'Camp Green Lake': A Literary Analysis Of Holes

When Zero dug Stanley’s hole, something changed he’d been sincere to others in his tent, even though they were being blunt to him. When he started teaching Zero.

We first meet Stanley at the beginning of scene one, we get an idea of Stanley's character from the stage directions that come before his first piece of speech. These stage directions prior to his dialogue say ‘[bellowing]’, the verb ‘bellowing’ is a very powerful word and immediately gives the impression that Stanley is aggressive, especially compared to the contrasting stage directions that describe Stella such as ‘[mildly]’.

At camp, the other boys in both the book and movie version of the story give Stanley a hard time. This is an evident similarity between the book and movie. The people that are in charge of the boys in the detention camp are not the nicest of people and they are very strict with the boys. They also make the boys dig a big hole everyday they are at the detention camp in both versions of the story. Another way the boys are treated the same in both the book and movie is in the end when the camp boss wants to leave Zero and Stanley out in the desert and not report they are missing. In both versions the boys run away and the boss does not want to do the right thing and report they are gone.

Stanleys almost instinctive primitiveness is a major part of his representation in the book and this behavior of his leads to all the ways he overpowers and

The novel begins with Stanley being wrongly accused of stealing a pair of sneakers owned by a famous baseball player. Due to his adversity, Stanley is sent to a juvenile detention facility ironically named Camp Green Lake. This camp resides in the middle of a desert, and is composed of disobedient kid who are forced to dig holes to“build character”. Stanley possess several Christlike traits, such as: his wounded and blistered hands from digging so many holes, the agony he possessed from dehydration and all of the physical labor he was subjected to, Stanley’s optimistic and self sacrificing character who risked death to save his friend Zero, Stanley’s patient and cordialness with other kids, (this trait is especially displayed when he is teaching his friend Zero to read) Stanley’s kindheartedly when he shared his sparing amounts of food and water with Zero, Stanley use of humble transportation due to his family's reduced budget, Stanley was last seen with the thieving kids of the camp and the thieving camp administrators, and finally,when Stanley returned to the camp, full of kids who committed several crimes and freed them from their grueling jobs of digging holes. In conclusion, characters, such as Stanley Yelnats IV are paralleled to Jesus Christ to exemplify their suffering, hopefulness, and other divine character

Stanley exhibits all of the symptoms of PTSD through the way that she treats Blanche, like she is the enemy and raping her. His reasoning for acting the way he does toward Stella from his detachment and not wanting her to leave him. Also his characteristics of being rough and violent which is shown from the abuse of alcohol, which causes Stanley to become violent towards Stella. All of Stanley’s actions make scene when we consider that he could have PTSD from coming back from

Stanley is a character in this play, whose perspective is clearly reality based. Since Blanche’s outlook on life is fantasy based, there is a lot of hostility between the two characters. Stanley is the one that always exposes the lies that Blanche is always hiding behind. He is constantly trying to get her to accept his perspective. When she finally begins to understand him, it’s too late. With such a huge change, she loses her mental state. Her personal beliefs get interchanged between fantasy and reality, to such an extent, that it seems as if she no longer realizes what is true or what is malign.

He also stands up for himself and his fellow friends. He used to be very careful before he spoke because he did not wanted to create trouble. “I’m not looking for trouble,” Stanley said. “I’m just tired that’s all.” (page 44), “He nervously went towards her. “Mr. Pendanski and I have been having a discussion. Have you taken a drink since Mr. Pendanski last filled your canteen?” Stanley didn’t want to cause trouble for Mr Pendanski. “I still got plenty left.” he said. “Excuse me.” He stopped. “Yeah, I drank some.” “Thank you. May I see your canteen please.” (page 67). As it mentions in the novel clearly that he was not looking for any trouble and that he did not want to cause any trouble for anyone because at that time he did not know how to stand up for yourself and continue growing. But later on, he gets to know everyone a little better. So he decided to show everyone the real him. “He went over to his hole, and to his surprise it was nearly finished. He stared at it, amazed. It didn’t make sense. Or perhaps it did. He smiled. Since he had taken the blame for the sunflower seeds, he realized the other boys had dug his hole for him. (page 94) “I’m teaching him to read and write.” said Stanley. “It’s sort of a trade. The hole still gets dug, so what does it matter who digs it.” “Excuse me?” said the Warden. “Isn’t it more important for him to learn to read” asked Stanley. “Doesn’t

THen while in a new place, his curse gets in the way and makes things harder, an example of this is.when he finds the gold-looking tube. Stanley is constantly having to deal with problems that only manifest because of his bad luck. When he and Zero escape, and ultimately break the curse, Stanley starts to overcome everything that has troubled him. He quite literally overcomes his bad luck. Because, at the beginning everything goes wrong, the shoes, his great, great, grandfather's story,and even what happened to Zero. Then near the end it all resolves. Stanley is innocent, the curse is broken, and zero finds his

“We always took what we needed, Zero said. When I was little, I didn’t even know it was stealing. I don’t remember when I found out.” Zero had a bad life but after knowing how bad it really was. Plus Stanley always thought he has it worse but after just talking to zero Stanley probably realized how things can be even without his no-good dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-grandfathers curse.

Stanley in the beginning of the novel was poor, overweight, and bullied. He was also shy and unlucky. When stanley was poor, it was because he was from a poor family so he had never been to camp before (pg.5, Sachar). He also was living in a tiny apartment (pg.9, Sachar). This quote shows that he had never been to camp before because he was poor. Also, living in a tiny apartment ment that he was poor so he couldn't afford a house. Stanley was also bullied and overweight because the kids at middle school would often tease him about his size (pg.7, Sachar). Furthermore,

Stanley’s actions are intense and mostly uncalled for, Stanley is heavily motivated by the past and

is true in the extreme for Stanley, he does what he wishes and disregards the consequences. It is not a motto he actually employs towards the remaining characters; thinking only of himself, he does not care if anyone else is "comfortable" or not. Through dialogue such as this, Williams asserts to the reader/audience the fact that Stanley inherently fails to take into account the repercussions his own requirements and desires have on others. He is in total control and the only person endowed with power; therefore the only person he takes into consideration - and the only person his wife is allowed to take

It is not always about what is on the outside but what is on the inside. He has always been loving and caring but through this rough time in his life it is shown a lot. He shows this side to his family and also his new friends. After Stanley was done taking the blame for the spilt sunflower seeds and zero digging Stanley’s hole for him, Stanley showed Zero he cared for him; he agreed to teach him to read. “I’ll try to teach you to read if you want,” Stanley offered. “I don’t know how to teach, but I’m not worn-out today, since you dug a lot of my hole.” (Sachar, 96.) Stanley was grateful for what Zero had done for him and wanted to repay the favor and help him out as well. When Stanley left for camp his mom gave him pen and paper so he could write her and tell her how it was going. By writing to his mom and telling her that he was okay, even though he lied about what he was doing he showed he cared for his parents. “Dear Mom and Dad, Camp is hard, but challenging. We’ve been running obstacle courses, and have to swim long distances on the lake. Tomorrow we learn” (Sachar, 81.) As the story comes to an end Stanley really cares about Zero and refuses to leave camp without him. He gets his lawyer to ask for files and after the Attorney General could not find his files they took Zero home with them. “C’mon Stanley,” said his lawyer. “Your parents are waiting.” Stanley stayed where he was.”

A year later, his father remarried a woman from “hell” and she was one of the reasons why Stanley became destructive. She was selfish and only cared for her and her seven children. She physically and emotionally abused Stanley by severely beating him many times and blaming him for senseless things. She also neglected him and his two other siblings while she gave her children the best of everything with Stanley’s father money. For example, his stepmother would save food and feed her own children and let Stanley and his siblings