92 pages • 3 hours read
Louis SacharHoles
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaPart 1, Chapters 20-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “You Are Entering Camp Green Lake”
Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary
Stanley and Mr. Sir visit the Warden’s house. Mr. Sir tells the Warden about the stolen sunflower seeds and that he thinks Stanley is covering up for one of the other boys. The Warden has Stanley get her makeup case from the other room and tells him about her special red nail polish made out of rattlesnake venom. She puts the nail polish on and says that it is only painful while the polish is wet. The Warden strikes Mr. Sir’s face, leaving “three long red marks slanging across the left side of his face” (91). She tells him that she doesn’t care about his sunflower seeds and he starts to scream from pain. The Warden tells Stanley to go back to his hole and that Mr. Sir won’t die.
Part 1, Chapter 21 Summary
As Stanley is walking back to his hole, he thinks about how the outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow robbed his great-grandfather and left him to die in the desert. His great-grandfather said he survived by “God’s thumb” but nobody knows what he meant (93). When Stanley reaches his hole, he notices that it is finished already. He thanks the boys, but none of them take credit for digging his hole. Stanley sees that “Zeros’ hole was smaller than all the others” (94).
Part 1, Chapter 22 Summary
Stanley thanks Zero and asks why he finished his hole. Zero tells him it’s because he didn’t steal the sunflower seeds or the sneakers. As a thank you to Zero, Stanley agrees to teach Zero how to read. They start with the alphabet and it becomes clear to Stanley that even though Zero can’t read, he is very good with numbers. They agree to practice 10 letters a day and that Zero will help Stanley with his hole so that Stanley has energy to teach. Later, Stanley thinks about how nice it would be to get a break, though “X-Ray wouldn’t like it” (99). He also thinks about the Warden’s cabin and remembers that he’s seen the gold tube with KB written on it before in his own mother’s bathroom. He wonders if the tube of lipstick really could have belonged to Kissin’ Kate Barlow.
Part 1, Chapter 23 Summary
Chapter 23 is a flashback to 110 years earlier at Green Lake. At that time, Green Lake was considered “heaven on earth” and Katherine Barlow’s spiced peaches were “food for the angels” (102). Katherine Barlow was a beloved schoolteacher, and she would also teach classes to the adults at night after work. One man in her night class, Charlie Walker, also known as Charlie Trout because of the way he smelled, “didn’t want to learn” and “seemed to be proud of his stupidity” (103). He asks Katherine out and she rejects him, which makes him angry.
Part 1, Chapter 24 Summary
Mr. Sir’s face is swollen like a cantaloupe while he serves the boys’ breakfast. They try to ask Stanley about what happened, but Stanley doesn’t say anything because “if he didn’t talk about it, maybe it would go away” (105). When Mr. Sir comes later to refill their water, he lets the water that was supposed to go into Stanley’s canteen fall to the ground.
Part 1, Chapters 20-24 Analysis
The Warden’s venomous nature is revealed when she slaps Mr. Sir with poisonous nail polish. Stanley knows that she is looking for something and that is why they are digging holes every day, and now he also knows that whatever they are looking for is incredibly important to her. She doesn’t care that Mr. Sir’s sunflower seeds were stolen because she only cares about finding what she’s looking for. This solidifies Stanley’s idea that Camp Green Lake isn’t really for building character.
The novel further explores how names don’t necessarily reflect identity. Zero is not a zero of a person but an empathic boy who helps dig Stanley’s hole. Stanley grows as a character. He agrees to teach Zero despite how X-Ray would react. He is slowly learning that the leaders, whether the Warden or X-Ray, are not to be trusted or followed blindly.
Zero’s kindness shows Stanley that teaching him to read is worth the risk of X-Ray’s wrath; X-Ray hasn’t done anything for Stanley the way that Zero has. This is the beginning of Stanley and Zero’s life-changing friendship.
The Connection Between Past and Present becomes more prominent in these chapters. The landscape around Camp Green Lake reminds Stanley of the story about how his great-grandfather was left to die in the desert by the outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow. Stanley’s reflection on his family’s past reveals that Stanley is connected with Kate Barlow and the tube even though Stanley doesn’t realize it himself. What happened in the past is now affecting the present.
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By Louis Sachar
