Holes

The landscape of Camp Green Lake is a motif in the novel. Throughout, the environment of Camp Green Lake is described in detail. When Stanley first arrives, he sees that “the land was barren and desolate” (11). The terrain is unrelenting because of the lack of clouds and aggressive sun baring down on the boys as they dig every day. They even start their days at 4:30 a.m. just to avoid having to dig during the day’s hottest part. The harshness of the environment matches the harshness of what the boys must endure at Camp Green Lake. The adults are uncaring and the boys are mean to each other.

When Stanley is away from Camp Green Lake and climbing the thumb-shaped mountain with Zero, the environment becomes more forgiving. There are weeds everywhere and at the top there are flowers that turn out to be onion sprouts. When Zero and Stanley are surrounded by greenery and water again, they can relax and enjoy themselves for the first time since entering the harsh environment of Camp Green Lake.

At the end of the novel, it begins to rain in Green Lake for the first time in over 100 years because the cruelty has ended. Stanley and Zero are leaving and the Warden is in trouble for what she made the boys do. The justice that was brought on by Stanley finding Kate Barlow’s treasure, which happened to be his great-grandfather’s suitcase, also symbolically heals the tragedy of Sam’s death and Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s killing. The land heals with the rain in conjunction with the healing of the characters in the novel.

Almost every character in the novel has a nickname. A character’s nickname reflects one way people see them, when in reality, they can be a completely different kind of person. When Stanley first comes to Camp Green Lake, he is introduced to the other boys in Group D: Magnet, Armpit, Zigzag, Squid, X-Ray, and Zero. Stanley earns the name Caveman after nearly getting into an accidental fight with another kid. The nickname makes him happy because “it meant they accepted him as a member of the group,” even though the nickname was given to him because he’s bigger than the other kids (54). Stanley doesn’t like to cause trouble and doesn’t want to fight, yet his nickname implies that he would be able to beat someone up. The separation of what a nickname tells you about a boy and what the boy is actually like causes emotional pain for Zero. Nicknames represent how a person is perceived; the nickname “Zero” shows that Zero is seen as a nobody by those around him. While Stanley is just glad he has a nickname at all, Zero’s nickname is an insult that follows Zero around the camp.