Bullying & the novel Holes

Bullying is evident throughout Louis Sachar's novel Holes. The main character Stanley Yelnats is bullied:

- in middle school by the smallest kid in the school, literally a third his size;
- by the juvenile detention system, which wrongly sentences him for a crime he does not commit;
- at Camp Green Lake by his fellow juvenile detainees;
- by Camp Green Lake's administrators
- and finally by the harsh desert environment itself.

The theme of bullying is echoed by the story of Sam & Kate in the town of Green Lake a hundred years prior when Sam is murdered for being an African American man who loves a white woman, while Kate is driven to a life of crime for loving him.

Fate in Holes... Next Assignment

Throughout the novel, fate, which is a power or force that is thought to decide future events.

What do you think of them apples?

Response to final assignment... more bullying

An only child, Stanley lives with his mother and his father, who is an inventor. Stanley is a good-natured, kind, middle-school student who is ridiculed by classmates because he is overweight. Stanley’s life changes dramatically after Derrick Dunne, a classmate who is much smaller than Stanley and is fond of picking on Stanley, takes Stanley’s notebook and throws it in the toilet in the boys’ restroom at school.