Summary:
" Holes", the award-winning novel, Holes, by Louis Sachar is about Stanley's exciting adventure of treasure hunting.
HOLES by Louis Sachar
When people are hearing of " Holes", they may think of some boring story of digging a hole. However, the award-winning novel, Holes, by Louis Sachar is about Stanley's exciting adventure of treasure hunting.
Stanley Yelnat's life was a failure. He had nothing accomplished in his life, except a bunch a bad lucks caused by a curse caused by Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. I guess it's not such a deal when Stanley was falsely accused of stealing and was sent to Camp Green Lake, a detention center as punishment. In generally, camps are wonderful places for relax activities, such as climbing mountain or swimming in a river. In the contrary, the Camp Green Lake was a hell for Stanley, because it was a place for punishment. With other campers, Sanley's daily work was forced to dig holes in the size of 5 feet long and 5 feet wide. Sanley was a smart boy. He finally came to know that the camp owner, Warden was desperately trying to get some treasures buried inside the camp by their digging.
In my opinion, this is a exciting story with suspenseful, creative, imaginary and realistic scenes. The book always explained the situation very clearly so you would always have a clear idea what was going on. But it left out just the right amount of information to leave you hanging and wondering about what would happen next. The author made the plot interesting and logical at the same time. Every part of the story, such as the camp, ancestors of Stanley, friendship, and some racism were mixed with each other perfectly, like pieces of a puzzle, and form the whole story so naturally, like the story really was true. The intensity and realism of the book forced me to feel that I'm actually in the story, going through Stanley's treasure hunt. Scene from the story flashes through my mind like a movie as I read the book. And I simply cannot put the book down as my mind yells to keep going as if it can't get enough of its excitement.
Apart from its superb plot, the author also created lots of fantastic characters. Stanley, a friendly big fella, who was not willing to give up and had a great sense of responsibility. X-ray, the leader of the campers, showed his kindness only if others did first, and people expected nothing from him except selfishness. Author Louis Sachar even created the cruelness with style. The owner of the camper, Warden, was described as he painted his fingernail with home made snake venom, and used it to scratch her employees as punishment; evil but clever. Stanley's friend, Zero, was a boy with kind heart and great intelligence. Zero had a sad past, which led to his arrival at Camp Green Lake. After knowing that it's his fault to cause Stanley be wrongly accused of stealing, Zero showed his responsibility by helping Stanley digging holes, fighting on his side, and finally admitting the truth to Stanley at the end. Zero's intelligence was just incredible as he learned to read in a short period of time, and could do Math with incomparable ability. Despite his physically weak body, he's strong in his mind. He stood up for himself and went on to a bright future by the end.
Zero's story impressed me a lot, because he learned how to read in a very short period of time in a terrible environment. He did not have the good educating conditions like us. I believe, Zero might had been a super student if he had a good educated family, a good teacher, enough learning materials and tons of time like us.
Author made this story an interesting one, at the same time, he also sent us a message: Never give up until the last moment. Zero and Stanley didn't give up even though they didn't have food supply. They kept going until they found onion on the great Thumb. They didn't just lie down and waited for being captured or death of starvation. I should learn from Zero and Stanley for their hard work toward their goals and never give up until they were accomplished.
The novel Holes is very similar to the novel of the Hatchet. They're all survival type of adventures. More important, they all share the same message: not to give up, which is the key of the survival.
In real world, things are no always fair and we can not change it. The only thing we can do is to face it and make the best of it. If we don't give up, we'll get good things out of it, like Stanley. Also, there are a lot of kids like Zero who would have a bright future, only if someone give them a hand, instead of sending them to some working place to "build character"; Education is what they really need.
If you still haven't gone through this amazing adventure of Holes. I highly recommend you to start read this addicting novel from eight o'clock in the morning, because if you start to read this book, you will never put it down.
This is the complete article, containing 851 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
