One step at a time, // hat in hand, shovel the dirt // until you strike gold.
#HaikuPrajna - Holes [Book Review]
Read online [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/08/20230813-haikuprajna-holes-book-review.html ]
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Hello reader,
I first read Holes by Louis Sachar when I was ten years old for a grade five elementary school reading assignment with the rest of the class, a few years after the movie was released. Back then, it stuck with me for its explanation of the Yelnats family being lucky rather than having good or bad luck.
Now, upon reading almost twenty years later, what I loved about this story was how the cast displayed the effects of prolonged stress and anger on one's morality, where children like Stanley have to choose between being friends with or bullying one another, all in the name of freedom of digging another hole.
The desert of Camp Green Lake hardened both body and soul of the camp counselors and the kids alike. Though, this led to Stanley’s appreciation for the slightest relief and an inclination toward the least stressful position, which would end up saving him and the others. Mind you, the other kids were sentenced for juvenile delinquency just like Stanley [though he was wrongfully convicted], but the novel is quick to tell their stories and the situations that led to the present, where they each found themselves in positions of distrust and punishment, regardless if they told the truth or lied or indeed committed a felony.
Holes also is unafraid to jump between narratives and time periods in order to convey just what the reader needs to understand, with a conversational narrator that guides readers along with effortless ease; remember to gauge your expectations just a bit when reading this as an adult as, again, I first read this when I was ten and the movie is a Disney Pictures presentation.
The men of the Yelnats family were quick to blame their misfortunes and poor luck on a cursed ancestor, all of whom were named after the ancestor's son, an integral plot point to one of the narratives, while characters like Stanley's mom help the Stanleys appreciate what good fortune they do have.
The youngest Stanley Yelnats had used this good sense to trade a day-off for the knowledge that he might be able to find another treasure that would give him and the agreed-upon leader of the kids a day off from digging each, and it was this adherence to morality that would, without his immediate knowing that it could, lead to his entire family's liberation. This tough-love approach led to the story's curses being described as natural occurrences like the yellow spotted lizards and the drought that crippled the once prosperous Green Lake, where only those good enough to bear it would reap its fruits.
All this is symbolized as a form of God's divine justice, where Green Lake’s torture was turning hearts cold since the Wild West. The Warden of Camp Green Lake grew up digging holes her whole life--herself a descendant of a cursed ancestor, too, but in stark contrast to Stanley. Like most takes on generational trauma, this story says one is unrestricted by another’s past and one is able to break away from preconceived notions of hereditary curses, rather than blaming every issue on others and thus stripping oneself of said ability. It is less about blood relations and more about being a good person, which in turn unlocks the goods of the past; this was shown in Zero telling the truth, he was a good kid who did something bad without realizing, but he still did good in the end despite all the bad being done to him, where in the end he was saved by Sam’s sunken boat until Stanley rescued him.
Stanley Yelnats and Hector Zeroni overcame what had been said to be impossible odds, dealing with their stress and suffering one literal step at a time. With their journey from Camp Green Lake on the edge of the dried up lake out to God’s Thumb where Sam’s onions grew, readers thread all these plot points together in a gradual, yet satisfying experience meant to inspire children to overcome their less apparent obstacles, like it did for me so many years ago. I believe, under all the dirt and drama, Holes is a story about the benefits of literature on children, with Hector and Stanley’s bond over teaching Hector how to read, and with devices like palindromes and poetry used in the background to serve ethical lessons that were still constructive to the plot.
The poem that was shared between the Zeroni and Yelnats families signified, to me, how one becomes blind to opportunity when they believe they have poor luck, and I thought the palindrome Stanley Yelnats was a great metaphor for being able to see one’s so-called bad luck as its mirror opposite.
Holes was, and still is a fantastic story that I think parents and children alike would enjoy and should still read and watch today.
Thank you for reading,
Until next time!
Allen W. McLean
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