Holes Study Guide

Major characters

• Stanley Yelnats IV (also known as "Caveman" by the rest of the campers, but referred to in the book by his proper name) : Stanley is a 14-year-old boy who does not have any friends from school and is often picked on by his classmates and the school bully. Stanley's family is cursed with bad luck, and although they do not have much money, they always try to remain hopeful and look on the bright side of things. Stanley shares these traits with his family and, although he does not have a lot of self-confidence, he is not easily depressed, a characteristic that helps him adjust to the horrendous conditions of Camp Green Lake. However, he has a bad habit of blaming his great-great-grandfather when he gets in trouble. This habit made him impudent. As the book progresses, Stanley slowly develops both physical and mental strength. He identifies the people who threaten him, like the Warden, and while he tries not to get in trouble he also stands up for himself and his friends and family. Stanley rebels for the rights of his friends when he steals Mr. Sir's truck to look for his friend Zero in the desert of Lake Green.
• Zero (Hector Zeroni) : Zero is known to be the best digger at Camp Green Lake. So often, he is considered to be "stupid" or a mere nothing by the other boys and the counselors at the lake. He lacks an education, meaning he cannot really read nor write. However, he is smart and manages to stand for himself in the face of adversity. Typically he is noted as the character that hardly speaks due to the fact that he is wary of those who mock him. He is said to always have a scowl on his face and does not like to answer questions. Zero is shown to be an honest character after becoming close friends with Stanley. Zero is the one who steals the shoes that Stanley was accused of stealing. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni, the woman who put a curse on Stanley's family. He has been homeless for most of his life, as well as being abandoned by his mother at a very young age. Although he suffers quite a bit, he always seems to persevere and come out on top.
• X-Ray (Rex Washburn) : X-Ray is the unofficial head of the boys in Group D. X-Ray decides that Stanley will be called Caveman and fixes the order of the line for water. X-Ray maintains his position as the leader of the boys even though he is one of the smallest and can barely see without his glasses. He convinces Stanley to give him the lipstick tube that Stanley finds in his hole so that he can have the day off instead of Stanley. X-Ray is able to maintain his position at the head of the group through a system of rewards and allies. Every time that Stanley does something nice for X-Ray, X-Ray is nice to Stanley and stands up for him when the other boys pick on him. When Stanley becomes friends with Zero, however, X-Ray's system is threatened and he becomes hostile towards Stanley. His nickname X-ray comes from it being pig Latin of his actual name, Rex.
• Squid (Alan) : Squid is a member of Group D at Camp Green Lake. He is often the one for taunting Stanley for sending and receiving letters to his mother. Just like X-Ray, Squid is very tough but very subservient to X-Ray's rules and directions.
• Magnet (José) : Another member of Group D. Magnet earned his nickname because of his ability to steal, he got into Camp Green Lake for stealing animals from the zoo and refers to his fingers as "little magnets".
• Armpit (Theodore Johnson) : One of X-Ray's close friends at camp, he pushes Stanley when Stanley calls him Theodore.
• Zig Zag (Ricky) : Zigzag is described to being the tallest kid of Group D, constantly looking like he has been electrocuted, with frizzy hair. Stanley often thinks he is the weirdest and craziest kid at Camp Green Lake. Zigzag is the one who hit Stanley on the head with a shovel and did not apologize for doing so. Zigzag suffers from paranoia, highlighting his displayed "craziness".
• The Warden : Running Camp Green Lake, she is known to be violent, abusive, and quite mean. She uses her power and privilege to get what she wants and make members of the camp to do as she pleases. She has hidden cameras, using them to spy on the members of the camp. She is often thought of to have hidden cameras in the showers, causing Stanley to be paranoid whenever he took a shower, rushing out as fast as possible. She wears nail polish traced with rattlesnake venom, and scratches those when they displease or go against what she says. She has the members of Camp Green Lake digging holes to look for Kate Barlow's Hidden treasure. She is the granddaughter of Charles "Trout" Walker.
• Mr. Sir : One of the counselors at Camp Green Lake, he is constantly eating sunflower seeds. He took up this habit after deciding to quit smoking. He is known to be mean and tough.
• Mr. Pendanski : In Group D at Camp Green Lake Mr. Pendanski is in charge. Mr. Pendanski may seem friendly, but he is just as mean as the Warden and Mr. Sir. He never stops making fun of Zero.

1800s characters

• Katherine Barlow (Kissin' Kate Barlow) : Katherine Barlow is a sweet and intelligent woman who teaches in a one-room school house on Green Lake one hundred ten years before it becomes Camp Green Lake. She falls in love with Sam, the man who sells onions in the town. Although the rest of the white people in the town are racist and enforce rules that prohibit black people from going to school, Kate, who is white, does not care about the color of a person's skin and she loves Sam for the person that he is. When Kate and Sam kiss, the townsfolk grow angry and kill Sam. Kate is devastated by Sam's death and becomes Kissin' Kate Barlow, one of the most feared outlaws in the West. Kissin' Kate always leaves her mark by kissing someone when she finishes killing them; if she had only robbed them, she would leave them in the hot desert letting the yellow-spotted lizards bite the victim with their venomous teeth and kill them. She is the outlaw responsible for robbing Stanley Yelnats I (Stanley's ancestor).
• Sam : Sam is an African-American farmer in the town Green Lake, Texas who grows onions. He believes onions are the cure to everything and makes many remedies from onions. He also has an immense love for his donkey, Mary Lou. His relationship with Kate begins when Sam exchanges his onions for some jars of peaches. He is killed by the townspeople for kissing Kate. His death is led by Charles "Trout" Walker (Trout Walker).
• Charles "Trout" Walker : Charles "Trout Walker" is an extremely spoiled son of a rich family in Green Lake. He gets upset when Kate denies his request to date her. This angers him, and adds on to the reason of causing him to lead the townspeople to burn down the schoolhouse and kill Sam. His nickname Trout comes because of his foot fungus that causes his feet to smell like dead fish. He is The Warden's grandfather, which upon his death, opens up the juvenile detention camp to increase the efficiency of finding Kate Barlow's hidden treasure.

Characters in mid-1800s Curse

• Elya Yelnats : Elya is the great-great-grandfather of Stanley. He is often referred to as his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather", constantly being blamed for everything that goes wrong in Stanley's life. He is considered to be the reason why the Yelnats family has such bad luck. After he fell in love with the woman in Latvia, he travels to America, forgetting to go through with the promise he made to an old woman named Madame Zeroni. This causes generations of bad luck to trickle down the Yelnats family tree. However, he does pass down an important song that Madame Zeroni taught him in Latvia.
• Madame Zeroni : Madame Zeroni is the great-great-great-grandmother of Hector Zeroni (Zero). She was great friends with Elya Yelnats, who is given a pig by Madame Zeroni but he just so happened to break his promise of carrying her to the top of the mountain. She is considered to be the one who put a "curse" on the Yelnats family.

Minor Characters

• Stanley Yelnats I : Stanley Yelnats I is the son of Elya Yelnats as well as the great-grandfather of Stanley Yelnats IV. He was the one whose treasure was stolen by Kate Barlow while he was moving from New York to California. He is known to have survived by climbing to the top of a thumb-shaped mountain (God's Thumb) which happens to be Sam's old onion field. The lipstick tube that stanley finds during his second week at Camp Green Lake was owned by Kate Barlow.
• Mr. Yelnats (Stanley Yelnats III) : Mr. Yelnats is Stanley's father. He is an inventor and quite smart, but extremely unlucky. He attempts to discover a way to recycle old sneakers and because of this, the Yelnats' apartment smells bad. However, he eventually discovers a cure to ridding foot odor and is able to hire a lawyer, Ms. Morengo to get Stanley out of Camp Green Lake.
• Mrs. Yelnats : Mrs. Yelnats is Stanley's mother. She does not believe in curses but always points out the terrible luck that the Yelnats go through.