Stanley Yelnat in Louis Sachar’s Holes

In Louis Sachar’s Holes, Stanley changes his perspective of life through fear, courage, and perseverance. Louis Sachar began Holes as a basic concept of the area which would later be called Camp Green Lake (Sachar). The story puts us into the streets of Stanley’s neighborhood and immediately into the action. We meet the young Stanley Yelnats, who is about to embark on an unexpected journey that takes him through the extremely painful and unforgettable Camp Green Lake where he is forced to fight for survival against the unbearable heat and all of the dangers lurking in the sandy pit of a camp. Stanley is a typical everyday kid that finds himself in the wrong place and the wrong time. Although he is a good kid that never seems to bother anyone, his family has an alleged history of being cursed. It ran in his family for centuries and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to him.

After taking a pair of used sneakers that had been thrown down from a nearby overpass, Stanley finds himself sitting in a prison camp bus seat with nothing more than a toothbrush, toothpaste, and some writing utensils waiting on the unknown. He can’t get much passed the guards on the bus despite his good behavior, they only ignore him or bash at him to be quiet. The bus ride is long and painfully boring as they travel further and further into the desert heat. Eventually the bus slows down and the patrolling guard tells Yelnats that this is his stop. Stanley steps right from the bus onto the grounds of what used to be a camp for young adults called Camp Green Lake. Now it is a fiery oasis filed with holes. The biggest mystery behind Camp Green was why that the once wonderful lake and campgrounds were nothing more than sand and rocks in a desert now (Sutton). Stanley is then introduced to the camp warden, a mean and vicious woman with no sympathy for any human that walks the grounds of the camp. Stanley is walked around the camp to his new living quarters where he meets Zero. They soon become best friends and Stanley finds himself at peace with the camp. It doesn’t take long for the warden to ruin that, however, as she walks in and takes Stanley to see what must be done for the duration of the time he is at the camp.