The book Holes talks about a boy named Stanley Yelnats and his adventure in a camp called Camp Green Lake for youth offenders.  Stanley is sent to the camp, because he is accused of stealing a pair of shoes from a relief station, even though he was only hit by them when he was walking on the street after school. At Camp Green Lake, all campers have to dig a big hole every day, for “building character” But when Stanley finds a golden tube after several weeks, the camp’s boss, Warden, asks them to dig a big hole in the area the item was found at. Even though they did not find anything, Stanley is confident the camp leaders are looking for something specific. 

Stanley’s circumstances are merely a part of the string of bad luck that has beset him and his family. This is a result of his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” who was cursed by his neighbor for stealing a pig from her. After that, the later generations never received good fortunes. Whenever a family member gets into trouble that was not caused by him or her, he or she blames this ancestor. It is also further revealed that Stanley’s great grandfather, who had the same name “Stanley Yelnats,” was robbed by a famous outlaw Kate Barlow on his way to California in the desert where there used to be Green Lake. He survived in the end, saying the reason was he saw God’s thumb. When Stanley and his friend Zero runs away from the camp to the other end of the lake, they are saved by cans of food in an upside-down boat in the middle of the desert where they also find water and onion on the top of the aforementioned “thumb.” Eventually, they return to the camp, dig in the hole where Stanley found the golden tube, and discover a suitcase left by the outlaw which has “Stanley Yelnats” written on it—the one stolen by Kate.

Between the stories of Stanley, the book also tells some pieces of Kate Barlow’s life. She was teacher, and the best peach jam maker in a town next to Green Lake. She fell in love with an onion seller named Sam. However, because he is black and Kate is white, the people in the town catch the two when they tried to run away and kill Sam. Kate, then, took revenge by shooting the police officer and became an outlaw. After that, no rain fell from the sky anymore at Green Lake Town. Twenty years later, Kate went back and buried all of the money she had robbed from people before she dies of poisoning from the bite of a yellow-spotted lizard. In the end, no one knows where Kate’s buried treasure is. 

Story of Kate Barlow is related to the present through the jars of peach jam given as a gift to Sam by Kate the day before he died.  A hundred and ten years later, the jars are found by Zero. Aside from this food, Zero and later Stanley’s lives are sustained further by Sam’s discoveries. The two boys later find clean water and onions after digging a hole. Sam had told his neighbors drinking onion juice can prevent bites by yellow-spotted lizards, because these animals do not like onion-smelling blood. This is the reason why Stanley and Zero avoided being bitten by the deadly lizards in the hole where the Warden threw them into after finding them, buying the two enough time for Stanley’s lawyers to come This fortunate result is ironic, because what is left by the ones that made Stanley’s family lose everything saves Stanley and his great grandfather in a totally different period of time. Also, because Stanley and his great grandfather share the same names, Stanley, instead of the Warden, is awarded the case he had dug out for it had “Stanley Yelnats” on it. This case changes the life of Stanley’s family because there are a lot of treasures inside it! 

The book has quite a warm ending. Stanley’s lawyer also takes Zero out of the camp, because Warden had deleted all of the boy’s documents he ran to make sure no one knows this person had ever been to the camp; so, legally Zero does not belong there. The Warden also has to close the camp and sell the land because of debts. Stanley’s father even invents a kind of deodorant for feet odor, making the family large amounts of money. Every good character eventually lives in better life.

When destiny ties people from different age together, it might be beautiful and amazing, but in real world, people should not trust luck so much and living blaming on something else such as a curse. There is no reason to blame others without doing anything after meeting any issues, because only we can be the ones to pull ourselves out of troubles. Sometimes people thinks that