Destiny In The Movie Holes

What is destiny? Do you know yours? Well, not many people can answer this question right off the bat. In fact, it is almost impossible to predict such a thing. Many people feel as if they have control over their own destiny because they hold themselves accountable for their choices. In Andrew Davis’, Holes (2003), he uses transitions to show the intertextual connection between the past and present events and how the characters have finally fulfilled their own destinies.

Holes is a movie about a young boy named Stanley Yelnats (Shia Labeouf) who is wrongfully accused of stealing the famous, Clyde Livingston’s (Rick Fox) shoes which were donated to a local homeless shelter. After Stanley is convicted of stealing, he is given two options: jail or Camp Green Lake. Not knowing what Camp Green Lake is all about, Stanley chooses to go to Camp Green Lake, where he is forced to dig holes in the desert everyday by the Warden (Sigourney Weaver), and her two sidekicks, who are referred to as Mr. Sir (Jon Voight) and Dr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson). This movie displays a theme of fate having an impact on major events, because in the end, one’s fate and destiny are later determined by the events that took place in the past that tie the whole movie together. The order of each event in the movie gives the viewer a better understanding of why the events happened the way they did.

The literary devices that directors use in movies give the viewer a better understanding of the themes and a full cinematic experience that the viewer can be more engaged in. One literary device that plays an important role in relation to the theme is transitions. Each transition that was used throughout the movie had a purpose and was relevant to the main theme of fat...

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...ecifically used to show flashbacks which add depth and give the viewer a better understanding of the theme. Davis gives a perfect example of how the theme of fate determines destiny in the scene showing Elya Yelnats, riding on a train going back to America after he was rejected by the girl of his dreams. The director uses another dissolve transition to show the fortune teller, Madame Zeroni (Eartha Kitt), saying that if Elya does not come back for her to carry her up the mountain so that she can get strong too, his family will be cursed for forever and eternity. The dissolve transition used in this scene gave a confirming understanding why the Yelnat’s family is cursed with bad luck in the first place, and that in order to undo the curse, someone in the family is going to have to complete an action that will reverse the wrongdoings of Stanley’s great-grandfather.