Chapter 21-30 Summarie
Holes
Chapter 21-30 Summaries
Chapter 21
As Stanley walks back to his hole, he worries what Mr. Sir will do to him when he recovers. He also realizes that, because of the time spent at the Warden's cabin, he'll be digging long after the others have finished.
Now he starts to think about his great-grandfather, who was robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. Kissin' Kate left Stanley's great-grandfather alone in the desert, where he somehow managed to survive for seventeen days before he was rescued. He told his rescuers that he survived because he "found refuge on God's thumb" (21.7).
In his pensive haze, Stanley nearly steps on a rattlesnake on his way back to the holes. In case things weren't scary enough already.
When he gets back to the place where the boys are digging, he finds that his hole is almost finished. Huh? Thinking that the other boys dug the hole to thank him for taking the blame for stealing the sunflower seeds, he smiles and thanks them. But none of the other boys takes credit for digging his hole.
At that moment, Stanley notices that Zero's hole is barely begun: it was Zero who dug the hole for him. Well how about that?
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 21 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 22
When Zero gets back to the tent that night, Stanley asks him about his grand digging gesture. Turns out Zero was helping Stanley out since he knows he didn't steal the sunflower seeds.
And when Stanley points out that Zero didn't steal them either (good point), Zero tells him, "You didn't steal the sneakers" (22.14).
It seems like Zero is a pretty decent dude after all, so Stanley tells him that he will try to teach him to read.
Zero doesn't even know the alphabet, but he learns it pretty quickly once Stanley recites it for him. In fact, Zero's a pretty bright kid: he also has some math chops in him.
The boys strike a deal: Stanley will teach Zero more letters every day, and in return, Zero will dig some of Stanley's hole. This way Stanley will have more energy for teaching. Sounds like a fair trade.
Later that night, Stanley lies in bed worrying – what's new, right? He's not sure what X-Ray will think about the fact that Zero's helping him dig his hole.
And now for some more thinking. Stanley remembers his meeting with the Warden: her fingernail polish, her makeup kit… and bam! Suddenly Stanley realizes what the gold tube was: part of a tube of lipstick.
Remembering the inscription on the bottom of the tube ("KB"), he wonders if that lipstick might just have belonged to Kissin' Kate Barlow.
The plot thickens…
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 22 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 23
This chapter takes us back one hundred and ten years, before Camp Green Lake even existed, and of course well before Stanley was born. At that time, Green Lake actually was a lake, with a lovely, all-American kind of town on its banks. Sounds pretty nice.
The town's schoolteacher, Miss Katherine Barlow, is famous for both her canned peaches and her beauty. All the children love her.
She teaches an adult class in the evening, and it is filled with young men, many of them "more interested in the teacher than they were in getting an education" (23.8).
One of the men in Miss Katherine's class is Charles Walker, the son of the richest man in town. He's known around town as "Trout," because "his two feet smelled like a couple of dead fish" (23.10).
Actually, Trout's feet smell because he has an incurable foot fungus, the same one that Clyde Livingston will have years later. (Remember his smelly shoes?)
Trout comes to Miss Katherine's evening class, but he has no interest in learning. He's disrespectful.
One evening, Trout asks Miss Katherine to go for a ride with him in his new, expensive, motorized boat. She tells him – in no uncertain terms – that she isn't interested.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 23 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 24
Now we're back in Stanley's world.
At breakfast, Mr. Sir looks pretty nasty: his face is horribly swollen, and the three long jagged scratches down his cheek are bruised. Not a pretty picture.
Stanley and the other boys in D tent know better than to bring it up, but a boy from another tent doesn't have the same tact. He asks Mr. Sir what's happened to his face – and boy is that a mistake.
Mr. Sir reacts violently, slamming the boy's head against a pot and then dropping him to the floor. Wow, this is just getting worse and worse.
Out on the lake, the boys ask Stanley what happened to Mr. Sir, but he doesn't answer.
When Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck, instead of filling Stanley's canteen, he pours the water onto the ground, leaving Stanley with nothing to drink for the rest of the day.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 24 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 25
Once again, we're plopped back in Camp Green Lake, past-style (one hundred and ten years ago). The town has a doctor named Dr. Hawthorn and an "onion man" named Sam, both of whom help out the townsfolk when they get sick.
Sam the onion man walks through the town with his donkey, Mary Lou, selling onions from a secret onion patch on the other side of the lake. (He gets there in a boat he made himself.)
Sam's onions, and the ointments and other medicines that he makes from them, are said to heal all kinds of ailments. Sam himself claims that eating raw onions makes for a long life.
We'll just trust him on that one, because we're sure not about to try.
Sam is also good with his hands, and Miss Katherine makes a deal with him: he'll fix the leaky roof of the schoolhouse in exchange for some of her spiced peaches. The people in this book are all about trade-offs, huh?
This onion man of ours works on the roof in the afternoons after school lets out. He isn't allowed to attend the evening classes with the other townsfolk.
While Sam fixes the roof and Katherine grades schoolwork, the two get to know each other pretty well. Sam likes poetry and learning, and they have a lot in common.
In fact, Miss Katherine keeps coming up with other things that need to be fixed around the schoolhouse so that she can spend more time with this guy. But one day, she can't find anything else that needs to be fixed.
In a pretty sad scene, she sits crying in the empty schoolhouse, missing Sam. But then she hears him outside with Mary Lou and his onion wagon. She runs out to him, and in an oh-so-sweet moment, they realize they're in love.
The scene is quickly ruined by a townswoman who, seeing the two lovebirds, declares: "God will punish you!" (25.46)
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 25 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 26
We're still in the story of Katherine and Sam.
The next morning – after the big kiss – Katherine is sitting alone in the schoolhouse when a mob, led by Trout Walker, comes storming into the building. They say awful things to Katherine, turn over desks, pull books off of shelves, and generally destroy the place.
Katherine escapes and runs to the sheriff's office. But when she tells him about what's happening at the schoolhouse, he doesn't seem concerned at all.
The sheriff tells Katherine that he's planning to hang Sam for kissing a white woman. But if Katherine gives the sheriff a kiss, he'll just run Sam out of town instead. Oh, just run him out of town, eh? Geez.
Katherine is horrified. As she runs out of the office, she hears the sheriff saying, "The law will punish Sam. And God will punish you" (26.31).
She runs straight to Sam, who is on the banks of the lake hitching Mary Lou to his onion cart. She tells him that the sheriff is planning to hang him, and that they have to get the stink out of there as quickly as possible. Sam agrees, although he's sad to leave his precious Mary Lou behind.
Sam and Katherine get into Sam's boat and start rowing to the other side of the lake, but sure enough, they hear the sound of Trout Walker's motorized boat as it follows after them.
The narrator very succinctly tells us what happens next. Walker's boat smashes into Sam's boat. Sam is shot and killed. Katherine is taken back to the shore.
And to top it all off, Mary Lou the donkey has also been shot.
Since that day, no rain has fallen on Green Lake.
Three days after Sam's death, Katherine takes care of the sheriff, puts on fresh lipstick, and kisses him, starting her career as "one of the most feared outlaws in all the West" (26.45).
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 26 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 27
Back to Stanley's story.
Three days after the incident with the Warden, Mr. Sir is still pouring Stanley's water onto the ground when he comes by with the water truck. Luckily, when Mr. Pendanski drives the truck, he takes pity on Stanley and gives him a little extra water.
X-Ray and the other boys don't like the fact that Zero is helping dig Stanley's holes: since Zero is black and Stanley is white, X-Ray complains that "[t]he white boy sits around while the black boy does all the work" (27.8).
That day, Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck and fills Stanley's canteen with water. Well, that's good. But not so fast. He then he takes it into the truck for a minute – where Stanley can't see what he's doing – and brings it back. Stanley wonders what Mr. Sir might have put into his water.
After Stanley's been back to digging for a while, he pours the water out onto the ground himself so that he won't be tempted to drink it.
Meanwhile, Zero is making good progress with his reading, and he even learns to write his name. That's when we learn that Zero isn't his real name (really?): he's actually named Hector Zeroni.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 27 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 28
Ready to jump back into the past again?
Twenty years have passed since Sam's murder, and Katherine (now going by Kate) Barlow has returned to Green Lake. The town is "a ghost town on a ghost lake" (28.1), and Kate is living in an abandoned cabin on the edge of the old lakebed. She still thinks of Sam – hey, true love is tough to get over.
One morning, Trout Walker and his wife show up. Trout's wife Linda is a freckle-faced woman with dirty, scraggly red hair.
Trout and Linda have a rifle, and they threaten Kate, demanding that she show them where she's buried the loot from all her robberies.
Strong-willed Kate refuses, telling them that they can dig for "the next hundred years" (28.25) and they'll never find it.
In response, Trout and Linda drag Kate outside. They tie her legs together and make her walk around the hot, dried-out lake barefoot, hitting her on the back of the legs with a shovel. (This is what we at Shmoop call torture.)
Never wavering, she still refuses to tell them where she's buried the loot.
At that moment, a yellow-spotted lizard suddenly leaps toward them. It lands on Kate, biting her on the ankle. Knowing she is about to die, Kate tells Trout and his wife to start digging. And then, well, she dies laughing.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 28 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 29
We are back in Stanley's story now and also in Part 2 of the novel ("The Last Hole").
Stanley and the other boys are – you guessed it! – out on the lake digging. There is a storm off in the distance, and the boys joke about the chance of rain coming their way. Rain at Camp Green Lake? Yeah, right.
But wait, this is cool: during a lightning flash, Stanley thinks he sees a strange rock formation on one of the mountain peaks way off in the distance. It looks like a giant fist giving a thumbs-up. (We told you it was cool.)
Stanley thinks about his great-grandfather telling people that he found refuge on God's thumb. No one ever knew what he meant.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 29 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 30
Finally a reason to celebrate: it's Zigzag's birthday.
Stanley tries to figure out how long he's been at Camp Green Lake. Zero, in another display of crazy math power, instantly says it's been forty-six days.
Later, as he digs his hole, Stanley thinks about how much he's changed since he came to the camp. For one thing, he's stronger and much better at digging. Oh, and luckily, Mr. Sir is giving him water again, too.
Zero is still helping him out with his hole-digging in exchange for reading lessons, as they had agreed. But the whole situation makes Stanley awkward, and the other boys are getting pretty angry about it. They tease Stanley big time, saying that he's doing Zero a favor by letting him dig his hole, and mockingly asking if he'll let them dig his hole, too.
Mr. Pendanski comes by with the water truck, and X-Ray makes Stanley go to the front of the line for water and lunch: you know, since "[h]e's better than all of us" (30.36). Ugh, bullying.
After they get their lunches, Zigzag continues to harass Stanley, saying he'll trade his cookie for a chance to dig Stanley's hole. Stanley pushes the cookie away, and in a not-so-equal response, Zigzag pushes Stanley.
X-Ray is watching and says that Stanley should be able to take care of himself, since he's bigger than Zigzag. Stanley is relieved to see Mr. Pendanski approaching, but it turns out Mr. P's attitude is the same as X-Ray's: he says that Stanley should go ahead and hit Zigzag back.
"Teach the bully a lesson," he says (30.68).
Stanley tries, but he really doesn't have the heart to fight. Zigzag, on the other hand, seems eager to fight Stanley: he jumps on top of him, slamming him to the ground and punching him over and over… and over again.
This is when things escalate. Zero joins in and attacks Zigzag, pulling him off of Stanley and starting to choke him. Just when things look really dire, Armpit pulls Zero away from Zigzag and Mr. Pendanski fires his pistol into the air to signal for help.
Whew.
When the other counselors and the Warden arrive, Mr. Pendanski tells them that "[t]here was a riot" (30.85). X-Ray, on the other hand, tries to downplay what happened, saying that Zigzag was just short-tempered because of the heat.
But Zigzag won't back up X-ray's story. Instead, he tells the truth: he was angry because Zero has been digging Stanley's holes for him.
Stanley explains: Zero is digging for him because he's teaching Zero to read and write.
The Warden asks Zero to tell them something he's learned. At first, Zero doesn't respond, but after Mr. Pendanski basically insults him, he tells them some of the letters and sounds he knows.
The Warden quizzes him on a few things, most of which he gets right. But when he makes a wrong guess about a letter that he hasn't learned yet, all of the counselors laugh at him. Man, this kid can't catch a break.
The Warden says that from now on, Stanley has to dig his own stinkin' hole: it's all about learning a lesson. Oh, and no more reading lessons for Zero.
Then, in a moment of triumphant defiance, Zero announces: "I'm not digging another hole" (30.128).
No one really buys it. Mr. Pendanski tells Stanley that "Zero's too stupid to learn to read" (30.133), and he hands Zero a shovel so he can get back to digging.
Zero takes the shovel and – eek! – hits Mr. P across the face, knocking him unconscious. He says that he hates digging holes, and he runs away across the lake.
The search is on for Zero. The Warden tells the counselors to take turns guarding the camp's water sources: he'll have to come back for water and that's when they'll catch him.
When he returns, she says, she is going to have to paint her nails again.
Chapter 21
As Stanley walks back to his hole, he worries what Mr. Sir will do to him when he recovers. He also realizes that, because of the time spent at the Warden's cabin, he'll be digging long after the others have finished.
Now he starts to think about his great-grandfather, who was robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. Kissin' Kate left Stanley's great-grandfather alone in the desert, where he somehow managed to survive for seventeen days before he was rescued. He told his rescuers that he survived because he "found refuge on God's thumb" (21.7).
In his pensive haze, Stanley nearly steps on a rattlesnake on his way back to the holes. In case things weren't scary enough already.
When he gets back to the place where the boys are digging, he finds that his hole is almost finished. Huh? Thinking that the other boys dug the hole to thank him for taking the blame for stealing the sunflower seeds, he smiles and thanks them. But none of the other boys takes credit for digging his hole.
At that moment, Stanley notices that Zero's hole is barely begun: it was Zero who dug the hole for him. Well how about that?
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 21 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 22
When Zero gets back to the tent that night, Stanley asks him about his grand digging gesture. Turns out Zero was helping Stanley out since he knows he didn't steal the sunflower seeds.
And when Stanley points out that Zero didn't steal them either (good point), Zero tells him, "You didn't steal the sneakers" (22.14).
It seems like Zero is a pretty decent dude after all, so Stanley tells him that he will try to teach him to read.
Zero doesn't even know the alphabet, but he learns it pretty quickly once Stanley recites it for him. In fact, Zero's a pretty bright kid: he also has some math chops in him.
The boys strike a deal: Stanley will teach Zero more letters every day, and in return, Zero will dig some of Stanley's hole. This way Stanley will have more energy for teaching. Sounds like a fair trade.
Later that night, Stanley lies in bed worrying – what's new, right? He's not sure what X-Ray will think about the fact that Zero's helping him dig his hole.
And now for some more thinking. Stanley remembers his meeting with the Warden: her fingernail polish, her makeup kit… and bam! Suddenly Stanley realizes what the gold tube was: part of a tube of lipstick.
Remembering the inscription on the bottom of the tube ("KB"), he wonders if that lipstick might just have belonged to Kissin' Kate Barlow.
The plot thickens…
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 22 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 23
This chapter takes us back one hundred and ten years, before Camp Green Lake even existed, and of course well before Stanley was born. At that time, Green Lake actually was a lake, with a lovely, all-American kind of town on its banks. Sounds pretty nice.
The town's schoolteacher, Miss Katherine Barlow, is famous for both her canned peaches and her beauty. All the children love her.
She teaches an adult class in the evening, and it is filled with young men, many of them "more interested in the teacher than they were in getting an education" (23.8).
One of the men in Miss Katherine's class is Charles Walker, the son of the richest man in town. He's known around town as "Trout," because "his two feet smelled like a couple of dead fish" (23.10).
Actually, Trout's feet smell because he has an incurable foot fungus, the same one that Clyde Livingston will have years later. (Remember his smelly shoes?)
Trout comes to Miss Katherine's evening class, but he has no interest in learning. He's disrespectful.
One evening, Trout asks Miss Katherine to go for a ride with him in his new, expensive, motorized boat. She tells him – in no uncertain terms – that she isn't interested.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 23 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 24
Now we're back in Stanley's world.
At breakfast, Mr. Sir looks pretty nasty: his face is horribly swollen, and the three long jagged scratches down his cheek are bruised. Not a pretty picture.
Stanley and the other boys in D tent know better than to bring it up, but a boy from another tent doesn't have the same tact. He asks Mr. Sir what's happened to his face – and boy is that a mistake.
Mr. Sir reacts violently, slamming the boy's head against a pot and then dropping him to the floor. Wow, this is just getting worse and worse.
Out on the lake, the boys ask Stanley what happened to Mr. Sir, but he doesn't answer.
When Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck, instead of filling Stanley's canteen, he pours the water onto the ground, leaving Stanley with nothing to drink for the rest of the day.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 24 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 25
Once again, we're plopped back in Camp Green Lake, past-style (one hundred and ten years ago). The town has a doctor named Dr. Hawthorn and an "onion man" named Sam, both of whom help out the townsfolk when they get sick.
Sam the onion man walks through the town with his donkey, Mary Lou, selling onions from a secret onion patch on the other side of the lake. (He gets there in a boat he made himself.)
Sam's onions, and the ointments and other medicines that he makes from them, are said to heal all kinds of ailments. Sam himself claims that eating raw onions makes for a long life.
We'll just trust him on that one, because we're sure not about to try.
Sam is also good with his hands, and Miss Katherine makes a deal with him: he'll fix the leaky roof of the schoolhouse in exchange for some of her spiced peaches. The people in this book are all about trade-offs, huh?
This onion man of ours works on the roof in the afternoons after school lets out. He isn't allowed to attend the evening classes with the other townsfolk.
While Sam fixes the roof and Katherine grades schoolwork, the two get to know each other pretty well. Sam likes poetry and learning, and they have a lot in common.
In fact, Miss Katherine keeps coming up with other things that need to be fixed around the schoolhouse so that she can spend more time with this guy. But one day, she can't find anything else that needs to be fixed.
In a pretty sad scene, she sits crying in the empty schoolhouse, missing Sam. But then she hears him outside with Mary Lou and his onion wagon. She runs out to him, and in an oh-so-sweet moment, they realize they're in love.
The scene is quickly ruined by a townswoman who, seeing the two lovebirds, declares: "God will punish you!" (25.46)
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 25 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 26
We're still in the story of Katherine and Sam.
The next morning – after the big kiss – Katherine is sitting alone in the schoolhouse when a mob, led by Trout Walker, comes storming into the building. They say awful things to Katherine, turn over desks, pull books off of shelves, and generally destroy the place.
Katherine escapes and runs to the sheriff's office. But when she tells him about what's happening at the schoolhouse, he doesn't seem concerned at all.
The sheriff tells Katherine that he's planning to hang Sam for kissing a white woman. But if Katherine gives the sheriff a kiss, he'll just run Sam out of town instead. Oh, just run him out of town, eh? Geez.
Katherine is horrified. As she runs out of the office, she hears the sheriff saying, "The law will punish Sam. And God will punish you" (26.31).
She runs straight to Sam, who is on the banks of the lake hitching Mary Lou to his onion cart. She tells him that the sheriff is planning to hang him, and that they have to get the stink out of there as quickly as possible. Sam agrees, although he's sad to leave his precious Mary Lou behind.
Sam and Katherine get into Sam's boat and start rowing to the other side of the lake, but sure enough, they hear the sound of Trout Walker's motorized boat as it follows after them.
The narrator very succinctly tells us what happens next. Walker's boat smashes into Sam's boat. Sam is shot and killed. Katherine is taken back to the shore.
And to top it all off, Mary Lou the donkey has also been shot.
Since that day, no rain has fallen on Green Lake.
Three days after Sam's death, Katherine takes care of the sheriff, puts on fresh lipstick, and kisses him, starting her career as "one of the most feared outlaws in all the West" (26.45).
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 26 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 27
Back to Stanley's story.
Three days after the incident with the Warden, Mr. Sir is still pouring Stanley's water onto the ground when he comes by with the water truck. Luckily, when Mr. Pendanski drives the truck, he takes pity on Stanley and gives him a little extra water.
X-Ray and the other boys don't like the fact that Zero is helping dig Stanley's holes: since Zero is black and Stanley is white, X-Ray complains that "[t]he white boy sits around while the black boy does all the work" (27.8).
That day, Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck and fills Stanley's canteen with water. Well, that's good. But not so fast. He then he takes it into the truck for a minute – where Stanley can't see what he's doing – and brings it back. Stanley wonders what Mr. Sir might have put into his water.
After Stanley's been back to digging for a while, he pours the water out onto the ground himself so that he won't be tempted to drink it.
Meanwhile, Zero is making good progress with his reading, and he even learns to write his name. That's when we learn that Zero isn't his real name (really?): he's actually named Hector Zeroni.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 27 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 28
Ready to jump back into the past again?
Twenty years have passed since Sam's murder, and Katherine (now going by Kate) Barlow has returned to Green Lake. The town is "a ghost town on a ghost lake" (28.1), and Kate is living in an abandoned cabin on the edge of the old lakebed. She still thinks of Sam – hey, true love is tough to get over.
One morning, Trout Walker and his wife show up. Trout's wife Linda is a freckle-faced woman with dirty, scraggly red hair.
Trout and Linda have a rifle, and they threaten Kate, demanding that she show them where she's buried the loot from all her robberies.
Strong-willed Kate refuses, telling them that they can dig for "the next hundred years" (28.25) and they'll never find it.
In response, Trout and Linda drag Kate outside. They tie her legs together and make her walk around the hot, dried-out lake barefoot, hitting her on the back of the legs with a shovel. (This is what we at Shmoop call torture.)
Never wavering, she still refuses to tell them where she's buried the loot.
At that moment, a yellow-spotted lizard suddenly leaps toward them. It lands on Kate, biting her on the ankle. Knowing she is about to die, Kate tells Trout and his wife to start digging. And then, well, she dies laughing.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 28 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 29
We are back in Stanley's story now and also in Part 2 of the novel ("The Last Hole").
Stanley and the other boys are – you guessed it! – out on the lake digging. There is a storm off in the distance, and the boys joke about the chance of rain coming their way. Rain at Camp Green Lake? Yeah, right.
But wait, this is cool: during a lightning flash, Stanley thinks he sees a strange rock formation on one of the mountain peaks way off in the distance. It looks like a giant fist giving a thumbs-up. (We told you it was cool.)
Stanley thinks about his great-grandfather telling people that he found refuge on God's thumb. No one ever knew what he meant.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 29 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 30
Finally a reason to celebrate: it's Zigzag's birthday.
Stanley tries to figure out how long he's been at Camp Green Lake. Zero, in another display of crazy math power, instantly says it's been forty-six days.
Later, as he digs his hole, Stanley thinks about how much he's changed since he came to the camp. For one thing, he's stronger and much better at digging. Oh, and luckily, Mr. Sir is giving him water again, too.
Zero is still helping him out with his hole-digging in exchange for reading lessons, as they had agreed. But the whole situation makes Stanley awkward, and the other boys are getting pretty angry about it. They tease Stanley big time, saying that he's doing Zero a favor by letting him dig his hole, and mockingly asking if he'll let them dig his hole, too.
Mr. Pendanski comes by with the water truck, and X-Ray makes Stanley go to the front of the line for water and lunch: you know, since "[h]e's better than all of us" (30.36). Ugh, bullying.
After they get their lunches, Zigzag continues to harass Stanley, saying he'll trade his cookie for a chance to dig Stanley's hole. Stanley pushes the cookie away, and in a not-so-equal response, Zigzag pushes Stanley.
X-Ray is watching and says that Stanley should be able to take care of himself, since he's bigger than Zigzag. Stanley is relieved to see Mr. Pendanski approaching, but it turns out Mr. P's attitude is the same as X-Ray's: he says that Stanley should go ahead and hit Zigzag back.
"Teach the bully a lesson," he says (30.68).
Stanley tries, but he really doesn't have the heart to fight. Zigzag, on the other hand, seems eager to fight Stanley: he jumps on top of him, slamming him to the ground and punching him over and over… and over again.
This is when things escalate. Zero joins in and attacks Zigzag, pulling him off of Stanley and starting to choke him. Just when things look really dire, Armpit pulls Zero away from Zigzag and Mr. Pendanski fires his pistol into the air to signal for help.
Whew.
When the other counselors and the Warden arrive, Mr. Pendanski tells them that "[t]here was a riot" (30.85). X-Ray, on the other hand, tries to downplay what happened, saying that Zigzag was just short-tempered because of the heat.
But Zigzag won't back up X-ray's story. Instead, he tells the truth: he was angry because Zero has been digging Stanley's holes for him.
Stanley explains: Zero is digging for him because he's teaching Zero to read and write.
The Warden asks Zero to tell them something he's learned. At first, Zero doesn't respond, but after Mr. Pendanski basically insults him, he tells them some of the letters and sounds he knows.
The Warden quizzes him on a few things, most of which he gets right. But when he makes a wrong guess about a letter that he hasn't learned yet, all of the counselors laugh at him. Man, this kid can't catch a break.
The Warden says that from now on, Stanley has to dig his own stinkin' hole: it's all about learning a lesson. Oh, and no more reading lessons for Zero.
Then, in a moment of triumphant defiance, Zero announces: "I'm not digging another hole" (30.128).
No one really buys it. Mr. Pendanski tells Stanley that "Zero's too stupid to learn to read" (30.133), and he hands Zero a shovel so he can get back to digging.
Zero takes the shovel and – eek! – hits Mr. P across the face, knocking him unconscious. He says that he hates digging holes, and he runs away across the lake.
The search is on for Zero. The Warden tells the counselors to take turns guarding the camp's water sources: he'll have to come back for water and that's when they'll catch him.
When he returns, she says, she is going to have to paint her nails again.