Holes - The Best Book for Young Adults

'Holes - The Best Book for Young Adults'

An excellent book for young adults to start reading is definitely ‘Holes’, a comical short story for young adults, written by Louis Sachar. The book highlights many themes such as destiny, racism, peer group politics, justice, and misuse of power. This book is full of humor, excitement, and serious, thrilling scenes. The book is set in a unique place, a detention center called Camp Green Lake (CGL). This story also goes back in time while linking with the problems the protagonist Stanley Yelnats faces at CGL.

Themes: Destiny

A theme that is rare but unique and entertaining in 'Holes' is ‘Destiny’, which plays one of the important roles in the novel as it is one of the keys to saving Stanley and Zero. Destiny is defined as an event that will happen to a particular person or thing in the future; it can also be called ‘fate’ (destiny can also just be a coincidence). Stanley Yelnats is destined to meet and carry Zero/Hector Zeroni, the ancestor (grandson) of Madame Zeroni. This connection between Zero and Stanley is a pivotal element that unfolds throughout the story, suggesting that perhaps their meeting was not mere chance, but rather a predetermined event.

Relationships and Character Development

The relationship between Zero and Stanley lies at the core of this novel, which, for the foremost part, is fascinated by other forms of relationships: the love between Kate and Sam, the family ties between the Yelnats generations, and the authoritarian position of the warden over the boys at Camp Green Lake. Their lives are intertwined in more than one way. Not only did Zero's relative curse Stanley's great-great-grandfather, but Zero also stole the shoes that Stanley was condemned for stealing (therefore Zero is the reason that Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, where he suffers and struggles to survive in the wilderness). Stanley's character development can largely be attributed to his relationship with Zero, and their relationship also has a significant plot purpose, as it leads to the breaking of the Yelnats family curse.

Symbolism of Onions

Onions are undoubtedly a positive symbol within the novel. They represent happiness, as Sam the onion picker - with whom onions are regularly joined within the novel through flashbacks - is always cheerful, friendly, and optimistic. He is very secretive and protective of his onion field, but very generous when it comes to providing onions and onion products to the people of Green Lake. Onions also symbolize health and healing. Sam sells onions to cure a myriad of physical ills: they're 'good for the digestion, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, the heart, and the brain.' Sam's character is one of a fixer, since he fixes up the school and has the motto: 'I can fix that.' In this manner, he is a therapist, and the onions are one means by which he does his healing. In the current narrative, Zero and Stanley owe their lives to the onions on top of God's Thumb. Without them, they would have starved to death and been unable to survive their escape from Camp Green Lake. The onions save the boys a second time, too. The only reason they are not bitten by the yellow-spotted lizards in the hole where they are digging for treasure is because there is onion scent coursing through their bloodstreams.

Yellow-Spotted Lizards

To end up, I'll write about yellow-spotted lizards. In 'Holes', lizards are an ominous symbol. They represent danger and the ever-present threat of death in the harsh landscape surrounding Camp Green Lake. This danger is made explicit in the initial chapter, and the reader is warned by the narrator about the lizards before any action occurs, even before meeting the novel's protagonist. 'You don't want to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard,' Sachar writes, 'That's the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death' (Sachar, 1998, p. 4). Though the warden can control the boys and even uses rattlesnake venom to her advantage by making it into cosmetics, she cannot control the lizards, and she is just as frightened as the others. The only protection from the yellow-spotted lizards is onions, as we find out late in the novel, but the characters never realize that onion-tinged blood allows Stanley and Zero to survive in the lizard-infested hole. It seems like a miracle to them.

References

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.