Holes — Chapter 14

About This Passage

This passage is a short lesson in how quiet people can be very powerful. The Warden does not yell, and she does not hit anyone; instead she gently shakes a canteen so the water swishes, and asks a question anyone can answer. The moment is scary because she has turned proof that Mr. Pendanski disobeyed her into something so small — the sound of empty water space — that there is nothing he can argue with. Copying this trains a reader to notice how an author can build real menace with almost no action at all.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 14 in your own words, moving from Stanley's morning question to X-Ray (who refuses to admit anything), through X-Ray's staged 'discovery' of the tube at the water truck, to Mr. Pendanski bringing the Warden out to the lake, the Warden's first appearance in black cowboy hat and boots, the canteen confrontation in which she humiliates Mr. Pendanski, and Stanley's decision to correct his protective lie and tell the Warden he had already taken a drink.

Discussion Questions

1. The chapter opens with Stanley lying on his cot at night trying to figure out 'what he could have done differently,' but deciding there was nothing. Examine why Sachar begins with this interior scene before the confrontation with X-Ray the next morning, and consider what it tells you about Stanley's mind that he is still looking for something he could have done better even though he gave up the tube exactly as he was told to.
2. When Stanley asks X-Ray about the tube at breakfast, X-Ray snaps at him with half-opened eyes and says 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Examine why X-Ray must pretend not to know in front of the other boys, and consider what it costs the friendship between Stanley and X-Ray that X-Ray has to treat Stanley this coldly in order to keep the story convincing.

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide