American Dream, this shown with Stanley’s ancestors travelling to America in
search of a better life.
The American justice system was heavily in the news at the time of writing due to famous cases such as the O
J Simpson trial and the debates surrounding gun laws and juvenile crime. This influenced Sachar’s writing and
his creation of Camp Green Lake.
Although racism continues to decline in America, it is still a very important issue in that country, and Sachar
uses the characters of Sam and Katherine to explore this.
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Metaphor
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Elya Yelnats
Madame Zeroni
Mr Sir
Mr Pendanski
Mr. Pendanski is in charge of tent D, Stanley's tent at
Camp Green Lake. He seems to be friendly but really
he is just as mean as the Warden and Mr. Sir.
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Fate
Friendship
Love
Cruelty
The
importance
of history
Greed
Revenge
Law and
order
Justice and
natural
justice
Racism
Wealth
Immigration
Family
The
American
Dream
Key quotations
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“A lot of people don't believe in curses. A lot of people don't believe in yellow-spotted
lizards either, but if one bites you, it doesn't make a difference whether you believe in
it or not.”
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“No one believed they fell from the sky.”
Useful vocabulary
Attorney
General
Counsellor
Crime
Curse
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“Madame Zeroni warned that if he failed to do this, he and his descendants would be
doomed for all eternity.”
“He looked again at the design engraved into the flat bottom of the tube. He could see
an outline of a heart, with the letters KB etched inside it.”
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“His muscles and hands weren't the only parts of his body that had toughened over
the past several weeks. His heart had hardened as well.”
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"If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs, "The bark on the tree was just a little bit
softer." While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely, He cries to the moo-oo-oon, "If
only, if only."
Excavated
Genre
Hero
Injustice
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Justice
Judge
“She stepped toward him and struck him across the face. Mr. Sir stared at her. He had
three long red marks slanting across the left side of his face. Stanley didn’t know if the
redness was caused by her nail polish or his blood.”
Latvian
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“Zero took the shovel. Then he swung it like a baseball bat. The metal blade smashed
across Mr. Pendanski’s face.”
Lawyer
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“He had driven straight into a hole.”
Law
Lizard
The
American
Dream
Warden
Top lawyer in a country or
state.
A person trained to give
guidance on personal
problems.
Activity that breaks the law.
A supernatural power to
inflict harm or punishment on
someone or something.
Make a hole or channel by
digging.
Type of writing.
A person who is admired for
their courage, outstanding
achievements, or noble
qualities.
Unfair behaviour or
treatment.
Fair behaviour or treatment.
A public officer appointed to
decide cases in a law court.
People who originate from
Latvia.
Rules which create order in
society.
A person who practices or
studies law.
Form of reptile.
The ideal by which equality of
opportunity is available to any
American, allowing the
highest aspirations and goals
to be achieved.
A person responsible for the
supervision of a particular
place or activity.
SPaG Focus
Capital Letter
Parenthetic
Comma
Parenthesis for
brackets
Semi-colon
Ellipsis
Speech Marks
Continuous
Verb
Adverb and
Adverbial
Phrase
Article
Antonym
Compound
Words
Modifier
Suffix
Prefix
Singular and
Plural
Preposition
Pronoun
Synonym
Transitive Verb
Future Tense
Present Tense
Past Tense
Compound
Sentence
Complex
Sentence
Subject
Object
Subordinate
Clause
Homophone
Homonym
Responding to the (extract, question, etc)
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Character analysis focusing on a key character.
Relevant points are clearly identified, including summary and
synthesis of information from different sources and quotation
to support ideas.
Different layers of meaning are identified with detailed
exploration of them some beginning to develop an
interpretation
An analytic and evaluative comment on how viewpoint is
established and an appreciation of how devices achieve the
effects that they do.
Evaluation of the extent to which structural choices support the
writer’s theme or purpose.
Perceptive analysis of how language is used and some
appreciation of how language choices contribute to the effect
on the reader.
The ability to set texts in context more securely and see how
texts are influential.
Successfully comparing cross reference aspects of text.