Initial S

By/ P&P
My Comments (4 adj.)
1. Simple
No one could doubt that Holes is a simple book. Its language is easy to comprehend, the topic clicks with young kids’ interests, and it takes little effort to catch up with the plot. The simplicity is also embodied in the value expressed between the lines, which is as positive and innocent as one can be: it educates us to be brave, to be kind, and to be ourselves… As it is a book for children, I appreciate its briefness, for raw complicacy would only confuse young readers.
2. Subtle
Though great length is not possessed by the book Holes, the coincidences and foreshadowing set by writers are various. It interests me when Stanley and Zero found the ark named Mary Lou, imagining her to be a pretty lady. The two stories included in the book, one in the past and the other in the present, finally developing to be combined tightly together, are also impressive.
The character of X-Ray and other boys at the camp in exception of Stanley and Zero, is carefully built, too. Nearly every role has a personality that differs from others, which should be considered to be hard to accomplish in such a small book.
The mention of the existing problem of racial discrimination is also appreciated.
3. Spiritual
I think the story is told to tell us the certainty as well the uncertainty of destiny. It encourages us to spontaneously change the fate by our own power. Stanley is born with the same name as the three generations ahead of him, and he seems a timid pushover at the beginning, but he chooses to change. This is how the book demonstrates its spiritual morals.
4. Sometimes boring
I know it would be too strict to require a literature work for children to attain the goal of satisfying grown teens in senior high school, but the story is really not as moving and attractive as teachers would expect it to be. Unfortunately, I have already read The Giver along with it, and it somehow bores me, too. I’m not saying that we can learn nothing from reading these books, but the reward they paid me really cannot equal with the time and effort I paid into reading them.

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Q1: Why is the book named Holes?
Firstly, the plot of the book centers on holes, for the main task of the children in Camp Green Lake was to dig holes every day under the hot sun, which formed the majority of their tedious days.
On the other hand, holes can be seen as the unfulfilled parts in people’s lives: promises to be implemented, dreams to be realized, crimes to be forgiven, discrimination to be defused, and desires to be comprehended.
Q2: why does the writer insert the story of the past of green lake in the book?
I think it shows Louis Sachar’s wish to let readers wonder about the connection between main characters (Stanley, Zero, Warden) and their ancestors (Elya, Zeroni, Walker). This design aims to express the sense of repeating fate which can only be changed by critical acts, such as the expedition by Stanley and Zero. Kismets are to be both faced and reversed, and though we cannot flee from being affected by them, the right of decision is still in our own hands.
Q3: how did Camp Green Lake change Stanley?
My answer would be that, the Camp did not literally give Stanley anything valuable; the unbearable punishment and servitude here have only tormented him. The changes in Stanley all arise from himself, the new self of which he didn't even know the existence before. He has learnt courage, love, critical thinking, perseverance, and determination--- on himself.
“Real treasure is not misery alone, but the reflection on it.”