Chapter 31-40 Summarie
Holes
Chapter 31-40 Summaries
Chapter 31
After Zero runs away, it's business as usual, and the boys go back to digging their holes. Stanley is angry with himself, thinking that he should just go after Zero and help the guy out. He keeps looking for his friend in the distance, but Zero is nowhere in sight.
Then Stanley gets to thinking: if he goes after Zero, he thinks, maybe they can climb up the mountain to the big thumb. That might be where Stanley's great-grandfather found refuge – if so, there might be water there, too.
The next day, Zero still hasn't come back to camp, and the counselors continue to guard the water sources.
While he's digging, Stanley thinks – nay, dreams – about the possibility that Zero could make his way to God's thumb and find water there from the recent storm. (This kid sure does a lot of thinking.)
When Stanley gets back to the tent, Mr. Pendanski (looking pretty bad from his recent encounter with a shovel), Mr. Sir, and the Warden are all waiting for him. Dun dun dun. They ask if he's seen Zero or if he knows where he might have gone.
The Warden tells Mr. Pendanski to erase all traces of Zero from the camp's records, and to hack into the state files so no one in the Attorney General's office will know that he was at the camp.
Well, it turns out Zero was a ward of the state: he was living on the street when he was arrested.
In super threatening action-movie style, Mr. Pendanski says that he can make it very difficult for anyone to find any record of Zero. Besides, he says, "no one will ever look. No one cares about Hector Zeroni" (31.42).
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 31 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 32
Two days later, a new kid takes Zero's place in D Tent: his name is Twitch, and he was arrested for stealing cars. That's a big time crime.
Stanley keeps thinking about Zero, wondering if he made it to God's thumb and if he's even still alive. He pictures Zero crawling across the ground, dying of thirst.
The next morning, Stanley is still thinking about Zero when Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck. In a moment of desperate inspiration, Stanley has the idea to steal the water truck and go out to find Zero.
Wasting no time, Stanley jumps into the truck and turns it on. He's never driven before, but with Twitch shouting some advice at him, he manages to drive it a short distance. That is, until he drives straight into a hole.
Stanley thinks that, for once, he can't blame his dirty-rotten-no-good-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, because this time it was completely his fault that things went wrong. We can't help but smile when he says this.
With Mr. Sir staring after him in shock, Stanley runs off, his empty canteen slapping against his chest.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 32 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 33
Stanley continues to run – and then walk – away from Camp Green Lake. No one follows him. He doesn't think he can make it to Big Thumb, and without any water, he knows he'll have to return to camp soon. But he decides to wait until everyone's had a chance to calm down a little.
In the meantime, he'll look for Zero.
As he walks, he keeps seeing holes, although the farther he gets from camp, the more haphazard and random the holes seem to be. Curious, indeed.
Every time he passes a hole, he glances in, both hoping and not hoping to find Zero there.
In one hole he sees a family of yellow-spotted lizards looking up at him. He runs away, terrified.
When he stops running, he sees something off in the distance. It turns out to be a sack of sunflower seeds, with only one seed left in it.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 33 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 34
Stanley keeps walking, wondering if he's already gone too far to make it back alive. He thinks he sees a pool of water in the distance, but it turns out to be a mirage. The heat is really getting to him.
After a while, he thinks he sees the shape of the mountains in the distance, and he walks toward the Big Thumb.
Trucking along, he sees an object in the distance. It's a bit to the right of the Big Thumb, but he decides to walk toward it anyway and see what it is. When he reaches the object, he thinks, he'll turn around and go back to camp. It's a plan.
But as he approaches, he realizes the thing he's walking toward is an overturned boat, half-buried in the dirt. The boat's name is painted on its side: Mary Lou.
Stanley notices a tunnel leading underneath the boat, and he hears a noise coming from within. He shouts, hoping to scare whatever is under the boat and keep it from coming out. He doesn't need another lizard encounter, that's for sure.
"Hey," a weak voice answers, and a hand emerges from under the boat.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 34 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 35
Zero comes out from under the boat, looking pretty bad. Stanley tries to convince him that they have to go back to camp (in order to, you know, survive), but Zero refuses.
Stanley crawls under the boat with Zero. It's cooler under there, and Zero has survived by drinking what he calls "sploosh": jars of a sweet, tangy, nectar-like substance that must have been in the boat when it sank way back when.
Zero shares the last jar with Stanley, who thinks it "might have been some kind of fruit at some time, perhaps peaches" (35.25).
(We readers are starting to put the pieces together, but remember that Stanley doesn't know the whole story about Katherine and Sam.)
Stanley is a little worried about drinking something that's so old, because of the bacteria that might be living inside it. And sure enough, Zero, who has had fifteen jars of the sploosh in all, is suddenly doubled over with pain.
Once again, Stanley encourages Zero to head back to camp, but Zero won't have any of it.
While he's sitting there, Zero tries to read the name on the side of the boat, and our tutor friend Stanley helps him out.
Stanley tells Zero to look at the mountains in the distance and tell him if he sees anything that looks like a familiar shape. Zero looks and slowly forms his hand into a thumbs-up sign. Nice: he sees it, too.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 35 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 36
After putting four of the empty sploosh jars in the sunflower seed sack, Stanley and Zero head off toward the mountain. Zero is weak and suffering from stomach cramps (ick), but he uses the shovel he took when he ran away from camp to help him walk. Determined and resourceful to boot!
As they walk, the boys think about who Mary Lou might have been, and they work on Zero's spelling skills. They're a pretty encouraging team, that's for sure.
Stanley wonders when he'll start to feel sick from the sploosh that he drank. He worries about his parents, and how they'll never know what happened to him if he dies – how worried and sad they'll be.
As the two boys get closer, the terrain gets more difficult. At one point, Stanley has to lift Zero up onto a ledge, and Zero helps Stanley climb up after him, bloodying his hands on the shovel in the process.
This is no leisurely day hike.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 36 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 37
Zero and Stanley continue up the mountain, getting closer and closer to Big Thumb. They see weeds growing in the area, and there are gnats biting at their skin. Blech.
Suddenly, Zero doubles over in pain and vomits up the sploosh. Then, trooper that he is, he gives Stanley a thumbs-up and they keep walking.
Stanley realizes that the presence of weeds and bugs means that there must be water nearby. Zero smiles happily at this idea and then passes out.
Stanley can't wake him up.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 37 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 38
Unable to rouse an unconscious Zero, Stanley picks him up and slings him over his shoulder. He has to leave the shovel and the sack with the empty sploosh jars behind, but he carries Zero step by step up the mountain.
After a while, Stanley starts smelling something pretty nasty. It gets stronger and stronger as he goes up the mountain.
Finally, exhausted, Stanley drops Zero, falling face-down into a muddy ditch.
And at that moment, he realizes that in order to have mud, you have to have water. Water!
He crawls to the muddiest area he can find and digs a hole with his hands. He scoops out the muddy water at the bottom of the hole, drinks some, and pours some into Zero's mouth.
As he continues to dig, Stanley finds an onion growing in the dirt.
He and Zero each eat half of the onion. Things are starting to look up.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 38 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 39
Stanley wakes up the next morning and finds that he and Zero are lying in a flower-filled meadow at the base of the Big Thumb. Whoa.
Zero is still very sick.
Stanley walks to the Big Thumb formation and touches it. He thinks about going back down the mountain to get the shovel and the jars, but he doesn't think he can make it.
Zero, lying on his side in pain, says he has to tell Stanley something. Weakly, he makes his confession: "I took your shoes." (39.20).
At first, Stanley doesn't understand, but then Zero explains that he was the one who stole Clyde Livingston's shoes from the shelter.
This doesn't make any sense, and Stanley just figures that Zero is delirious.
As Zero drifts off to sleep, sensitive Stanley sings him the lullaby his father used to sing to him when he was young.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 39 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 40
Stanley sits there, looking at Big Thumb and all the flowers in the meadow around him. Pretty peaceful moment in an otherwise pretty violent book.
Before long, he realizes that there are probably more onions like the one he found the night before. He digs up one of the flowers, roots and all; and although the narrator doesn't say what the root is, it's pretty clear that he's found another onion.
Suddenly we find ourselves back in long-ago Green Lake – a hundred and ten years ago – sometime before the horrible events that led to the beginning of Kate's career of crime.
Sam and Mary Lou are hawking their onions in the street when a woman comes running out of her house in her nightgown. She's there to thank Sam. For what? Well, the woman's daughter had eaten some bad meat, and Sam's onion tonic had saved her life.
And that's all for the flashback. Back in the present, the boys live on onions and muddy water for the next two days. Zero is still sick, but he's definitely feeling stronger: nothing a little onion and rest combo can't cure.
Stanley decides to go back down the mountain to get the shovel and the jars. It's a long walk down, and Stanley is totally amazed that he was able to make it all the way up the mountain considering how tired and thirsty he had been – with Zero on his back, to boot.
Chapter 31
After Zero runs away, it's business as usual, and the boys go back to digging their holes. Stanley is angry with himself, thinking that he should just go after Zero and help the guy out. He keeps looking for his friend in the distance, but Zero is nowhere in sight.
Then Stanley gets to thinking: if he goes after Zero, he thinks, maybe they can climb up the mountain to the big thumb. That might be where Stanley's great-grandfather found refuge – if so, there might be water there, too.
The next day, Zero still hasn't come back to camp, and the counselors continue to guard the water sources.
While he's digging, Stanley thinks – nay, dreams – about the possibility that Zero could make his way to God's thumb and find water there from the recent storm. (This kid sure does a lot of thinking.)
When Stanley gets back to the tent, Mr. Pendanski (looking pretty bad from his recent encounter with a shovel), Mr. Sir, and the Warden are all waiting for him. Dun dun dun. They ask if he's seen Zero or if he knows where he might have gone.
The Warden tells Mr. Pendanski to erase all traces of Zero from the camp's records, and to hack into the state files so no one in the Attorney General's office will know that he was at the camp.
Well, it turns out Zero was a ward of the state: he was living on the street when he was arrested.
In super threatening action-movie style, Mr. Pendanski says that he can make it very difficult for anyone to find any record of Zero. Besides, he says, "no one will ever look. No one cares about Hector Zeroni" (31.42).
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 31 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 32
Two days later, a new kid takes Zero's place in D Tent: his name is Twitch, and he was arrested for stealing cars. That's a big time crime.
Stanley keeps thinking about Zero, wondering if he made it to God's thumb and if he's even still alive. He pictures Zero crawling across the ground, dying of thirst.
The next morning, Stanley is still thinking about Zero when Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck. In a moment of desperate inspiration, Stanley has the idea to steal the water truck and go out to find Zero.
Wasting no time, Stanley jumps into the truck and turns it on. He's never driven before, but with Twitch shouting some advice at him, he manages to drive it a short distance. That is, until he drives straight into a hole.
Stanley thinks that, for once, he can't blame his dirty-rotten-no-good-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, because this time it was completely his fault that things went wrong. We can't help but smile when he says this.
With Mr. Sir staring after him in shock, Stanley runs off, his empty canteen slapping against his chest.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 32 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 33
Stanley continues to run – and then walk – away from Camp Green Lake. No one follows him. He doesn't think he can make it to Big Thumb, and without any water, he knows he'll have to return to camp soon. But he decides to wait until everyone's had a chance to calm down a little.
In the meantime, he'll look for Zero.
As he walks, he keeps seeing holes, although the farther he gets from camp, the more haphazard and random the holes seem to be. Curious, indeed.
Every time he passes a hole, he glances in, both hoping and not hoping to find Zero there.
In one hole he sees a family of yellow-spotted lizards looking up at him. He runs away, terrified.
When he stops running, he sees something off in the distance. It turns out to be a sack of sunflower seeds, with only one seed left in it.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 33 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 34
Stanley keeps walking, wondering if he's already gone too far to make it back alive. He thinks he sees a pool of water in the distance, but it turns out to be a mirage. The heat is really getting to him.
After a while, he thinks he sees the shape of the mountains in the distance, and he walks toward the Big Thumb.
Trucking along, he sees an object in the distance. It's a bit to the right of the Big Thumb, but he decides to walk toward it anyway and see what it is. When he reaches the object, he thinks, he'll turn around and go back to camp. It's a plan.
But as he approaches, he realizes the thing he's walking toward is an overturned boat, half-buried in the dirt. The boat's name is painted on its side: Mary Lou.
Stanley notices a tunnel leading underneath the boat, and he hears a noise coming from within. He shouts, hoping to scare whatever is under the boat and keep it from coming out. He doesn't need another lizard encounter, that's for sure.
"Hey," a weak voice answers, and a hand emerges from under the boat.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 34 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 35
Zero comes out from under the boat, looking pretty bad. Stanley tries to convince him that they have to go back to camp (in order to, you know, survive), but Zero refuses.
Stanley crawls under the boat with Zero. It's cooler under there, and Zero has survived by drinking what he calls "sploosh": jars of a sweet, tangy, nectar-like substance that must have been in the boat when it sank way back when.
Zero shares the last jar with Stanley, who thinks it "might have been some kind of fruit at some time, perhaps peaches" (35.25).
(We readers are starting to put the pieces together, but remember that Stanley doesn't know the whole story about Katherine and Sam.)
Stanley is a little worried about drinking something that's so old, because of the bacteria that might be living inside it. And sure enough, Zero, who has had fifteen jars of the sploosh in all, is suddenly doubled over with pain.
Once again, Stanley encourages Zero to head back to camp, but Zero won't have any of it.
While he's sitting there, Zero tries to read the name on the side of the boat, and our tutor friend Stanley helps him out.
Stanley tells Zero to look at the mountains in the distance and tell him if he sees anything that looks like a familiar shape. Zero looks and slowly forms his hand into a thumbs-up sign. Nice: he sees it, too.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 35 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 36
After putting four of the empty sploosh jars in the sunflower seed sack, Stanley and Zero head off toward the mountain. Zero is weak and suffering from stomach cramps (ick), but he uses the shovel he took when he ran away from camp to help him walk. Determined and resourceful to boot!
As they walk, the boys think about who Mary Lou might have been, and they work on Zero's spelling skills. They're a pretty encouraging team, that's for sure.
Stanley wonders when he'll start to feel sick from the sploosh that he drank. He worries about his parents, and how they'll never know what happened to him if he dies – how worried and sad they'll be.
As the two boys get closer, the terrain gets more difficult. At one point, Stanley has to lift Zero up onto a ledge, and Zero helps Stanley climb up after him, bloodying his hands on the shovel in the process.
This is no leisurely day hike.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 36 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 37
Zero and Stanley continue up the mountain, getting closer and closer to Big Thumb. They see weeds growing in the area, and there are gnats biting at their skin. Blech.
Suddenly, Zero doubles over in pain and vomits up the sploosh. Then, trooper that he is, he gives Stanley a thumbs-up and they keep walking.
Stanley realizes that the presence of weeds and bugs means that there must be water nearby. Zero smiles happily at this idea and then passes out.
Stanley can't wake him up.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 37 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 38
Unable to rouse an unconscious Zero, Stanley picks him up and slings him over his shoulder. He has to leave the shovel and the sack with the empty sploosh jars behind, but he carries Zero step by step up the mountain.
After a while, Stanley starts smelling something pretty nasty. It gets stronger and stronger as he goes up the mountain.
Finally, exhausted, Stanley drops Zero, falling face-down into a muddy ditch.
And at that moment, he realizes that in order to have mud, you have to have water. Water!
He crawls to the muddiest area he can find and digs a hole with his hands. He scoops out the muddy water at the bottom of the hole, drinks some, and pours some into Zero's mouth.
As he continues to dig, Stanley finds an onion growing in the dirt.
He and Zero each eat half of the onion. Things are starting to look up.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 38 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 39
Stanley wakes up the next morning and finds that he and Zero are lying in a flower-filled meadow at the base of the Big Thumb. Whoa.
Zero is still very sick.
Stanley walks to the Big Thumb formation and touches it. He thinks about going back down the mountain to get the shovel and the jars, but he doesn't think he can make it.
Zero, lying on his side in pain, says he has to tell Stanley something. Weakly, he makes his confession: "I took your shoes." (39.20).
At first, Stanley doesn't understand, but then Zero explains that he was the one who stole Clyde Livingston's shoes from the shelter.
This doesn't make any sense, and Stanley just figures that Zero is delirious.
As Zero drifts off to sleep, sensitive Stanley sings him the lullaby his father used to sing to him when he was young.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Holes Chapter 39 Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Sep. 2020.
Chapter 40
Stanley sits there, looking at Big Thumb and all the flowers in the meadow around him. Pretty peaceful moment in an otherwise pretty violent book.
Before long, he realizes that there are probably more onions like the one he found the night before. He digs up one of the flowers, roots and all; and although the narrator doesn't say what the root is, it's pretty clear that he's found another onion.
Suddenly we find ourselves back in long-ago Green Lake – a hundred and ten years ago – sometime before the horrible events that led to the beginning of Kate's career of crime.
Sam and Mary Lou are hawking their onions in the street when a woman comes running out of her house in her nightgown. She's there to thank Sam. For what? Well, the woman's daughter had eaten some bad meat, and Sam's onion tonic had saved her life.
And that's all for the flashback. Back in the present, the boys live on onions and muddy water for the next two days. Zero is still sick, but he's definitely feeling stronger: nothing a little onion and rest combo can't cure.
Stanley decides to go back down the mountain to get the shovel and the jars. It's a long walk down, and Stanley is totally amazed that he was able to make it all the way up the mountain considering how tired and thirsty he had been – with Zero on his back, to boot.