Holes - Questions from chapter 34 -50

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Holes - chapters 34-50

Summaries and questions

Stanley Yelnat's IV: family tree

• Elya Yelnats: No-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather
• Stanley Yelnats I: great-grandfather. The son of Elya Yelnats. robbed by Kate Barlow.
  
• Stanley Yelnats II: grandfather.
  
• Stanley Yelnats III: father = inventor
  
• Stanley Yelnats IV: main character. Punished for stealing shoes.

Chapter:

34 Pages: 152-154

Summary: Stanley saw a pool of water, or so he thought. He saw the thumb, and he walked

toward a large object. It was a boat, upside down, called the Mary Lou.  He yelled, and someone yelled back, then an arm with an orange sleeve came out.

Discuss these questions: It wasn’t a pool of water Stanley saw, what was it?  

• (a mirage)
  

The boat was called the Mary Lou. Where else in the story have we heard that name?

• (Sam the onion man’s donkey)  

Who in this story wears orange? 

• (The boys at Camp Green Lake)

 

Chapter: #35 Pages: 155-159

Summary: Zero doesn’t look good, he is in bad shape. Zero has been living on sploosh

under the boat in a tunnel, sploosh tastes of peaches. Zero says he won’t go
back to camp, and he won’t dig any more holes. Stanley shows Zero the mountain
that looks like God’s thumb.

Discuss: 

1. What words describe how Zero looks? 

• jack-o-lantern, half rotten, sunken eyes, drooping smile, weak, raspy, pale lips, floppy tongue
•  2. Why does Zero look like this? 
• Starvation, dehydration
• 3. What do you think “sploosh” is? 
• The old canned spiced peaches
•  4. Why does Zero have such bad stomach ache? 
• maybe the sploosh, maybe starvation

Chapter:#36 Pages: 160-166

Summary: They pack some unbroken jars in the sack, and head toward the Big Thumb. Zero used the shovel to help him walk. Stanley thought of what he may also need the shovel for. While they walked, Zero asked Stanley to give him some words.

Stanley wondered about death and his parents. They came to the edge of the dry lake, and came to cliffs. They helped eachother up the big cliffs.Stanley boosted Zero up, and Zero held out the shovel to pull Stanley up. Zero’s hands were bleeding from holding the shovel.

Discuss

 Why did Zero need the shovel to walk? 

• (He was too weak, he used it like a crutch) 
• What might Stanley need the shovel for?
•  (To bury Zero when he dies) 
• When Zero asked for words, what did he want? 
• (He wanted Stanley to give him the letters that spell easy words, like F-U-N) 
• Why did that help? (It kept their minds off of their pain)

Chapter: #37 Pages: 167-169

Summary:

Stanley becomes worried because they are really almost there, and he isn’t sure
there will be anything to help them when they get there. They get excited in
their climb because they realize there are weeds and bugs.

Discuss

Why are they excited about the weeds and bugs? 

• (There has to be some water for weeds to grow and bugs to live)

Chapter: #38 Pages: 170-172

Summary: Stanley picked Zero up and carried him up. He smelled something, then he slipped and fell in a muddy place. He dug in the mud and drank, then he scooped out water for Zero. He found a smooth round object in the mud, it was an onion. He ate it and shared it with Zero.

Chapter: #39 Pages: 173-176

 

Summary:

When Stanley woke up, he saw he was in a meadow. Zero groaned, and it was hard for Stanley to talk. He planned to go down after the shovel to make their water hole bigger, but Zero wanted to tell him something. Zero said he had taken Clyde Livingston’s shoes, then Zero relaxed and slept.

Chapter:
#40 Pages: 177-181

Summary: Stanley discovers that the meadow is full of wild onions. It goes back to the
story from the past of Sam the onion man, and how people felt that his onions
cured their sick families. Stanley and Zero slept a lot, ate a lot of onions
and grew stronger. Stanley didn’t want to leave Zero to get the shovel. Finally
Stanley went, and he was amazed how far he had carried Zero up the mountain.

Discuss: Sam the onion man sold people what? 

• (onion tonic, onion
  juice) 
• How could onions help Stanley and Zero? 
• (Water, some nutrients)
  

Chapter: #41 up to and including Chapter 43

Summary:
Stanley dug the hole deeper, and didn’t let Zero help. They were both starting to improve. Zero told Stanley how he stole the shoes from the homeless shelter. He had no parents and was living on the streets. He just took the shoes because
he needed them, he couldn’t read the sign. After about a week of living on onions, Stanley doesn’t smell anything anymore. The boys are better, and Stanley feels happy. He thinks about his life, his and Zero’s punishments,
possibly living as a fugitive, and possibly looking for buried treasure.

Zero remembers having a home and a mother. The boys plan to go back, find the treasure, sneak some food, and get away. Stanley thinks of his parents, he is worried and scared. They go down, and they try not to drink water for as long as they can. Zero remembers his mother leaving him and his stuffed giraffe, and one day not coming back. He lived for a month in a tunnel of a playground in a park. Stanley begins to think more about his parents. Zero corrects Stanley
about directions. They hid in a hole as they got close to camp, then when things got quiet they found the hole where Stanley had found the lipstick and went in.

 

How did Zero begin to steal?

1. He was born evil
2. He learnt it from his brother
3. His mother taught him
4. He belonged to a gang

What did Zero do with the shoes?

1. He gave them to a homeless man
2. He put them on, and walked out of the shelter
3. He sold them
4. He returned them to the auction

How did Zero get arrested?

1. At school
2. His mother made him return the shoes
3. Stealing new shoes the next day

Stanley and Zero are connected by the crime of stealing Livingston’s shoes. Who did the crime, and who got punished for it?

1. Zero / Zero
2. Zero / Stanley
3. Stanley / Zero
4. Stanley / Stanley

Chapter: 44 up to and including 46

Stanley listens to the sounds of the camp at night, then they go to the hole. Zero goes for water, and comes back with breakfast while Stanley digs. Stanley decides to dig wider instead of deeper because Kate Barlow wouldn’t dig deeper.
Finally, he hits something hard on the side wall of the hole, it is a metal box. He digs underneath it to free it. When it comes out they see it is a metal suitcase. As Stanley pulls it out of the hole, the Warden thanks him.  A flashlight beam comes on and lights up Zero. Mr. Sir, Mr. Pendanski and the Warden are at the hole. They see a lizard on the suitcase, and then more lizards everywhere. The adults talk about having a body to give to the “woman” . The Warden talks about having to dig holes to look for
the treasure when she was a child. : A lizard jumped at Mr. Pendanski, Mr. Sir shot it. Mr. Pendanski suggests shooting the boys, but the Warden says to wait, their story should be simple to the lawyer about Stanley being bit by a lizard. She said they would bury Zero in one of the holes. Stanley remains hopeful, and imagines a good memory. Mr. Sir said Stanley’s lawyer came by and said he was innocent after all. The boys in the camp were waking up, the Warden told the counselors to tell the boys that they didn’t have to dig today. 

 

chapters 47  and  48

When the sun came up, the lizards stayed low in the shade, but still on the boys. Zero said “Satan”, then “Sa- tan- lee”. A tarantula was eaten by one of the lizards. Stanley tried to get out but a lizard’s claw on his ankle stoppedhim. Zero asked if Stanley’s first name was the same as his last name, but backwards. Two strangers drove up, a man in a cowboy hat and a Hispanic woman.
The woman threatened to file charges against Mrs. Walker and the Camp for child abuse and torture. The Warden said the kids stole the suitcase from her the night before, and were caught in the lizard nest. The man told Stanley not to say anything, but asked why Stanley wasn’t released the day before. The Warden said Stanley had been hospitalized, he had been delirious and had been having hallucinations, and there had been no authorization from the Attorney General.
Stanley slowly got out of the hole, the lizards went back in the shade. He pulled out Zero. Stanley was dizzy. The Warden tried to get the suitcase, but Zero wouldn’t let her, it had Stanley Yelnats written on it. As they walked
back to Camp, they found out that the man was the Texas Attorney General, and the woman was Stanley’s lawyer, Ms. Morengo. They gave the boys orange juice and bagels. The Warden says that the suitcase has her things inside of it, and
the adults argue about whether Stanley should open it. Then they give Stanley his things, and start to take him away, but Stanley won’t leave Hector (Zero). The Warden can’t find Zero’s files. The other boys come in and are glad to see
them, and Squid asks Stanley to tell his mom that he was sorry. They let Zero go because they can’t find his records.

 

 

chapters 49 

(History)
There never used to be lizards in the area, but there were red-eyed monsters.
The men of the area who hunted rattlesnakes would get lizard juice from Sam the
onion man to keep away the monsters. If the men would drink onion juice, it
would keep the lizards away. 

The lawyer working on the patent for Stanley's dad came to the camp and said she knew Stanley was innocent of stealing the shoes. 

QuestionsWhy would the onion juice help keep lizards away?

•  (Smell) 
•  What began to happen for the first time in a hundred years? 
• (Rain on the lake)

Chapter 50

(EPILOGUE) Stanley’s mother says there was no curse, but it is strange that
Stanley’s dad invented the cure for foot odor on the day after Stanley carried
Zero (the great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni) up the mountain. Camp Green Lake was closed, and the Warden (Ms. Walker) sold the land to become a Girl Scout camp. Stanley’s self confidence was better, the suitcase contained jewels that weren’t worth very much, and some old papers that were worth a lot. Stanley bought his family a new house, and hired a private investigator. A yearand a half later, they watched a commercial by Clyde “Sweet Feet” Livingston
about Sploosh. Hector’s mother sang a song to Hector she knew from her
childhood.

When Stanley carried Zero up the mountain, it lifted the curse. This was because the great-great-grandfather had forgotten to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain, so the great-great-grandson did it to Madame Zeroni’s great-great-grandson

1. True
2. False

How much money did Stanley and Zero get?

1. Almost a million dollars between them
2. Two million dollars
3. Almost a million dollars each

Why did Stanley hire a private investigator?

1. To send the Warden to Jail
2. To look for Zero’s mother
3. To get compensation for being sent to C.G.L
4. To find out who stole the shoes

They call the foot deodorant “Sploosh”?

1. Because it was made from peaches, like the peaches Kate Barlow made
2. Because it was made from the old peaches that Zero called Sploosh
3. Because it was made from peaches, like the peaches Kate Barlow made, AND the old peaches that Zero called Sploosh)
4. Because that is what Sweet feet wanted to call it.

Hector’s mother knew the song because it was taught from parent to child, starting with her great-great-grandmother, Madame Zeroni

1. True
2. False