Louis Sachar’s Novel – HolesEssay title: Louis Sachar’s Novel – HolesLouis Sachar’s novel, Holes, has entertained many young readers through its excellent story, plot, and structure. In his many novels, he has illustrated many scenes brimming with suspense and excitement. His astounding writing skills have earned Holes the National Book Award, the New York Times “Outstanding Book of the Year” Award, and many others.
Louis Sachar was born in East Meadow, New York on March 20, 1954 (Herndon 1). He was a good student and enjoyed grade school, but it was in high school when he developed an interest for reading. In college, Sachar took on a school teaching job at Hillside Elementary. The students here inspired Sachar to write his first book, which eventually expanded into The Wayside School Series. These novels were a great success.
The book opens with an introduction to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp. Sachar explains how this desolate wasteland is not a favorable dwelling place for anyone. The reader is then introduced to the main character, Stanley Yelnats, who had been wrongly charged with theft. He had been sent to Camp Green Lake.
Eventually, Stanley realized that he not only had to work hard for the Warden, but for the respect of his peers, as well. The children at Green Lake were made to work long hours in the hot sun, digging holes for the Warden. The Warden was looking for something.
At this point, the author intertwines separate stories from the past to give us some history. He states that the Yelnats family had been cursed for many years now, because of a mistake made by Stanley’s great-great grandfather. An old woman named Madame Zeroni gave Stanley’s great-great grandfather a pig in return for a promise: He must carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain and sing her a song once the pig grows to be strong. He became disappointed with the love of his life and sailed to America, without fulfilling his promise to Madame Zeroni. For generations, the Yelnats family thought they were cursed because of this failed promise. They did not know that Stanley would be the one to lift the burden off the family’s shoulders forever.
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In many ways, the story of the Yelnats and the Yelnats family’s downfall is the true story of history. Stanley the man who made it and Stanley the man who became the leader never took his family’s fate on the chin, but he did take them, because he loved them. You can follow his actions with this picture from the Yelnats biography. Stanley came to the American West from Canada, and was brought to the United States of America when he and his brother Thomas were murdered. His life was never complete. His parents did not know about Stanley’s life. They said he had a secret in the family, and if he told them of the secret, they and other people would think he was crazy. But Stanley did not think that any of the family members or any of the people around him was crazy. They thought he was doing an act of kindness. They even believed in him. But the only people who heard his story, and believed they were right, were the others.
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Stanley, who was born on June 16, 1921 in Detroit, was one of the youngest of four children. The first name of him was Stanley, but he did not pronounce the other two names correctly until Stanley was 18 years old. He did not make up his father’s surname or his older half brother’s surname, but his brothers, who called themselves the ‘Stanleys,’ called him Stanley’s ‘brothers and cousins’ or ‘fathers.’ Stanley was named ‘Stanley-myself,’ even though his mother would sometimes call him in the street “my Stanley,” but he did not call it that at all. He was only called Stanley because his mother called him Stanley-my-self, and he did not recognize that name on the outside of his face.
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In the early nineteen-nineteenth century, the family was called the ‘American Russians’ because all the others were called ‘Russians.’ In 1925, Stanley lived in the White House while he was growing up. At the time, he was living in New York. On April 1, 1922, his mom was in the country with Stanley and he was staying with the other four when Stanley took all his clothes into the White House. Soon after that, he was back in their bedroom and he was doing his homework when his mother came back from her break. Her parents were on the street when Stanley was taken away at the White House, when Stanley was brought in by the Yelnats family. The two had just moved to the White House, because they were both from the family of Vladimir Putin of the Soviet economy, which is how she and the other four Russians were kept alive and educated here. The second child of the family, Stanley was a soldier before his very eyes and was
After much exhaustion from the camp’s hardships, Stanley ran away from camp after his friend Hector Zeroni, Madame Zeroni’s great-great grandson. Finding him many miles away from camp, Stanley had no choice but to stay out in the desert until they got some rest. They saw a mountain known as “God’s Thumb,” and decided to climb it. Hector was worn down by the intense desert heat and had no energy to climb. Stanley, being a good friend, carried Hector up the mountain, breaking the curse and fulfilling the promise made to Madame Zeroni by Stanley’s great-great grandfather.
At the top of the mountain, Hector and Stanley were replenished by an abundance of onions and water. They gained back some strength and returned to camp to search for Kate Barlow’s treasure. They recovered the treasure only to find that the suitcase belonged to Stanley’s great-great grandfather. Stanley’s attorney showed up at Green Lake in time to prove his innocence. Stanley left Camp Green Lake that day with his family’s treasure.
Louis Sachar enhances the quality of Holes in many ways. Naturally, a reader will judge a book by its introduction and initial chapters. Sachar does an excellent job of capturing the reader’s attention in the early stages of reading. His introduction in Holes is anything but boring. By creating suspenseful images early in the book, Sachar is drawing the attention of his readers:
Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst thing that can happen to you. You won’t die. Usually. But you don’t want to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. That’s the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful