The Character Theme Relationship

1
The Character Theme Relationship

• A retelling of
• Holes
• By Louis Sachar

2
Setting

• Green Lake, Texas
• Late 20th Century
• With flashback to the late 19th Century

• Brief flashbacks to Latvia
• Mid to late 19th Century

3
The Characters

• Stanley Yelnats Protagonist
• Zero (Hector Zeroni) Not much of an education,
  but is smart and knows it
• X-Ray The unofficial head of the group of boys
• Katherine Barlow Teacher of the one-room
  schoolhouse at Camp Green Lake 110 years prior
• Squid Taunts Stanley
• Magnet earned his nickname for his ability to
  steal
• Armpit X-Rays closest companion

4
Characters Continued

• Zigzag Very violent kid at camp
• Warden She is the ultimate symbol of cruel
  authority
• Mr. Pendanski In charge of tent D
• Mr. Sir One of the counselors at Camp Green Lake

5
Major Conflict

• Stanley must struggle against the harsh
  conditions and people at Camp green Lake in order
  to assert his independence and eventually free
  himself and his family from the curse that has
  been placed upon them.

6
Themes

• The power of fate to determine events
• The benefits of friendship
• The destructive nature of cruelty
• The importance of history in everyday life

7
Foreshadowing The Character Theme Relationship

• Every time that a piece of history is revealed,
  it foreshadows what will happen in the present
  day Camp Green Lake. For instance, the
  revelation that the murder of Sam leads to Kate
  Barlow killing the sheriff because she must react
  to her personal loss is followed by Zero striking
  Mr. Pendanski because he cannot handle further
  taunting and cruelty from Mr. Pendanski.

8
Themes

• The Power of Fate

• The Benefits of Friendship

• Stanley always believes that he is unlucky and in
  the wrong place at the wrong time.
• The events in the book seem to be the result of
  fates reunification of members of the Yelnats
  and Zeroni families for the mutual benefit of
  both parties.

• Stanley and Zeros mutual friendship lead to
  their survival and eventual wealth.
• The benefits of forming solid friendships are
  clearly shown in Holes.

9
Themes

• Destructive Nature of Cruelty

• Importance of History in Everyday Life

• Cruelty is something that one person can cause in
  another and a cycle of violence and cruelty is
  shown to pass through many decades and several
  generations at Green Lake

• Three stories from separate times in history are
  combined in Holes to create one story and to
  create a theme of the importance of history.

10
Finally, the TONE

• The narrator of Holes seems reliable but often
  interjects dark humor or irony into the
  narration. Many statements are made which
  require the reader to make his or her own
  inferences about the subject matter. At times
  the narrator breaks with the omniscient narration
  to address the reader directly and pose questions
  about the events in the book.