How Do the Novel Holes Deal with the Issue of Power? Essay

Essay questions: how do the novel holes deal with the issue of power? . Intro: Holes, by Louis Sachar, are a very important novel for students to study when learning about power and justice. The novel explores these two themes closely as we are taken an a journey through around camp green lake with Stanley, a character who has been wrong fully accused of stealing a pair of sneakers. Through the techniques ideas of characterisation setting and themes, the author is successful in communicating different ideas about power. The first technique is characters in holes are used to show how different people have different levels of power. Stanley, the main character is described as being overweight, shy and unpopular. And he was innocent of the crim for which he was convicted. Stanley was a given a choice by the judge, ‘’you may go to jail, or you may go to camp green lake.’’ (Chapter 2, page 5). He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whenever something went wrong Stanley’s family would always blame Stanley’s no –good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great—grandfather because of his awful luck and hopeless luck. The warden is very different character who is described as powerful, mean and unjust and the only rule was in the camp green lake is ‘don’t upset the warden’ , the warden was feared by many of the kids , because she pushing the boys to work harder . the evidence of her being powerful is in (chapter 1 page 3 )’’ the Warden owns the shade’’ X-ray, one of the boys Stanley’s makes friends with at camp green lake is described as powerful person in the powerless group. He earned a day off because Stanley gave the lid lip stick X-ray said to Stanley that he should give whatever he finds to him because he has been there for a year and he deserves the day off more than he does, so the warden lets X-ray have the rest of the day off, a double shower and a clean set of clothes and she also orders Mr.Pedanski to fill all the canteen with water. The evidence of these is when X-Ray said ‘’ if you find something else give it to me, okay?’’. (ch.11, Pge52) All of these characters demonstrate that power is not distributed evenly in camp green lake and highlight that in society, people can feel powerful and powerless depending on their experiences. The second technique, setting is used to show how the boys experience very unfair and uncomfortable condition during their time at camp green lake. The name of the camp is ironic because the lake is actually dry and brown. Camp green lake name’s fall somewhere between a joke and a curse, nothing is green there and there is no lake, its full-blow desert. ‘’the average temperature in the shade is 95 degrees’’ (ch1, page 3), and the boys have a very difficult life there because they work hard and they didn’t have a rest time just when they find something they will take a day off like X-ray. And they were sleep in coat, get 4 minute shower and relax in a recreation room where ever thing is wrecked. Mr. Sir makes the bandage out of his sunflowers seeds sack and tells Stanley to go right back to work â€Å"it is not nap time.’’ (ch 17 page 78). Sacher creates barren setting to emphasise how the boys at camp were mistreated and that sometimes in life, people are powerless to their living conditions. The third technique that made Holes such an effective novel for students to read is dialogue; dialogue is used by Sacher to communicate all of the emotions felt by the character at different points in the story. When Stanley talks to Zero about teaching Zero how to read, but Stanley rejects Zero’s request. But then after awhile Zero dagged Stanley’s hole while he was away so Stanley found out that he have the power over Zero with simply teaching him. On the other hand Stanley has justice between him and Zero because their deal was to dig hole for Stanley and in exchange he teaches Zero. An evidence of this is when Stanley said â€Å"I’ll try to teach you to read†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ch.22.Pg.96) he expresses what he will do and how much f ability he will put to teach Zero. Therefore, dialogue is the most effective technique in Holes and that the novel Holes is an important novel for students to study while learning about power and justice. In conclusion the idea of power is expressed in a different ways in the novel Holes. The author, Louis Sacher, has used a many different techniques including characterisation, setting and dialogue to communicate his ideas easily and in a fun way. This book is very entertaining for young readers and teaches that power is an important issue that affects all people in society.