Name: Andrew Yao
Course: Humanities
Teacher: Ms. Parker
Date: Sept. 21, 2012
Holes (2000): Friendship rocks
Louis Sachar’s Holes (2000), summarizes an earnest friendship between two
boys. The main character Stanley had a deep friendship with a boy named Zero and it
helped them to overcome the hardships. This friendship also leads them to find the
treasure that belongs to Stanley’s family. His family then decided to share half of their
treasure with Zero cause of this friendship and help. In this social life, we need
friendship to be success. Trust and helping each other are the two main factors that
Stanley and Zero shown in this novel.
First of all, trust between each other is an essential factor of friendship.
“Stanley held it… he was also afraid of the sploosh. It looks like mud… it was
probably over a hundred years old. Who knew what kind of bacteria might be living
in it? “It’s good,” said Zero… He raised the jar to his mouth and… took a sip. ” We
can spot Stanley trusted in Zero and drank the spoolsh (a kind of peach juice which
Zero calls it spoolsh). Although it looks like mud and it had last in the boat for
hundreds of years, he still tried it. Later on, this sploosh kept Stanley alive when he is
climbing up the mountain. “ “Hold on” Zero said, stopping abruptly. “We’re going
the wrong way.” “No, this is right,” said Stanley… “We need to go this way,” Zero
said… Stanley followed. It didn’t feel right to him, but Zero seemed sure.”(195-196)
This sentence shows us the trust from Stanley to Zero. There was a small argument
between each other, Stanley says this way is right but Zero says the other. Later
Stanley trusted in Zero and went his way even though his doesn’t feel right.
Most importantly, helping each other is the major factor of friendship that’s
played between Stanley and Zero. “Zero… he said, “I’ll dig part of your hole every
day. I can dig for about an hour, then you can teach me for an hour.””(98) This quote
from Zero shows the help for both Stanley and Zero. Zero helps Stanley digging part
of his hole as he can dig a lot faster than Stanley, in return, Stanley teaches Zero how
to read and write. “Stanley took hold of Zero’s forearms and pulled him upright… He
stood up, lifting Zero’s worn-out body off the ground… as he continued up the
mountain.”(170) From this sentence we can see a clear picture of friendship between
Stanley and Zero. Stanley carried Zero all the way up to the onion field on the
mountaintop, as Zero is feeling uncomfortable. This friendship is so important; as if
Stanley did not carry Zero up to the onion field Zero would be dead. Through out
these sentences, we can see that friendship was strong that can even affected a
person’s life.
In conclusion, we can see friendship stands in a powerful position in the theme
of the novel Holes (2000). Without this friendship between the main character Stanley
and Zero, a lot of unfortunate and awful things would happen. amam of the things
would cause them to death and they would not overcome the hardship. First, Zero
would maybe never get a chance to learn how to read and write if Stanley did not
teach him. Secondly, if Stanley did not carry Zero up to the onion field on the
mountain, he would be dead cause of starvation. Furthermore, if Stanley did not trust
in Zero and did not drink that, he would be dead from the thirst on the way up to the
mountaintop. Lastly, Stanley would never found the treasure in his family as if he did
not trusted in Zero which way to go. In the final analysis, we can say that friendship is
the key to success.