Holes :: essays research papers

Holes is a book about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who is convicted of stealing a famous basketball player’s shoes. His punishment for stealing a basketball player’s shoes is going to detention camp. Stanley believes that this all happened because of an ancient family curse or fate. This is true because both bad luck and fate led to detention camp where he turned his bad luck around once and for all. In the book Holes Stanley Yelnats gets sent to a detention camp because of bad luck. His bad luck was that he was standing under a bridge when a stolen pair of a famous basketball player’s shoes got dropped on his head. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time because of an ancient family curse. The curse put on his family was set because of Stanley’s pig stealing great-great grandfather who disrespected one of the ancestors of Zero, the boy who committed the crime that Stanley was convicted of. Zero, who was also in the camp, told Stanley that his ancestor had told Stanley’s great-great grandfather how to get rid of the family curse but that he never got rid of it. This is the first time that Stanley realized that the curse could be broken. This curse is taken away at the end of the book. Stanley’s fate and bad luck were changed because he did something that his great-great grandfather was supposed to do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While at detention camp, Stanley is forced dig a hole at extremely specific regulations. Stanley’s holes get dug but not as fast as he’d like them to. Stanley doesn’t know this but the holes are a big part of his fate. The warden says that they dig these holes because it builds character, but the real reason is hidden. The real reason for the digging of the holes is so that the warden can find a legendary treasure. Stanley’s â€Å"hole digging fate† was all changed when he found out that Kate Barlow had buried treasure there.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stanley’s whole family’s luck was horrible all throughout life because of something his pig stealing great-great grandfather did. This would be a nasty fate to have because everything you ever did would turn out badly because of someone else’s actions.