History Literature / Holes

[[caption-width-right:350:You got to go and dig those holes...]]\\

!!This book provides examples of:

* RewatchBonus: When you know that Zero accidentally got Stanley arrested by stealing Clyde's shoes, innocently thinking they were just sneakers]], it makes his digging Stanley's hole the day Stanley tries to take the heat for Magnet more clear.

** Elya, after he realizes Madam Zeroni was right about Myra's stupidity. He tells her she can keep his pig as a wedding present and walks away in disgust. He doesn't just leave her behind forever, he leaves Latvia behind forever, going to America like Madam Zeroni's son. Though, unfortuantely, he was a bit too hasty about this, and forgot before leaving to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain like he'd promised.

** Taken to a ridiculous extreme in the movie where, by sheer coincidence, it turns out that peaches and onions are the missing ingredient in Stanley's dad's foot-odor cure.

** An impress duo. Sam offers to fix the schoolhouse roof, saying he built his boat to be watertight, in exchange for some of Kate Barlow's spiced peaches. She agrees, and starts finding more things for him to fix. The boat ''is'' durable so that a hundred years later, Hector is able to use it as shelter from the desert after he finds it upturned. It also has some of Kate's spiced peaches still in it, which are enough to feed Hector and make him ill until he and Stanley make it to God's Thumb.
** The hole where Stanley found the gold tube. The tube itself turns out to be half of a lipstick container that previously belonged to Kissin' Kate Barlow. At the end, after Stanley and Zero return to camp, they continue digging in that same hole and it's there that they find her loot.]]

* GypsyCurse: Madam Zeroni's curse.

** Played straight later with the shovel Pendanski gives to Zero after insulting him one time too many. Zero [[RageBreakingPoint snaps]] and whacks Pendanski across the face with it.

** The Warden, Mr. Pendanski, and Mr. Sir end up in legal trouble in the end.

* MortonsFork: X-Ray points out one for Zero after Zero runs away from camp, saying that Zero's dead no matter what he does: if he stays in the desert, he'll die of thirst, and if he comes back, he'll have to face the Warden, despite her deciding to {{Unperson}} him.

* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Warden is only ever known as such in the book. A brief walky-talky conversation between her and Mr. Pendanski in the movie names her Lou.

* ObjectShapedLandmass: In both the book and [[Film/{{Holes}} the movie]], it's stated that after being robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow and wandering through the desert, Stanley Yelnats I is stated to have found refuge on "God's Thumb". It's rather vague what this statement means, until Stanley sees a huge rock formation off in the distance from Camp Green Lake. It seems to look like a gigantic thumb, and he even holds up his thumb to it to compare. [[spoiler:It turns out the rock formation is what Stanley the first meant as God's Thumb.]]

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the book, Stanley is fat; his nickname, Caveman, is derived from his being a big guy. In the movie he's played by a young and skinny Creator/ShiaLaBeouf, and gets the "Caveman" nickname because he found a fossil and the other boys said he belongs in a cave. The film-makers explain that it would've been very difficult to try and film a fat 14-year-old actor gradually losing a lot of weight, which happens in the book due to all the strenuous hole-digging. Creator/ShiaLaBeouf also mentioned in an interview that he tried "gobbling down Twinkies" in order to gain the weight, but Sachar himself told him that it was more important that he focus on depicting the character's diffidence.

* AdaptedOut: There doesn't seem to be any counselors other than Mr. Sir and Pendanski in the movie. In the book, Pendanski is the counselor in charge of Stanley's tent and others appear occasionally, notably during the climax of the story.

* {{Unperson}}: To keep themselves from being held responsible for Zero's potential death in the desert, the Warden orders his files deleted from the computer. The task is easier because Zero was a ward of the state with no family, but it backfires miserably - with those records gone, they can't prove he's an inmate, and have to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard let him go]] instead of [[HostageForMacGuffin trading him for the suitcase]].

* CrusadingWidow: Kissin' Kate Barlow began her crime spree after her black lover Sam was killed for kissing her. Her first victim was the sheriff who failed to prevent the mob from killing Sam.

In 2003, Creator/{{Disney}} [[FilmOfTheBook adapted the book into a feature film]]. The script was also written by Sachar. It was directed by Creator/AndrewDavis (of ''Film/TheFugitive'' fame) and stars Creator/ShiaLaBeouf as Stanley, Creator/SigourneyWeaver as the Warden, Creator/JonVoight as Mr. Sir and a good deal of other notable actors in bit parts.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: For wasting her time about Stanley having apparently stolen his sack of sunflower seeds, the Warden slashing Mr. Sir's face with her fingernails. Fingernails she had just painted with ''rattlesnake venom'', which is still toxic when it's wet and only harmless when it dries.
** While she later moves to innocent people, Kate Barlow started out this way after Sam is killed.

!Due to the sheer volume of spoilers, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff all spoilers are unmarked]]. '''Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!'''

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.''\\

* AssholeVictim:
** Green Lake's sheriff. He refuses to help Kate when the schoolhouse is being attacked and burned, instead simply asking her for a kiss, implying she ReallyGetsAround because she kissed Sam. He was drunk at the time, but it was very irresponsible behaviour for someone in a position of authority. Three days after Sam is killed, Kate shoots the sheriff dead.
** Trout Walker fancied Kate but she rejected him because she liked Sam instead. Being NotGoodWithRejection, he ordered the schoolhouse she ran to be burned down and killed Sam [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his donkey, Mary Lou]]. He ended up [[RichesToRags losing his fortune]] in the drought that claimed the town of Green Lake, and spent the rest of his life searching for Kate's buried treasure and never found it, even making his children and grandchildren dig for it when they were big enough. The Warden is his descendant.

* AbusiveParents: Charles "Trout" Walker was this to his children and grandchildren, forcing them to dig everyday in the dried lake bed for Kissin' Kate's loot. He wouldn't even let them take a break on their birthdays or on holidays. This treatment is what led to :the Warden (Trout's granddaughter) becoming such a bitter and cynical person.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the book, Stanley is fat; his nickname, Caveman, is derived from his being a big guy. In the movie he's played by a young and skinny Creator/ShiaLaBeouf. They call him "Caveman" because he found a fossil, and the other boys said he belongs in a cave. The film-makers explain that it would've been very difficult to try and film a fat 14-year-old actor gradually losing a lot of weight, which happens in the book due to all the strenuous hole-digging. Creator/ShiaLaBeouf also mentioned in an interview that he tried "gobbling down Twinkies" in order to gain the weight, but Sachar himself told him that it was more important that he focus on depicting the character's diffidence.

** In the book after he runs away Stanley briefly wonders how the Warden will explain his absence since unlike Zero they can't just pretend he never existed due to Stanley's family. The movie adds a scene that reveals the Warden's plan to deal with the situation. Wait a week until they're sure Stanley was dead and ''then'' send out search parties.

** Green Lake's sheriff, as when Kate goes to him for help, he's drunk on the job and asks her for a kiss. Before Kate shoots him, he's drinking a cup of coffee, possibly due to a hangover.
** Also Squid's mother.
* AllForNothing: It turns out that the whole purpose of Camp Green Lake is to use the boys to find the treasure faster than if the Warden was doing it herself, as she had done through her childhood thanks to Trout, her abusive grandfather. Stanley finds the treasure chest, finds that it rightfully belongs to his family, and the Warden is left with nothing to show for her efforts, as Stanley refuses to let her look inside it, so all the effort she put into finding the treasure went completely to waste.

* ArtifactName: Green Lake once used to be a lush lake with a thriving town, but the town dried up with the lake, leaving only a barren wasteland, but it retained the name and the camp was named after it. This is even lampshaded early in the book; when Stanley looks out the window of the bus, the narrator states "He couldn't see a lake. And hardly anything was green."

** Stanley not having a lawyer. Even if the family was too poor to afford one (the reason given as to why he didn't have one during the trial), he should have had a public defender assigned to him anyway.[[note]]That said, there have been juvenile court judges who have been removed after it was found they took [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal bribes from owners of abusive juvenile camps]] and were accordingly much more likely to sentence juvenile offenders. This might a case of RealityIsUnrealistic that explains the KangarooCourt trail for Stanley, especially if the family dismissed the public defender for deliberately not doing a good job, and why Zero never even got a hearing.[[/note]]
** Also, Clyde Livingston's testimony. In both the book and the movie, he makes comments while on the witness stand about "what kind of person steals from homeless people". That's completely out of line and no real court would allow that; his testimony should have been restricted to identifying the shoes and explaining what he had done with them. If he wanted to make a personal statement, he would have had to make a separate appearance at a sentencing hearing after Stanley was convicted.

** Trout Walker. He fancied Kate but she rejected him because she liked Sam instead. Being NotGoodWithRejection, he ordered the schoolhouse she ran to be burned down and killed Sam [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his donkey, Mary Lou]]. He ended up [[RichesToRags losing his fortune]] in the drought that claimed the town of Green Lake, and spent the rest of his life searching for Kate's buried treasure and never found it, even making his children and grandchildren dig for it when they were big enough. The Warden is his descendant.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Yellow-spotted lizards do not exist in real life. Those that appeared in the film were just painted Bearded Dragons.

* AllForNothing: It turns out that the whole purpose of Camp Green Lake is to use the boys to find the treasure faster than if the Warden was doing it herself, as she had done through her childhood thanks to Trout, her abusive grandfather. Stanley finds the treasure chest, finds that it rightfully belongs to his family, and the Warden is left with nothing to show for her efforts, as Stanley refuses to let her look inside it, so all the effort she put into finding the treasure went completely to waste.]]

In 2003, it was made into a fairly faithful film by Walt Disney Pictures; the script was also written by Sachar. It was directed by Creator/AndrewDavis (of ''Film/TheFugitive'' fame) and stars Creator/ShiaLaBeouf as Stanley, Creator/SigourneyWeaver as the Warden, Creator/JonVoight as Mr. Sir and a good deal of other notable actors in bit parts.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Armpit asks Stanley to contact his mother at the end of the movie and tell her he's sorry. In the book this was Squid, who also had several more scenes in the original story showing that he was clearly suffering from some parental issues. Even more bizarre is that there is a scene where Squid teases Stanley about writing to his own mother earlier in the film and then goes on to say in a cold tone [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness that his parents don't care about him]], which makes it seem like the movie will follow the original book subplot but is instead never addressed again.

* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Stanley takes the rap for stealing Mr. Sir's sack of sunflower seeds, and in doing so the Warden slashes Mr. Sir's face for wasting her time about it. As a result, Mr. Sir denies Stanley water for about a week or so.

[[caption-width-right:350:You got to go and dig those holes...]]

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.''

[[caption-width-right:350:Can you dig it?]]

->''"With broken hands and withered souls,\\
Emancipated from all you know,\\
You got to go and dig those holes…"''

* WhamLine: Occurs when Zero tells Stanley his real name: Hector Zeroni.

* KillerRabbit: Yellow-spotted lizards.
* KissOfDeath: Kissin' Kate's calling card.

* DarkReprise: Inverted. "If Only, If Only", a Latvian folk tune passed down by Stanley's family, is a bitter, cynical song about getting shafted in life. But at the end of the book, we hear a much more uplifting, ParentalLoveSong version of the song sung by Zero's mom.

** The narration mentions that, although Miss Katherine's spiced peaches were always eaten before winter, they could probably last much longer than that. [[spoiler:Zero and Stanley survive off these in the desert, and one hundred and ten years later, some of them were still in semi-safe condition to eat.]]
** At one point, the campers witness a storm on the west side of the lake around where the mountains are. [[spoiler:This is where God's thumb turns out to be, and the storms are apparently the reason why the onion farm has continued to flourish after so many years, and why there is also water up there. Hence why Stanley I, and later Stanley and Zero, respectively were and are able to find refuge on God's thumb.]]
** After running away from camp, Stanley comes across a hole filled with yellow-spotted lizards. [[spoiler:After he and Zero return to camp, they find the treasure, but then end up covered in lizards. Luckily for them, they survive because of the onions they have been eating, which the lizards are repelled by.]]
** The contents of [[spoiler: Stanley Yelnats's chest is hinted at]] in the beginning of the movie when the family discusses his successes with the stock market.

** Stanley would never have ended up at Camp Green Lake if Derrick Dunne hadn't stolen his notebook. By the time Stanley fished it out of a toilet, he had missed his bus and had to walk home, leading to him ending up with Clyde Livingston's shoes. [[spoiler:He also wouldn't have ended up with said shoes if Zero hadn't stolen them in the first place, or had kept them, or ditched them anywhere except exactly where he did. Zero even says in the film that it's his fault that Stanley ended up at Camp Green Lake.]]
** Stanley would also likely have gone to jail if Barf Bag had not elected to provoke a rattlesnake to bite him, as otherwise there wouldn't have been a vacancy for him to fill. [[spoiler:As a result, he wouldn't have broken the curse, never met Zero, never found the treasure or reunited Zero with his mother.]]
** Kate Barlow wouldn't have become a famed outlaw if Sam hadn't been killed. Stanley Yelnats I would also not have been robbed (at least not by her), and because he met his wife in hospital after said robbery, the three younger generations of Stanley Yelnats would not have been born. [[spoiler:Also, she stole Stanley Yelnats I's money after becoming an outlaw and the whole purpose of Camp Green Lake was to find it. Camp Green Lake wouldn't have even existed if it weren't for Sam's death.]]

** The Warden's current activities stem from her horrible childhood under her abusive grandfather's thumb. More specifically, [[spoiler:she's the granddaughter of Trout Walker, who went crazy in his search for Kissin' Kate's stash. He forced his children and grandchildren to dig everyday in the lake-bed with him for the rest of his life, even on ''Christmas''. And even still, she's obsessed with trying to finish what he started]]. She's a bitter, cynical and vicious woman, but it's easy to see why.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Kissin' Kate Barlow]] was once a schoolteacher before becoming [[spoiler:one of the most feared outlaws in the Old West.]]

* GivenNameReveal: All the boys at camp, but most notably: "My name is Hector. Hector [[spoiler:Zeroni]]."

* HappyRain: At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:after a century of curse-induced drought, it begins to rain at Camp Green Lake and the guys happily dance in it for a while before Stanley and Zero have to depart]].
* HereditaryCurse: A bad luck curse on the main character's family due to an ancestor cheating a Roma drives the plot. [[spoiler:The way to lift the curse is hereditary as well. Madam Zeroni's part of the deal was for Stanley's ancestor to carry her to the top of a nearby mountain to drink from the spring so she may become strong. A century later Stanley carries Madam Zeroni's descendant to the top of a mountain where he can drink from the spring, fulfilling the Yelnats' part of the bargain and lifting the curse.]]
** It may have just been an accident, but Kissin' Kate Barlow tells Trout Walker (the [[spoiler:Warden's grandfather]]) before she dies that he, his children and his children's children could dig in the dried lake bed for the next 100 years and never find her treasure. Exactly 100 years later, it was found by another and the Warden was arrested without even seeing it.
* HiddenAgendaVillain: [[spoiler:The camp is actually a scheme by the Warden to uncover Kate Barlow's treasure without having to dig up the whole desert herself.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:After Zero runs away, the Warden orders his files to be deleted to [[{{Unperson}} make it appear that he never existed]]. This backfires when he's saved and returns to the camp, which turns the absence of any records of his existence into a RevealingCoverup that leads the Attorney General to investigate and ultimately shut down the camp.]]

* IllPretendIDidntHearThat: Near the end, [[spoiler:as Stanley and Zero are being driven home from Camp Green Lake]], Zero openly admits that [[spoiler:he committed the theft Stanley was wrongly arrested for]]. Their driver[=/=]legal counsel turns in her seat and tells him: "I didn't hear that. And I advise you to make sure I don't hear it again."

* ImplausibleDeniability: Stanley denies that anything major happened after Mr. Sir took him to see the Warden. Even after [[spoiler:Mr. Sir shows up the next day with a swollen wound on his face.]]

* InSeriesNickname: All of the delinquents have nicknames based on something about them such as Caveman (Stanley, who's fat/finds a fish fossil) and Armpit (Theodore, according to both ''Small Steps'' and the Survival Guide it's because he was stung under the arm by a scorpion and then complained endlessly about it, although the movie implies it's for bad body odor), based on their names like X-ray (PigLatin for Rex) [[spoiler:and Zero (real name Hector Zeroni)]], something they do/did like Magnet (Jose, steals a lot) or Twitch (Brian, extremely fidgety), and their personality (Mom, for Mr./"Dr." Pendanski). The town of Green Lake also has Charles "Trout" Walker (who has incredibly smelly feet) and "Kissin' Kate" Barlow, who kissed the men she killed.

* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:When the Warden asks to see inside the trunk.]]

* ItsAllMyFault: [[spoiler:Zero admits to Stanley that it's his fault Stanley got sent to Camp Green Lake, because he's the one who stole Clyde Livingston's shoes in the first place.]]

* KarmicJackpot: Stanley overall is a NiceGuy who gives X-Ray the tube he finds and later tries to [[spoiler:steal the water truck to deliver it to Hector in the desert]]. These both pay off in two big ways: the warden's obsession with the lipstick tube makes Stanley realize the initials stand for Kate Barlow and [[spoiler:he finds her treasure-- a chest stolen from Stanley Yelnats I-- as well as claiming ownership]]. To a lesser extent, [[spoiler:Stanley's devotion to Zero and keeping him alive not only breaks the family curse but also allows Zero to realize the chest belongs to his friend by reading the letters on it]].

** While she later moves to innocent people, Kate Barlow started out this way after [[spoiler: Sam is killed]].

*** While the Warden would also get into deep trouble for ordering it, Mr. Pendanski could potentially face up to 20 years in prison due to [[spoiler: attempting to erase Zero ever being at Camp Green Lake by altering state records]].

* LoveMakesYouCrazy[=/=]LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Kissin' Kate]] after [[spoiler:Sam]] is killed.

* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: A SubvertedTrope. [[spoiler:It turns out one of the camp counselors was faking being a doctor.]]
* {{Mordor}}: Camp Green Lake, which is neither green nor a lake. It used to be, though. And by the ending of the book [[spoiler:it is implied that it did become a lake again afterwards.]]

* MyHeroZero: Played straight, although it's an intentionally derogatory nickname (his full name is [[spoiler:Hector Zeroni)]].

* NoahsStoryArc: Joked about. The kids see a cloud in the sky, the first they've ever seen in this arid desert, and start joking about how they need to start building an ark. It's all just to get their hopes up, as Camp Green Lake hasn't had rain for a hundred years. [[spoiler:It rains at the end just as the attorney general closes the camp.]]

** [[spoiler:Subverted with Mr. Sir in the film: the Attorney General reveals his real name is Marion Sevillo.]]

** Played with/zigzagged with Camp Green Lake. Currently, it's neither green nor a lake, though it ''used'' to be an actual lake -- [[spoiler:and it becomes one again at the end of the story]].

** [[spoiler:Stanley and Zero after they find the treasure, first when the Warden appears with Mr. Sir shining a flashlight at them, and then when they see the many yellow-spotted lizards in the hole with them.]]
** Mr Sir at the end of the film and stated by him each time. First is when Stanley's lawyer and the Attorney General return. Second is [[spoiler:when the Attorney General recognizes him and uses his real name, Marion Sevillo.]] The first time you don't see his face when he says it. The second time, you definitely do.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Averted. Although the boys only refer to each other and later to Stanley by their nicknames, Pendanski refers to all of them, bar Zero, by their real names. Towards the end, however, he refers to Zero by his real name of Hector. In ''Literature/SmallSteps'', we even get two of their surnames: Johnson for Armpit, and Washburn for X-Ray. [[spoiler:Subverted by Mr Sir in the film, too: his real name turns out to be Marion Sevillo. Cue an OhCrap from him when the Attorney General recognizes him and uses his name.]]

** Averted with the Warden. Her surname is [[spoiler:Walker]], but the film reveals her first name is Louise.

** Kissin' Kate Barlow is made more sympathetic by only initially killing the people who were involved in [[spoiler:Sam's death]] rather than random innocents.

* PragmaticVillainy: The Warden rewards one of her charges for finding something with a break and a snack... but not out of the goodness of her heart: she just wants the kids to find [[spoiler: Kate's treasure faster]].

* RagsToRiches: [[spoiler:The Yelnats family and Zero at the end, crossing over with WealthyEverAfter.]]

* RefugeInAudacity: Stanley [[spoiler:steals the water truck to try and rescue Zero, right under Mr Sir's nose. He crashes it into a hole, but still, damn!]]

* RepeatWhatYouJustSaid: Stanley's grandfather asks Zero to confirm if he just said [[spoiler:his last name is Zeroni, realizing his grandson had fulfilled his cheating ancestor's bargain and lifted the family curse.]]
** The film has this with [[spoiler:Stanley's father finding his foot odor cure. "[frustrated] I don't smell anything." "...what?" " [slow realization] ...I don't smell anything."]]

* RewatchBonus: When you know that [[spoiler:Hector accidentally got Stanley arrested by stealing Clyde's shoes, innocently thinking they were just sneakers]], it makes his digging Stanley's hole the day Stanley tries to take the heat for Magnet more clear.

** The Yelnats family after Stanley Yelnats I was robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. [[spoiler:They go back to riches after Stanley and Zero dig up the stash at Camp Green Lake.]]

* ScarpiaUltimatum: G-rated version where the Sheriff half-heartedly offers to [[spoiler:run Sam out of town instead of hanging him]] if Miss Kate kisses him. She takes him up on his offer [[spoiler:''after'' she kills him--which earns her the nickname "Kissin' Kate" Barlow]].

* ShaggyDogStory: The Warden and her ancestors have spent decades trying to find Kate Barlow's treasure in the dried ruins of the lake (she even mentions her grandfather forced her to dig through most of her childhood, ''even on Christmas'') so much so that the [[spoiler: whole point of the camp was to use kid labor to do the dirty work and find the treasure faster. In the end all that effort was wasted as not only does she not get the treasure chest, Stanley denies her the dignity of even looking inside it.]] [[AssholeVictim She mostly deserves it]], but still... Ouch.

!'''This page contains unmarked spoilers. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!'''

* AbusiveParents: Charles "Trout" Walker was this to his children and grandchildren, forcing them to dig everyday in the dried lake bed for Kissin' Kate's loot. He wouldn't even let them take a break on their birthdays or on holidays. This treatment is what led to [[spoiler:the Warden (Trout's granddaughter)]] becoming such a bitter and cynical person.

* AddictionDisplacement: Mr. Sir is constantly snacking on sunflower seeds in an effort to give up smoking. [[spoiler:At the end of the book he lapses back into smoking again.]]

** In the book after he runs away Stanley briefly wonders how the Warden will explain his absence since unlike Zero they can't just pretend he never existed due to Stanley's family. [[spoiler: The movie adds a scene that reveals the Warden's plan to deal with the situation. Wait a week until they're sure Stanley was dead and ''then'' send out search parties]].
** The fate of Mr. Sir: in the book, [[spoiler:he just returns Stanley's belongings to him at the end]]; in the film, [[spoiler:he's revealed to be a paroled ex-convict named Marion Savillo and gets arrested again for carrying a gun]].
** At the end of the film, we see [[spoiler:the other members of "D" tent at Stanley's house party, hanging out with him.]] No such thing happens, or is even mentioned, in the book.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:It turns out that the whole purpose of Camp Green Lake is to use the boys to find the treasure faster than if the Warden was doing it herself, as she had done through her childhood thanks to Trout, her abusive grandfather. Stanley finds the treasure chest, finds that it rightfully belongs to his family, and the Warden is left with nothing to show for her efforts, as Stanley refuses to let her look inside it, so all the effort she put into finding the treasure went completely to waste.]]

* AmusingInjuries: Zero whacking Pendanski across the face with a shovel. Also, in the film, Mr Sir falls into a hole when Stanley steals the water truck. At the end, when Pendanski goes back to the mess hall [[spoiler:to tell the boys they won't have to dig anymore holes if they keep quiet]], he falls into a hole too.
** Averted when [[spoiler:Kissin' Kate Barlow allows herself to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard to save her from a worse fate than she would receive from the Walkers.]], and when the Warden slashes Mr Sir across the face with her fingernails.

* AndYourLittleDogToo: After Trout Walker [[spoiler:had killed Sam]], Miss Katherine found out the town [[spoiler:had also killed Sam's beloved donkey Mary Lou]].

** Trout Walker. He fancied Kate but she rejected him because she liked Sam instead. Being NotGoodWithRejection, he ordered the schoolhouse she ran to be burned down and killed Sam [[AndYourLittleDogToo and his donkey, Mary Lou]]. He ended up [[RichesToRags losing his fortune]] in the drought that claimed the town of Green Lake, and spent the rest of his life searching for Kate's buried treasure and never found it, even making his children and grandchildren dig for it when they were big enough. [[spoiler: The Warden is his descendant]].

* BarefootPoverty: [[spoiler: Homeless Zero’s theft of a pair of shoes sets the plot in motion.]]

* BerserkButton: After Mr. Sir [[spoiler:is slashed across the face by the Warden's venom coated nails, a camper asks him about his swollen wound the next day and promptly gets yelled at for it. Everyone quickly learns to not ask about it again.]]
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Kissin' Kate]] chooses to [[spoiler:allow a yellow-spotted lizard to bite her]] rather than let [[spoiler:Trout Walker]] kill her or tell him what he wants to know. He would have tortured her for the information and she, by her own word, had [[DeathSeeker been wishing she was dead for a while]].

* BitchInSheepsClothing: A male example in Mr. Pendanski. A doctor, he [[spoiler:acts as if he]] really wants to help the boys, and he takes on the nickname "Mom". [[spoiler:But he's not really a doctor, and he treats Zero like crap. Later, he is willing to let Zero die to avoid scrutiny by the authorities. He was even willing to let both Zero and Stanley die at the orders of the Warden, when the kids were trapped with yellow-spotted lizards. He ultimately gets his comeuppance in the end, when he is arrested along with the Warden and Mr. Sir.]]
* BoomHeadshot: The fates of [[spoiler:Mary Lou (Sam's donkey) and the Green Lake sheriff]].
* BorrowedCatchphrase: At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Stanley prepares to drive away with his family and his grandfather's treasure chest as the Warden, in handcuffs, demands to get a peek of what she believes is rightfully hers. Stanley cooly replies with two words: "Excuse me?"]]
* BrainlessBeauty: Myra Menke, mixed with DumbBlonde in the movie. Madam Zeroni says her head is "emptier than a flower pot". But Elya is too entranced by her beauty [[spoiler:but abandons her when he sees she's too dumb to choose between marrying him or Igor. Though, at least in the film, she didn't look too happy being stuck with Igor.]]

* BrickJoke: Mr. Sir frequently reminds the inmates that "this isn't a Girl Scout camp". [[spoiler:In the epilogue, it's revealed that Camp Green Lake in fact becomes a girl scout camp.]]

* CallBack: The opening narration remarks that if you get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, "there is nothing anyone can do to you anymore". [[spoiler:When Kissin' Kate Barlow dies by a yellow-spotted lizard's bite, the narration comments that "there was nothing anyone could do to her anymore."]]

* CallForward: Twice, we are shown a flashback to Sam selling his onions that gives an answer to something that just happened in the current story line-[[spoiler: that is, onions healing stomach bacteria and yellow-spotted lizards being repelled by 'onion blood'.]]

** Taken to a ridiculous extreme in the movie where, by sheer coincidence, it turns out that [[spoiler:peaches and onions are the missing ingredient in Stanley's dad's foot-odor cure]].
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Onions. Sam is Green Lake's onion seller, and he mentions to Kate he has an onion farm on the other side of the lake. [[spoiler:Presumably Stanley Yelnats I staved off death by eating onions as he took refuge there. Stanley and Zero later did the same after they ran away from camp. And then, after they find the loot, the copious amount of onions they have eaten repel the lizards crawling over them and preventing them from being fatally bitten.]]

** Stanley Yelnats I's fortune. The family legend is that Kate Barlow stole it from him and stranded Stanley I in the desert. [[spoiler:It turns out she buried it and ''that'' was her treasure. Zero reads the name on it and is able to claim that it belongs to Stanley IV]].
** Stanley mentions that, when the sky is clear, he can see mountains and hills in the distance of Camp Green Lake. [[spoiler:Stanely and Zero later come across these mountains when they're stranded in the desert.]]
** An impress duo. Sam offers to fix the schoolhouse roof, saying he built his boat to be watertight, in exchange for some of Kate Barlow's spiced peaches. She agrees, and starts finding more things for him to fix. [[spoiler:The boat ''is'' durable so that a hundred years later, Hector is able to use it as shelter from the desert after he finds it upturned. It also has some of Kate's spiced peaches still in it, which are enough to feed Hector and make him ill until he and Stanley make it to God's thumb]].
** The hole where Stanley found the gold tube. [[spoiler:The tube itself turns out to be half of a lipstick container that previously belonged to Kissin' Kate Barlow. At the end, after Stanley and Zero return to camp, they continue digging in that same hole and it's there that they find her loot.]]
** The shovel Zero knocks Pendanski out with. After he does that, he takes the shovel with him when he runs away from camp. [[spoiler:This means he has something to use to open the jars of peaches in Sam's boat when using it as shelter, then he uses it to help Stanley climb up a difficult part of the mountain. In the book, Stanley uses the shovel to make the water hole deeper. And finally, when Stanley and Zero return to Camp Green Lake, they still have the shovel with them and thus are able to carry on digging for the treasure straight away. In the film, however, they still have the shovel, but Zero says that it will take too long with only one shovel and goes off to get another.]]
** Sam tells Kate he has an onion farm on the other side of the lake. [[spoiler:Stanley Yelnats I found it and was able to survive there after Kate robbed him until he was rescued. Much later, Stanley and Zero also climb the mountain and they too find refuge there and are able to survive on the onions and water before they eventually return to camp.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: When Madame Zeroni tries to convince Elya Yelnats not to marry [[BrainlessBeauty Myra Menke]], she mentions that her son went to America. [[spoiler:Several generations later, Stanley (Elya's descendant) ends up meeting Hector Zeroni (Madame Zeroni's descendant), allowing him to break the curse.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: Teaching Hector to read [[spoiler: saves Stanley when he uses his newfound literacy to prove the treasure belongs to Stanley]].

** The Warden's 1958 Chrysler Saratoga coupe in the movie also qualifies. It's revealed in a flashback that [[spoiler:it used to belong to her grandfather, Charles "Trout" Walker.]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Subverted. Hector apologetically confesses to Stanley that [[spoiler:he stole Clyde Livington's shoes when they're on the mountain. He was staying at the homeless shelter and due to not being able to read, he didn't realize they were up for auction. When the cops were looking for them, he tossed them away, which was how Stanley ended up with them. Hector says that if he hadn't stolen the shoes, neither he nor Stanley would be at Green Lake]]. Stanley disagrees, thanking Hector for doing it because then they wouldn't have met or become friends. [[spoiler:And the Yelnats family curse wouldn't have been able to be broken]].

* CurseCutShort: Stanley nearly says the "F-Word" when he sees Mr. Sir pointing his pistol at him, which in reality [[spoiler:turns out to be aimed at a deadly yellow-spotted lizard]].
* CurseEscapeClause: [[spoiler:By carrying Zero up a mountain, giving him water (and thus, making him strong, as he was dehydrated at the time) and singing the "Pig Lullaby" to him, Stanley breaks Madame Zeroni's curse on the Yelnats family]].
* CurseIsFoiledAgain: Even more so in the movie as [[spoiler:the camp counselors are arrested]].
* DarkReprise: Inverted. "If Only, If Only", a Latvian folk tune passed down by Stanley's family, is a bitter, cynical song about getting shafted in life. But at the end of the book, we hear a much more uplifting, ParentalLoveSong version of the song sung by [[spoiler:Zero's mom]].

* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Kissin' Kate Barlow became one after the murder of her lover Sam. In the film, after Trout says he'll make her wish she was dead, [[ThreatBackfire she replies that she has been wishing she was dead for a long time]]. Moments after she says that, a yellow-spotted lizard bites her and she dies.]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: [[spoiler:Sam and Katherine's romance ends badly, in large part because mixed-race romances weren't looked on too kindly in the 19th century]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: The campers are accused of getting much lazier after the Warden personally oversees their digging area, and she gets very annoyed and claims they're barely doing any digging now at all even though they've had to do more since she took charge of them. Once Armpit returns, telling her he left to use the restroom, [[spoiler:she stabs him with a pitchfork. Luckily, it's OnlyAFleshWound.]]

** Stanley and Zero at the end when Zero reveals the treasure chest [[spoiler:is rightfully Stanley's because it has his name on it (his great-grandfather's name actually, but because the family always name their sons Stanley, their names are identical)]], preventing the Warden from getting her hands on it. He even repeats her sinister catchphrase "'Scuse me?", then slams the trunk door shut.

* DontLookDown: [[spoiler: Zero says this to Stanley when the two are ascending the mountain. Stanley does look down, and almost falls off the rock face seconds later when he tries and fails to grab a handhold.]]

** The yellow-spotted lizards. ''Everyone'', even the Warden and ''especially'' Mr. Sir, is terrified of them and for good reason as they're [[HairTriggerTemper vicious]] and have the [[OneHitKill most deadly venom of any animal in Green Lake]]. The only one to ever show calm in their presence was Kissin' Kate Barlow, and that's only because [[spoiler:she had nothing left to live for]].
* DrivenToSuicide: In the film, [[spoiler:Kissin' Kate is waiting by Sam's boat, not even bothering to move out of the sun the way Zero did a hundred years later. It's implied she wanted the heat to take her. When Trout and his wife Linda threaten to torture her to find the treasure, Kate grabs a nearby a yellow-spotted lizard and makes it bite her, simply to spite Trout (in the book, the lizard was a lucky accident).]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Stanley breaks the family curse and is proven innocent, Zero is rescued and freed, and the two receive Stanley Yelnats the First's treasure. The Yelnats buy a new house and successfully create a wonderful invention, Zero reunites with his mom, Clyde Livingston befriends Stanley, and rain returns to Camp Green Lake, which is closed and turned into a Girl Scout camp.]] [[ThrowTheDogABone A lot of luck for the world's most unlucky family]].

* EmbarrassingFirstName: In the film, Mr. Sir's first name turns out to be [[spoiler:[[GenderBlenderName Marion]].]]

* EurekaMoment: "I don't smell anything." [[spoiler:How the Yelnats realize their most recent "foot odor cure" concoction worked.]]

** In the flashback to Kate's story, Linda Miller is willing to help her husband Trout torture "Miss Katharine" to find her robbery money, but she looks a little disturbed when Kate says "I've been wishing I was dead for a long time." Later she's horrified when Kate [[spoiler:commits suicide via goading a yellow-spotted lizard to bite her in the wrist]].

** The Warden sincerely thanks the fugitive boys for [[spoiler:finding the treasure]] shortly before the yellow-spotted lizards appear.
** [[spoiler:In the film, when Stanley and Zero are trapped in the hole and covered in yellow-spotted lizards, Mr. Sir warns Stanley's lawyer and the Attorney General not to approach the hole because of the lizards.]]

** The gold tube Stanley finds has the initials "KB" on it. [[spoiler:They're the initials of Kate Barlow, and it's the loot she stole from Stanley Yelnats I as an outlaw that the camp is digging for.]]

* ShootTheHostage: After [[spoiler:Stanley and Zero]] get covered in yellow-spotted lizards, the counselors aren't sure whether to wait for the lizards to kill them, or to shoot, risk killing them, and have to deal with the Attorney General arriving to see it.

* SnakeOilSalesman: Subverted with Sam. It may be easy to believe that his onion remedies run on the placebo effect, especially when we find out he could just as easily earn a living with carpentry. The onions end up being a ChekhovsGun; he says the lizards don't like the onion juice in people's blood, and [[spoiler:the lizards in the hole with the treasure end up not biting Stanley or Hector after they were eating onions from Sam's field for a few days. Even the Warden is astounded that the boys are alive come sunrise]].

** Stanley teaching Zero how to read is what does in the Warden once and for all [[spoiler:as Zero is the only one who noticed that Kissin' Kate's stash was kept in a case marked "Stanley Yelnats"--it belonged to Stanley's great-grandfather, but it invalidates the Warden's claims that Stanley stole it from her office.]]
** Also, Stanley giving the tube of lipstick to X-Ray and then suggesting him to keep it until the next morning. [[spoiler:This leads the Warden to think Kate Barlow's loot is in the wrong place and has the boys dig there, which also tells Stanley that whatever the Warden wants is related to the tube.]]

* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake for stealing a pair of shoes, which by his account he found after they fell from an overpass. His best friend at Camp Green Lake is Zero, [[spoiler:who was the one who actually stole the shoes and threw them off the overpass. Furthermore, Zero's ancestor placed the HereditaryCurse on Stanley's family, and Green Lake is where Kissin' Kate Barlow buried a chest full of stock market documents that belonged to Stanley's great-grandfather]].

* ThisCannotBe: The Warden, after discovering that the briefcase [[spoiler:has Stanley's name on it]]:

* TragicKeepsake: In the film Kate is hanging out by Sam's boat [[spoiler:when Trout Walker catches up to her]]. She said she was wishing she was dead for years, which has unsettling implications.

* UnfortunateNames: Zero. He not only got it for a negative reason (people think there's zero going on in his head), but ''everyone'' calls him that, including Mr. Pendanski, who otherwise refuses to call the campers by their nicknames. He's also the only one who was called Zero even before he went to Camp Green Lake, [[spoiler: because it's based on his last name Zeroni.]]
* {{Unperson}}: To keep themselves from being held responsible for Zero's [[spoiler:potential death in the desert]], the Warden orders his files deleted from the computer. The task is easier because Zero was a ward of the state with no family, but it backfires miserably - with those records gone, [[spoiler:they can't prove he's an inmate, and have to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard let him go]] instead of [[HostageForMacGuffin trading him for the suitcase]].]]

* VillainousRescue: Stanley's main bully from school, Derrick Dunne, did this for him at the end. [[spoiler: Stanley's lawyer Miss Morengo explains that he's being freed because it turned out he has an alibi, which was corroborated by Derrick -- Stanley couldn't have stolen Clyde Livingston's shoes because Derrick was with Stanley (specifically, picking on him by taking his notebook and throwing it in a toilet) when the shoes disappeared]].

* WealthyEverAfter: [[spoiler:Downplayed in the book (but played fully straight in the film); Stanley and Zero each receive a little less than a million dollars due to the value of the papers from the treasure chest. However, that's still a pretty big windfall for two teenagers, especially two who had lived in poverty before that (Zero having been destitute and homeless, while Stanley's family was just barely keeping a roof over their heads). Plus, the Yelnats have a new source of income with their successful Sploosh deodorant]].

* WhamLine: Occurs when Zero tells Stanley his real name: [[spoiler:Hector Zeroni]].

* WhyIsntItAttacking: [[spoiler:Stanley and Zero]] fall into a pit of yellow-spotted lizards. But they don't attack, and it's implied it's because [[spoiler:they were repelled by the boys' onion diet]].

** Kissin' Kate Barlow. [[spoiler:Originally just a schoolteacher in 19th-century Texas, she eventually falls for the the [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt black onion seller]], Sam. This results in not only a mob burning down the school, but Sam is sentenced to death for kissing a white woman. She then becomes the most notorious outlaw in the Wild West. Her first kill is the sheriff who [[ScarpiaUltimatum offered to not kill Sam in exchange for a kiss]].]]

* WorthlessYellowRocks: [[spoiler:When the Yelnatses first open the suitcase, the first thing they see is a bunch of shiny jewels, but it turns out they're poor quality/degraded and not worth all that much. Subverted when it turns out that the suitcase also contains a bunch of stock certificates, which, while less eye-catching, are worth a heck of a lot more; even after the cost of sorting it all out, Stanley and Zero each get close to a million dollars ("less than a million... but not a lot less"). Subverted completely in the film, where it's implied that everything is incredibly valuable because he kept it in a trunk, not a suitcase.]]