Holes — Chapter 2

About This Passage

This is chosen because it is the entire second chapter — a compact rhetorical event. Sachar addresses the reader directly, states the camp's theory of reform in plain declarative prose, then undercuts the theory with the free-indirect demotion of 'That was what some people thought,' and finally introduces his protagonist by palindromic name, financial class, and inexperience in four lines. The chapter is a miniature of authorial strategy: direct address, ironic reportage, structural compression, class-marked introduction.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 2 as a rhetorical event rather than a plot event. Walk through Sachar's sequence of moves: direct address to the reader, the statement of the reformist theory, the free-indirect demotion of the theory to 'what some people thought,' the introduction of Stanley by palindromic name, and the yoked facts of his poverty and inexperience. Treat the chapter as an argument compressed into fewer than a hundred words.

Discussion Questions

1. Sachar's sentence 'That was what some people thought' is an instance of free indirect demotion — the narrator reports a belief without endorsing it. Examine the rhetorical economy of this move. What does Sachar accomplish by using a technique usually associated with literary fiction inside what is nominally a middle-grade novel?
2. The chapter's central irony sits in the word 'choice.' Consider the philosophical problem: when is a choice not a choice? Between two punitive options, Stanley 'chooses' — and yet the language of agency is preserved. What is Sachar doing to the concept of choice, and what does the preservation of the word expose about the legal system that uses it?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide