Holes — Chapter 18

About This Passage

This is the letter Stanley writes to his mom and dad. Almost every word of it is a polite lie. The boys never run obstacle courses. They never swim — the lake has been dry for a hundred years. There is no rock climbing tomorrow; there will only be another hole. Stanley knows all of this as he writes. He writes the lie anyway, partly to keep his mother from worrying, and partly because he cannot bring himself to put on paper what actually happens at Camp Green Lake. Copying this passage lets a reader feel the strange weight of a protective lie — the kind of lie a son tells because he loves his mother and does not want her to carry a burden she cannot lift.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 18 in your own words. Begin with the boys returning to individual holes the next morning, then Stanley's relief to be out of the big hole, then the swollen gash above his neck and his joke about the hard-boiled egg, then Stanley writing his cheerful false letter home, then Zero entering the tent and watching Stanley write, then Zero asking Stanley to teach him to read, then Stanley refusing twice, and finally the narrator telling us that Stanley's heart has hardened along with his hands.

Discussion Questions

1. What in the text tells you that Stanley would rather dig his own hole alone than work with his six fellow campers in one shared pit — even though the alone-work is harder?
2. Stanley writes that camp 'builds character.' This is one of the truest-sounding lines in a letter full of lies. What does the text show us about what is actually being built in Stanley's character in this chapter — and is it what his mother would call 'character'?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide