Holes by Louis Sachar Essay

The book â€Å"Holes† by Louis Sachar is an interesting book that relates with friendship, independence and justice. Although this is pure fiction by its immaterial plot, it does not have a bad concept that could affect our child’s understanding of our long history of culture. We could include this book among our collection of stories for the kids in our library because for a child this book is full of fun and adventure. Its content can further contribute to the active imagination of young students and it could also provide interest in their reading for adventure books. Consequently, this book tells the story of a young boy whose family has been experiencing bad luck because his grandfather has been put in a curse. The clan has since been gripped by importunate events. One day bad luck falls on Stanley Yelnats, one of the great grandsons of the cursed man. He was hit by an expensive pair of tennis shoes on the head. Wondering who could have done that thing, the owner of the shoes saw him holding them and was immediately accused of stealing them. Since he is from a poor family the boy cannot afford to defend himself and was incarcerated. He was given options to choose between two camps for his exile and he chose Camp Green Lake assuming it would be full of plants and vegetation out there. But the camp is a dessert and they have to do hard labor digging Holes all day with his campmates. Notwithstanding the harsh weather in the dessert, he also has to deal with his camp mates who are also harshly unpredictable. Each of them has different personalities and eccentricities but they began to form friendship. Digging Holes everyday in the dessert seems like a never ending nightmare to the boys. Although the purpose of these Holes is a puzzle to them the warden’s goal for these digging is to find the long lost buried treasures which Stanley’s grandfather has buried (Sachar â€Å"Read Aloud Recommendations†). The antecedence of the story creates a wondrous marvel to readers. The whirlwinds which seemingly struck the audience is a valor for the author. Analysis There is however a controversial element that this book represents. Somehow this story portrays injustice and justice, bullying, and bad fate and juvenile delinquency. Further, there is also a bit of racism in there where the characters implies that it is against the law to kiss a black person. The term â€Å"negro† was included which was part of the plot in those days. But somehow, the use of history in the book was incredible. We can consider this book a fiction because of its plots, settings and the characters. For an adult it is likely overwhelming to believe such actions and events. But as I have said this book is just for fun nevertheless it could be an interesting book for small children because it has magic as well as values and lessons within (Sachar Holes). This story simply discusses life with friendship and love for freedom. And it could be presume that it does not propose or make any controversial issue which could harm our children’s learning and understanding. We could easily explain to children the way things goes with the story because it discusses the life of a boy in prison and the cruel treatments he suffered with the guards. He was somehow treated unfairly and we have to discuss these matters to the children that not all boys can have this experience and this can only happen in the book judging from our justice system today. And so it is recommended that this book or film could be advised to be read or watch by grade 5-6 students. For an adult, this book can be literally tedious as if everything was too unbelievable. We can just consider this as a tall tale and nevertheless have a little fun trying to pick up little puzzles altogether and connect them in the end. Many readers may have different understanding and association with this book but it surely connects to the point of friendship, loyalty and trust. Discussion With regard with questionable manners portrayed in the story, nothing really delineates the characters to more than just happy people but able to meet unfortunate events and get meshed with it somehow. Although there were instances that the characters show anger, frustrations and hopelessness, the intention to serve and protect other people is clearly indicated. This is the part where we can see changes and grow in the attitude of the characters. If we have to follow certain rules and guidelines in adapting this story to children in California, we have standards in this state that follows guidelines such as stated in the California Standards for Teaching Profession. It indicates that all students must have all the rights in learning with the teacher and this will be built on student’s knowledge, different life experiences and the goal to accomplish learning. That a teacher can use a variety of instructional materials and strategies that can correspond to every student are diverse needs. The teacher with her willingness and all the rights to make use of challenging experiences to each and every student living in different environment thus encouraging autonomy, freedom and interaction. It is also one of the exclusive rights of the teacher to actively participate and engage all the students in problem solving and critical thinking methods that may surpass any subject matter. Skills and concepts will be the tools in encouraging students to use them in real-life which could make their life significant. Teachers are the tools in the development of the students who will be more self-directed, demonstrative, more articulate and evaluative and this can start from the classroom. (California). Going back to the characters in the book, the children can be asked whom among the characters could very well fit to their personality, likes and dislikes and why? We can suggest that Stanley has portrayed the greatest and more challenging part in the story because of his courage and self-reliance. We can also discuss how characters grow to be more self-reliant and cooperative between them. We can also ask the significance of the title â€Å"Holes† to the students and explain its relevance. Or we can suggest meaning such as Holes in the title to signify Holes in our life and our society. The teacher can also suggest that the author wanted the young people to be independent in their shortcomings and weakness to be able to grow and change and merge with the society. All in all this book was made and published for children not to show discrimination, injustices and delinquency to children but to be able to analyze for themselves how they view things in the eyes of another child and how he made things better (Davis). Synthesis Formidably, this controversial story of Holes will not only catch the attention of the â€Å"juvenile† public, but as noted, it’s sense of distinctiveness is quite a pious form of prose which will surely leave minds in question as to whether the story helps in building the most justifiable sense of writing, or nevertheless the puzzling aroma pulls the trigger on bribing the minds of those who contain very minimal rationality. Personally, I loved the flow of the story and the sagacity which it coherently portrays piece by piece. It may have established ‘negative’ constraints towards ideals and perspectives on conventionality, but it fires up all the more.