History Literature / Holes

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The D-Tent inmates in general are ones. In the novel, while Stanley is eventually accepted by them, he reminds himself that they are people he should consider as chums, as they are all here for legitimate reasons. In the film, he does get into bit of scuffle with them, but seems to also genuinely get along with them. In the end, he even invites them over for a pool party at his house.

* ScarpiaUltimatum: G-rated version where the Sheriff half-heartedly offers to Run Sam out of town instead of hanging him if Miss Kate kisses him. She takes him up on his offer ''after'' she kills him--which earns her the nickname "Kissin' Kate" Barlow.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The D-Tent inmates in general are ones. In the novel, while Stanley does get accepted by them, he reminds himself that they are people he should consider as chums, as they are all here for legitimate reasons. In the film, he does get into bit of scuffle with them, but seems to also genuinely get along with them. In the end, he even invites them over for a pool party at his house.

* TheStinger: In the film, at the very end of the credits, Hector "Zero" Zeroni quotes the curse his great-great-great-grandmother made with her accent and speech patterns.

** The denizens of Green Lake are on the receiving end of this when they brutally murder Sam. A drought hits the lake and it all dries up. The narration even states that all this can be seen as divine punishment.

* ForWantOfANail: A few examples.
** If Elya had taken his pig up the mountain one last time instead of taking a bath (due to not wanting to present himself to Myra smelling like a pig), his pig would have weighed more than Igor's and he would likely have ended up with Myra. Although it probably worked out better for him; the situation finally opened his eyes to the fact that Myra was not the kind of woman he wanted to marry.
** If Elya had remembered to carry Madam Zeroni up the mountain before getting on the boat to America, the Yelnats family would not have been cursed.
** Stanley would never have ended up at Camp Green Lake if Derrick Dunne hadn't stolen his notebook. By the time Stanley fished it out of a toilet, he had missed his bus and had to walk home, leading to him ending up with Clyde Livingston's shoes. He also wouldn't have ended up with said shoes if Zero hadn't stolen them in the first place, or had kept them, or ditched them anywhere except exactly where he did. Zero even says in the film that it's his fault that Stanley ended up at Camp Green Lake.
** Stanley would also likely have gone to jail if Barf Bag had not elected to provoke a rattlesnake to bite him, as otherwise there wouldn't have been a vacancy for him to fill. As a result, he wouldn't have broken the curse, never met Zero, never found the treasure or reunited Zero with his mother.
** Kate Barlow wouldn't have become a famed outlaw if Sam hadn't been killed. Stanley Yelnats I would also not have been robbed (at least not by her), and because he met his wife in hospital after said robbery, the three younger generations of Stanley Yelnats would not have been born. Also, she stole Stanley Yelnats I's money after becoming an outlaw and the whole purpose of Camp Green Lake was to find it. Camp Green Lake wouldn't have even existed if it weren't for Sam's death.
** Stanley's family would be rich and living in California had Stanley Yelnats I not been robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. As it is, they're poor and stuck living in a tiny apartment in Texas and struggling to keep up with the rent.
** The Warden would have gotten the treasure scot-free if X-Ray hadn't told Stanley to give him anything else he found while digging after Stanley's first find of a fossil was rejected, which caused Stanley to give him Kissin' Kate's lipstick tube and tell him to pretend to find it in a different spot that the Warden spends several fruitless weeks ordering the boys to thoroughly dig up.

** X-Ray in the book doesn't welcome Stanley and Hector back from the desert. In the film, he hugs them in relief on seeing that they're alive.

* TragicMistake: Elya forgetting to back for Madame Zeroni led to his family being cursed for over a century.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: X-Ray in the book doesn't welcome Stanley and Hector back from the desert. In the film, he hugs them in relief on seeing that they're alive.

* ChekhovsArmoury: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Every. Single. Thing]] that happens across all three stories, no matter how insignificant, has some bearing on the overarching plot. It's for this reason that the book is extremely popular choices for elementary schools to have students read: it teaches them about attention to detail.

"I just filled them a little while ago," said Mr. Pendanski.\\
The Warden stared hard at him. "Excuse me," she said. Her voice was soft.\\
"I had just filled them when Rex--"\\
"Excuse me," the Warden said again. "Did I ask you when you last filled them?"

-->'''Pendanski''': Rule number one: ''do not upset The Warden''.
** The yellow-spotted lizards. ''Everyone'', even the Warden and ''especially'' Mr. Sir, is terrified of them and for good reason as they're [[HairTriggerTemper vicious]] and have the [[OneHitKill most deadly venom of any animal in Green Lake]]. The only one to ever show calm in their presence was Kissin' Kate Barlow, and that's only because she had nothing left to live for.

* EthnicMagician: Madam Zeroni is an old Egyptian woman with dark skin and a very wide mouth. She puts a curse on Elya and his descendants for not carrying her up the mountain so she can drink from the stream.

* GypsyCurse: Madam Zeroni's curse. Subverted in that she was actually Egyptian; the Yelnats family only ''believes'' she was Romani, which is one of multiple details [[LegendFadesToMyth they get wrong]].

* HereditaryCurse: A bad luck curse on the main character's family due to an ancestor cheating a Roma drives the plot. The way to lift the curse is hereditary as well. Madam Zeroni's part of the deal was for Stanley's ancestor to carry her to the top of a nearby mountain to drink from the spring so she could become strong. A century later, Stanley carries Madam Zeroni's descendant Hector to the top of a mountain where he can drink from the spring, fulfilling the Yelnats' part of the bargain and lifting the curse.
** It may have just been an accident, but Kissin' Kate Barlow tells Trout Walker (the Warden's grandfather) before she dies that he, his children, and his children's children could dig in the dried lake bed for the next 100 years and never find her treasure. Exactly 100 years later, it was found by another and the Warden is arrested without even seeing it.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Mixed with BitchInSheepsClothing - Pendanski puts on the front of the "nice" counselor who wants the boys to reform their ways and reenter society as respectable and law-abiding men, but in reality, he looks down on them as idiots and lowlives and is sadistic and condescending. Zero gets the worst of it, but the other boys aren't spared either. The ''Survival Guide'' even notes that this makes him worse than Mr. Sir, who doesn't bother hiding his meanness being a mask of niceness.

* KarmicJackpot: Stanley overall is a NiceGuy who gives X-Ray the tube he finds and later tries to steal the water truck to deliver it to Hector in the desert. These both pay off in two big ways - the warden's obsession with the lipstick tube makes Stanley realize the initials stand for Kate Barlow and he finds her treasure (a chest stolen from Stanley Yelnats I) as well as claiming ownership. To a lesser extent, Stanley's devotion to Zero and keeping him alive not only breaks the family curse but also allows Zero to realize the chest belongs to his friend by reading the letters on it.

** A positive example, twice over regarding Stanley's friendship with Zero - teaching Zero how to read prevents him from getting cheated out of the money that rightfully belongs to his family, and saving Zero from dehydration and carrying him up the mountain broke the Yelnats' family curse.

* LegendFadesToMyth: The main character says that he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from a one-legged Roma woman, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. The book tells us that it was actually that his great-great-grandfather had been given a pig by an old Egyptian woman missing a foot--who was also a friend of his. He was supposed to carry her up a mountain and let her drink from a stream. However, he failed to do this and he and his descendants would be cursed with bad luck forever.

* MortonsFork: X-Ray points out one for Zero after Zero runs away from camp, saying that Zero's dead no matter what he does - if he stays in the desert, he'll die of thirst, and if he comes back, he'll have to face the Warden, who has already decided to {{unperson}} him.

** Subverted with Mr. Sir in the film - the Attorney General reveals his real name is Marion Sevillo.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Averted. Although the boys only refer to each other and later to Stanley by their nicknames, Pendanski refers to all of them, bar Zero, by their real names. Towards the end, however, he refers to Zero by his real name Hector. In ''Literature/SmallSteps'', we even get two of their surnames: Johnson for Armpit, and Washburn for X-Ray. Subverted by Mr. Sir in the film, too - his real name turns out to be Marion Sevillo. Cue an OhCrap from him when the Attorney General recognizes him and uses his name.

** Aside from Stanley and Zero, all the boys of group D are referred to either by their nicknames (by each other, Mr. Sir and the Warden) or their real first names (by Pendanski - they are: [[PigLatin X-Ray = Rex]], Armpit = Theodore, Squid = Alan, Magnet = Jose, Zigzag = Ricky, Zero = Hector, Twitch = Brian, and Barf Bag = Lewis). As mentioned above, we find out two of their surnames in ''Literature/SmallSteps''. Armpit's real full name is Theodore Johnson, and X-Ray's is Rex Washburn.

* {{Unperson}}: To keep the staff of Camp Green Lake from being held responsible for Zero's potential death in the desert, the Warden orders Mr. Pendanski to delete his files from the computer. The task is easier because Zero was a ward of the state with no family, but it backfires miserably - with those records gone, they can't prove he's an inmate, and have to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard let him go]] instead of [[HostageForMacGuffin trading him for the suitcase]].

* {{Catchphrase}}:

*** Again, though, they would not have been born as Stanley Yelnats I met his wife in hospice.

* OneSteveLimit: No characters ever realize this, but the narration mentions that both Stanley and the Warden have ancestors with the last name "Miller". In a book with this small a cast and this tight a plot, that can't be a mistake, so you gotta wonder...

* AdaptedOut: There don't seem to be any counselors other than Mr. Sir and Pendanski in the movie. In the book, Pendanski is the counselor in charge of Stanley's tent and others appear occasionally, notably during the climax of the story.

%%** Also Squid's mother.

* AlliterativeName: Myra Menke, and her father Morris Menke. Also the bully who picked on Stanley in school, Derrick Dunne, only in the book and in one of the film's deleted scenes.

* HappyRain: In both the book and the movie, after Sam and Kate are given some posthumous justice in the form of [[spoiler:Trout Walker's granddaughter being arrested for her own various crimes]], the century-long drought that gripped the Green Lake area comes to an end. In the book, it's a much smaller moment with a single line describing a raindrop hitting the ground; in the movie, the boys happily dance in it for a while before Stanley and Zero have to depart.
* HereditaryCurse: A bad luck curse on the main character's family due to an ancestor cheating a Roma drives the plot. The way to lift the curse is hereditary as well. Madam Zeroni's part of the deal was for Stanley's ancestor to carry her to the top of a nearby mountain to drink from the spring so she could become strong. A century later, [[spoiler:Stanley carries Madam Zeroni's descendant Hector to the top of a mountain where he can drink from the spring, fulfilling the Yelnats' part of the bargain and lifting the curse]].

** A positive example, twice over regarding Stanley's friendship with Zero - teaching Zero how to read [[spoiler:prevents him from getting cheated out of the money that rightfully belongs to his family]] and saving Zero from [[spoiler:dehydration and carrying him up the mountain broke the Yelnats' family curse]].

* MagicRealism: If you take the Yelnats family curse to be real, and/or the drought on Green Lake to be literal divine retribution, rather than just a series of ''extremely'' unlikely coincidences, then the whole story falls into this. It's a mostly-realistic story of prejudice, poverty, the inadequacies of the US penal system... and some ''very'' persistent curses.

** The sudden catastrophic drought Green Lake suffered from may itself have been bad luck, but there are some hints it may very well have been God Himself punishing the people for murdering Sam.

* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: The Yelnats family's song. The book says the song rhymes and makes sense in its original language.

* {{Mordor}}: Camp Green Lake, which is neither green nor a lake. It used to be, though. And by the ending of the book it is implied that it did become a lake again afterwards.
* MortonsFork: X-Ray points out one for Zero after Zero runs away from camp, saying that Zero's dead no matter what he does: if he stays in the desert, he'll die of thirst, and if he comes back, he'll have to face the Warden, who has already decided to {{unperson}} him.

* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Warden is only ever known as such in the book. A brief walky-talky conversation between her and Mr. Pendanski in the movie names her [[GenderBlenderName Lou]].

** Subverted with Mr. Sir in the film: the Attorney General reveals his real name is Marion Sevillo.

* NoSympathy: In the film, a flashback near the end shows the Warden as a girl, telling "Trout" Walker (her grandfather) she's tired of digging. His response: "THAT'S TOO DAMN BAD! You keep digging!"

* NotWorthKilling: In the film, by the time Trout Walker comes across Kate Barlow again since she became Kissin' Kate, she initially prepares to shoot Trout, but then tiredly remarks she's not going to kill him and lazily tosses her gun aside over to him. At that point she's already a DeathSeeker and DrivenToSuicide, but given her outlaw M.O. it'd also mean she'd have to kiss him after killing him, which she certainly would not want to do.

* ObjectShapedLandmass: In both the book and [[Film/{{Holes}} the movie]], it's stated that after being robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow and wandering through the desert, Stanley Yelnats I is stated to have found refuge on "God's Thumb". It's rather vague what this statement means, until Stanley sees a huge rock formation off in the distance from Camp Green Lake. It seems to look like a gigantic thumb, and he even holds up his thumb to it to compare. It turns out the rock formation is what Stanley the first meant as God's Thumb.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Downplayed. At the start of the book, it's stated that some of Stanley's teachers make cruel comments and embarrass their students without realising it, as demonstrated by his math teacher, who embarrasses him and another boy by weighing them (Stanley is the heaviest kid in the class, the other kid is the lightest, and unfortunately, Stanley is three times heavier than him) while teaching ratios and writing the result on the board.

** Magnet gets one when he sees the water truck, driven by Mr. Sir, coming back, realising his sack of sunflower seeds is missing (Magnet stole it minutes earlier). Stanley then gets one when he fails to catch the sack when Zigzag throws it to him, and he frantically tries to bury it.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Averted. Although the boys only refer to each other and later to Stanley by their nicknames, Pendanski refers to all of them, bar Zero, by their real names. Towards the end, however, he refers to Zero by his real name Hector. In ''Literature/SmallSteps'', we even get two of their surnames: Johnson for Armpit, and Washburn for X-Ray. Subverted by Mr. Sir in the film, too: his real name turns out to be Marion Sevillo. Cue an OhCrap from him when the Attorney General recognizes him and uses his name.

* HappyRain: At the end of the movie, after a century of curse-induced drought, it begins to rain at Camp Green Lake and the guys happily dance in it for a while before Stanley and Zero have to depart.
* HereditaryCurse: A bad luck curse on the main character's family due to an ancestor cheating a Roma drives the plot. The way to lift the curse is hereditary as well. Madam Zeroni's part of the deal was for Stanley's ancestor to carry her to the top of a nearby mountain to drink from the spring so she may become strong. A century later Stanley carries Madam Zeroni's descendant to the top of a mountain where he can drink from the spring, fulfilling the Yelnats' part of the bargain and lifting the curse.
** It may have just been an accident, but Kissin' Kate Barlow tells Trout Walker (the Warden's grandfather) before she dies that he, his children and his children's children could dig in the dried lake bed for the next 100 years and never find her treasure. Exactly 100 years later, it was found by another and the Warden was arrested without even seeing it.

* IfICantHaveYou: Charles "Trout" Walker was already upset for Kate rejecting him, but he gets ''really'' furious upon seeing she chose the black onion farmer Sam.

* {{Irony}}: When a local woman spotted Katherine and Sam kissing each other (in the book; Trout was the witness in the movie), she tells them "God will punish (them)!" After Sam was murdered, it stopped raining at Green Lake, with the town and surrounding area drying up and becoming a barren desert. Who did God punish, indeed?

%%* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Pendanski.
* JerkassHasAPoint: The other campers had every right to be angry about the fact Zero was helping Stanley dig his hole while they were all still doing it by themselves. Stanley admits to himself later that he could have easily dug his hole by himself then taught Zero how to read. He just wanted to get a break.

** Derrick Dunne appears to get away with stealing Stanley's notebook. Though he makes up for it by providing Stanley's alibi later to his lawyer, clearing the kid's name.

* KarmicJackpot: Stanley overall is a NiceGuy who gives X-Ray the tube he finds and later tries to steal the water truck to deliver it to Hector in the desert. These both pay off in two big ways: the warden's obsession with the lipstick tube makes Stanley realize the initials stand for Kate Barlow and he finds her treasure-- a chest stolen from Stanley Yelnats I-- as well as claiming ownership. To a lesser extent, Stanley's devotion to Zero and keeping him alive not only breaks the family curse but also allows Zero to realize the chest belongs to his friend by reading the letters on it.

** For wasting her time about Stanley having apparently stolen his sack of sunflower seeds, the Warden slashes Mr. Sir's face with her fingernails. Fingernails she had just painted with ''rattlesnake venom'', which is still toxic when it's wet and only harmless when it dries.
** When Mr. Sir thinks that Stanley stole his sack of sunflower seeds and ate them all, and the Warden scratched his face for bothering her about it, he takes it out on Stanley by not giving him water for around two weeks when he delivers it. In the film, he did this earlier when he asks Stanley how his sack of sunflower seeds ended up in Stanley's hole, asking him: "Did it fall from the sky? Huh?", that being the same excuse Stanley gave as to how he ended up with Clyde Livingston's shoes.
* KillerRabbit: Yellow-spotted lizards may look innocent and adorable at first, but they hiss and flare their frills when provoked, and unlike scorpion and rattlesnake attacks, no one can survive their bites.

** An earlier example occurs with Pendanski. Pendanski insults Zero one time too many by giving him a shovel and saying it will be all he will ever be good for. Having reached his RageBreakingPoint, Zero knocks Pendanski cold by whacking him across the face with the shovel.

** "Trout" Walker was one of the people to lead and spearhead the town's mob against Katherine and Sam. He [[RichesToRags winds up broke]] during the drought and spends the rest of his days digging for a treasure and never finding it.
** A positive example: Stanley teaching Zero how to read prevents him from getting cheated out of the money that belongs to his family. Saving Zero from dehydration and carrying him up the mountain ended the curse on him.

** Trout's family is the wealthiest one in town because they own the lake and most of the property, meaning they control a natural resource. In the best case, the lake dries up after Sam dies, and Trout loses most of his fortune.

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%%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16670942690.47507400
%%Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: X-Ray in the book doesn't welcome Stanley and Hector back from the desert. In the film, he hugs them in relief on seeing that they're alive.

* AndStarring: Creator/ShiaLaBeouf gets an "And Introducing" credit. Which is a bit of a cheat: Though this was his first feature film, he was well-known as [[Series/EvenStevens Louis Stevens]] at the time.

* CallBack: The opening narration remarks that if you get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, "there is nothing anyone can do to you anymore". When Kissin' Kate Barlow dies by a yellow-spotted lizard's bite, the narration comments that "there was nothing anyone could do to her anymore."

* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Stanley takes the rap for stealing Mr. Sir's sack of sunflower seeds. Mr. Sir, not believing Stanley, takes the case to the Warden, who slashes Mr. Sir's face for wasting her time about it. As a result, Mr. Sir denies Stanley water for about a week or so.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Pendanski.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy[=/=]LoveMakesYouEvil: Kissin' Kate after Sam is killed.

** Mr Sir at the end of the film and stated by him each time. First is when Stanley's lawyer and the Attorney General return. Second is when the Attorney General recognizes him and uses his real name, Marion Sevillo. The first time you don't see his face when he says it. The second time, you definitely do.
* OneSteveLimit[=/=]OneDegreeOfSeparation: No characters ever realize this, but the narration mentions that both Stanley and the Warden have ancestors with the last name "Miller". In a book with this small a cast and this tight a plot, that can't be a mistake, so you gotta wonder...

* OneSteveLimit[=/=]OneDegreeOfSeparation: No characters ever realize this, but the narration mentions that both Stanley and the Warden have ancestors with the last name "Walker". In a book with this small a cast and this tight a plot, that can't be a mistake, so you gotta wonder...
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Averted. Although the boys only refer to each other and later to Stanley by their nicknames, Pendanski refers to all of them, bar Zero, by their real names. Towards the end, however, he refers to Zero by his real name of Hector. In ''Literature/SmallSteps'', we even get two of their surnames: Johnson for Armpit, and Washburn for X-Ray.Subverted by Mr Sir in the film, too: his real name turns out to be Marion Sevillo. Cue an OhCrap from him when the Attorney General recognizes him and uses his name.

** Aside from Stanley and Zero, all the boys of group D are referred to either by their nicknames (by each other, Mr Sir and the Warden) or their real first names (by Pendanski - they are: [[PigLatin X-Ray = Rex]], Armpit = Theodore, Squid = Alan, Magnet = Jose, Zigzag = Ricky, Zero = Hector, Twitch = Brian, and Barf Bag = Lewis). As mentioned above, we find out two of their surnames in ''Literature/SmallSteps''. Armpit's real full name is Theodore Johnson, and X-Ray's is Rex Washburn.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The boys of Group D usually use their nicknames to refer to each other, except for Stanley and Zero after Stanley learns Zero's actual name. In particular, Armpit never likes to be referred to by his real name of Theodore. At the end, Armpit asks Stanley to call his mother and apologize on his behalf, saying, "Tell her Theodore said he was sorry." This is changed from the book, as it's Squid, not Armpit, who asks Stanley this favour ("Tell her Alan said he was sorry"), but it's still played straight, as the boys refer to each other by their nicknames rather than their actual names, except for Stanley before he acquires his nickname of Caveman.

* PartingWordsRegret: In the film, all of the boys get worried when Stanley drives Mr. Sir's truck into the desert and then runs on foot to find Zero. They all had a big fight with both Stanley and Hector, and know that running away from camp is a death sentence. When the duo return, they get a GroupHug from the group in the movie and an apology in the book.

** Mr. Sir gives Zigzag an extra carton of orange juice for his birthday. Everyone is surprised that Mr Sir did it.

* ShaggyDogStory: The Warden and her ancestors have spent decades trying to find Kate Barlow's treasure in the dried ruins of the lake (she even mentions her grandfather forced her to dig through most of her childhood, ''even on Christmas'') so much so that the whole point of the camp was to use kid labor to do the dirty work and find the treasure faster. In the end all that effort was wasted as not only does she not get the treasure chest, Stanley denies her the dignity of even looking inside it. [[AssholeVictim She mostly deserves it]], but still... Ouch.

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Kate turns down Trout Walker, the richest man in town, because she finds him repulsive on the outside and inside. Sam wins her over just by being kind, humble, and polite; he even recites poetry with her as he fixes up the schoolhouse. Unsurprisingly, when Trout murders Sam, Kate goes from kind schoolteacher to vengeful outlaw.
* SnakeOilSalesman: Subverted with Sam. It may be easy to believe that his onion remedies run on the placebo effect, especially when we find out he could just as easily earn a living with carpentry. The onions end up being a ChekhovsGun; he says the lizards don't like the onion juice in people's blood, and the lizards in the hole with the treasure end up not biting Stanley or Hector after they were eating onions from Sam's field for a few days. Even the Warden is astounded that the boys are alive come sunrise.

* StarCrossedLovers: In Kate's story, this happens in a tragic way, and twofold. She and Sam develop an UnresolvedSexualTension because he is unfailingly polite to her, and shares her interest in poetry. Kate is also a dedicated teacher in a town where most of the adults can't read or write. Sam eventually reciprocates her feelings and offers to mend her broken heart by kissing her. The only problem? They're in the 19th century post-slavery era, meaning Jim Crow was in effect. The minute Sam and Kate kiss, the townspeople find out; they raise a mob to burn down the schoolhouse because they don't value education, and the sheriff plans to hang Sam because it's against the law for a black man to kiss a white woman. It's no wonder that Kate turns her back on the teaching profession and hardens her shattered heart.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Sorry Sam, but as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded by the narrator]], you won't stand a chance at outrunning a steam powered motorboat in just a ''rowboat'', even if you do have strong and powerful arms. And thus, Trout is able to catch up to and shoot Sam.

* TerribleTrio: The Warden, Mr. Sir and Pendanski.

* WhamLine: Occurs when Zero tells Stanley his real name: Hector Zeroni, unwittingly revealing that he's the descendant of Madam Zeroni, who cursed Stanley's family with bad luck when his great-great-grandfather failed to take her to the oasis at her request.
* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Miss Katherine, the white school teacher, fell in love with Sam, the black onion farmer. They're spotted kissing and when the people heard, they stormed Katherine's schoolhouse. Miss Katherine ran to the sheriff's office but he told her that it's against the law for a Negro to kiss a white woman. Katherine tried to get away with Sam but they shot and killed him.

** Kissin' Kate Barlow. Originally just a schoolteacher in 19th-century Texas, she eventually falls for the the [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt black onion seller]], Sam. This results in not only a mob burning down the school, but Sam is sentenced to death for kissing a white woman. She then becomes the most notorious outlaw in the Wild West. Her first kill is the sheriff who [[ScarpiaUltimatum offered to not kill Sam in exchange for a kiss]].
** To a certain extent, the Warden counts as well. She had a rough childhood due to her grandfather abusing her and forcing her to dig nonstop for the treasure Kissin' Kate robbed, not even being allowed to stop for Christmas. Evidently, this lasted to her adulthood.

* TheAlcoholic:
** Green Lake's sheriff is drunk on the job and asks Kate for a kiss when she goes to him for help. Before Kate shoots him, he's drinking a cup of coffee, possibly due to a hangover.

** Stanley not having a lawyer. Even if the family was too poor to afford one (the reason given as to why he didn't have one during the trial), he should have had a public defender assigned to him anyway.[[note]]That said, there have been juvenile court judges who have been removed after it was found they took [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal bribes from owners of abusive juvenile camps]] and were accordingly much more likely to sentence juvenile offenders. This might be a case of RealityIsUnrealistic that explains the KangarooCourt trail for Stanley, especially if the family dismissed the public defender for deliberately not doing a good job, and why Zero never even got a hearing.[[/note]]

** Stanley gets to keep the orange jumpsuit as he leaves Camp Green Lake, which is forbidden in real life and can ironically result in regaining your sentence.
*** That could easily have been forgiven by the fact that all three of the people running the camp were being arrested. Everyone had other things on their minds.

Given a choice between juvenile hall and the Camp Green Lake "rehabilitation retreat," Stanley picks the latter, only to find that this "camp" may have been the worse choice -- located miles from civilization in the middle of the desert, the boys sent there live in complete squalor, mistreated by the Camp's shady owners, with their days spent doing nothing but digging five-foot-deep holes in the desert over and over for seemingly no reason.

As time goes on, Stanley begins to suspect that the owners are searching for something -- and from there unfolds a complex web of intersecting stories spanning over a century, involving mysterious curses, WildWest outlaws, and buried treasure...

''Holes'' is a children's novel by Creator/LouisSachar. It's about teenager [[FunWithPalindromes Stanley Yelnats IV]], who is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and sent to a juvenile detention center called "Camp Green Lake". At the camp, the boys are mistreated by the suspicious owners, who force them to continually dig holes in the middle of a desert with the same width and depth. And there are curses. And thumbs. And a story from the past about a romance destroyed by bigotry.

The narrative includes two other timelines in addition to Stanley's that appear to be almost irrelevant to each other, until the resolution when they all come together.

In 2003, Creator/{{Disney}} adapted the book [[FilmOfTheBook into a feature film]]. The script was also written by Sachar. It was directed by Creator/AndrewDavis (of ''Film/TheFugitive'' fame) and stars Creator/ShiaLaBeouf as Stanley, Creator/SigourneyWeaver as the Warden, Creator/JonVoight as Mr. Sir and a good deal of other notable actors in bit parts.

Sachar wrote a sequel called ''Literature/SmallSteps'' which follows Theodore ("Armpit") and X-Ray after their release from Camp Green Lake.

He also wrote [[Literature/StanleyYelnatsSurvivalGuideToCampGreenLake a guide to surviving Camp Green Lake]], narrated by Stanley.

* OneSteveLimit[=/=]OneDegreeOfSeparation: No characters ever realize this, but the narration mentions that both Stanley and the Warden have ancestors with the last name "Miller". In a book with this small a cast and this tight a plot, that can't be a mistake, so you gotta wonder...

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* MacGuffinBlindness: An odd example, where the {{MacGuffin}}s are a combination of people and things, and all are ignorant to each other until the very end. Stanley Yelnats dismisses his family's story of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, so he doesn't understand the significance behind Zero's last name being Zeroni (Madame Zeroni cursed said great-great-grandfather for failing to uphold his end of a promise). And while he knows that the bullet shell with the KB monogram that he found belonged to famed outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow and that they were digging for ''something'' in the Texas desert, he doesn't realize why finding the bullet shell was important, though he does make it a point to remember where it was initially found. He eventually sings to Zero as he drinks from a mountain pool, inadvertently breaking the curse on his family, and he and Zero return to where the bullet shell was found to dig a little further, where they discover the shell was a marker for the location of Barlow's rumored treasure hoard.