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The Yelnats Family

Everyone in his family had always liked the fact that "Stanley Yelnats" was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every other Stanley Yelnats before him.

    In General 
  • Ancestral Name: The name Stanley is a more recent variant of this for the male Yelnats members, as the tradition began in the late 1800s.
  • Butt-Monkey: Thanks to the family curse that leaves them all with bad luck and misfortune.
  • Hereditary Curse: They suffer a family curse of bad luck due to Elya Yelnats forgetting to fulfill his end of a bargain. Stanley lifts it by accidentally finally fulfilling said promise.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: The men's first name is their last name spelled backwards.
  • Single Line of Descent: As far as the narration shows, there are only Stanley Yelnatses following Elya.

    Stanley IV 

Stanley Yelnats IV/Caveman

Portrayed By: Shia LaBeoufForeign voice actors

The protagonist of Holes. Stanley is a teenage boy who was arrested for a crime he didn't commit and sentenced to a youth detention center.


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: In the book, Stanley starts out being overweight and eventually slimming down from the strenuous digging. In the movie, he is portrayed by Shia LaBeouf, a thin and fit young man. This was mostly a case of Pragmatic Adaptation, as it would have been difficult to portray a protagonist rapidly losing weight over the course of a film and it wouldn't have been good for the actor's physical health.
  • Butt-Monkey: At first.
  • Cassandra Truth: When he's on trial for stealing the shoes, his defense is that they actually fell out of the sky. This is completely true, at least as far as he knows (in reality, they fell off a highway overpass), but it sounds so blatantly impossible that it completely fails to convince anybody. Stanley later wonders if saying he found them on the side of the street would've gone over better.
  • Character Development: Goes from an awkward doormat to a much more self-confident young man.
  • Classical Anti-Hero: Stanley starts out awkward, with low confidence (movie), and overweight (book). A few months at Green Lake changes that.
  • Clear My Name: Stanley didn't steal Clyde Livingston's shoes, but was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hence his arrest and sentencing.
  • First Friend: He's this for Zero and vice versa.
  • Formerly Fat: In the book, he comes to Camp Green Lake chubby, but over time, the digging slims him down and builds up his muscles.
  • Kid Hero: He is fourteen years old.
  • Miscarriage of Justice: He's the victim of one, being arrested for a crime he didn't commit and sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp.
  • Nice Guy: While he does grow a bit more hardened as time goes on, he's still by far the nicest camper.
  • Not So Above It All: While he's a Nice Guy and one of the more sensible campers, he's not above blaming his "no-good dirty rotten pig-stealing great-great-grandfather" for why he's at the camp, which gets a laugh out of the other campers.
  • Shrinking Violet: Starts out as a rather shy boy with no friends and is easily targeted by bullies.
  • Took a Level in Badass: His stay at Camp Green Lake has him become stronger, both physically and mentally.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Can be a bit of one, which sometimes gets him in trouble. He mistakenly assumed Camp Green Lake would be a nice place (it wasn't), that Livingston's shoes would solve his family's poverty (they got him arrested, though at the same time that did kick off the chain of events that lead to him breaking the family curse), and that he and Zero meeting was destiny (perhaps it might be). He's still pretty optimistic at the end but is more pragmatic about it.

    Stanley III 

Stanley Yelnats III

Portrayed By: Henry WinklerForeign voice actors

The protagonist's father. He's an unsuccessful inventor who is looking for a way to recycle old sneakers.


  • Bungling Inventor: He's trying to invent a way to recycle old sneakers. He has plenty of talent and persistence, but the family curse denies him luck.
  • Butt-Monkey: Like father, like son (as well as his own father and grandfather).
  • Forgot to Pay the Bill: The poverty of his family means he and the landlord often fight over the rent payment.
  • Good Parents: Is this to Stanley.
  • Happily Married: With Stanley's mother.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: After Stanley breaks the family curse, he finally creates something amazing - a foot odor eliminator.

    Tiffany 

Tiffany Yelnats

Portrayed By: Siobhan Fallon HoganForeign voice actors

The mother of the protagonist, who doesn't believe in the family curse.


  • Closer to Earth: The only female in this generation of the family who doesn't believe in curses and bad luck. Played with in that her disbelief in the family curse would usually be the most sensible position, but in this case, she is actually completely wrong.
  • Good Parents: Is this to Stanley.
  • Happily Married: With Stanley's father.
  • Supernatural-Proof Father: A Gender-Inverted Example - she refuses to believe that there's such a thing as a family curse (at least on the men). There is. However, it's implied her denial is more rooted in a refusal to give in to despair, as she continues to support her husband's endeavors.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: While her son is on trial, she insists all he needs to do is tell the truth. That did not work out.

    Stanley II 

Stanley Yelnats II

Portrayed By: Nathan DavisForeign voice actors

The protagonist's grandfather. He's exclusive to the movie.


  • Canon Foreigner: Is the only member of Elya's family line not to be mentioned in the book, and might not even be alive in that continuity, considering that his grandfather met his grandmother 110 years before the present.
  • Character Catchphrase: "It's all because of your no-good, dirty, rotten, pig-stealing great-great-grandfather!"
  • Cool Old Guy: Doesn't think twice about accepting Stanley's request to split half the fortune with Zero.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a bitter crank who mocks his own son, but he cares about his grandson and is more than happy enough with giving half of the family treasure to Hector.
  • Mr. Exposition: In the film, he explains the backstory about Elya Yelnats and the family curse.

    Stanley I 

Stanley Yelnats I

Portrayed By: Allan Coleman

The protagonist's great-grandfather. He was robbed by outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow and left stranded in the desert.


  • Butt-Monkey: He was a successful financier, but had his fortune robbed from him by Kissin' Kate.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Was assumed to be one due to saying he "found refuge on God's thumb", though he was just a bit senile from being dehydrated and hungry after being stranded in the desert for seventeen days.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: Turns out "God's thumb" is a mountain oasis several miles from Camp Green Lake shaped like a fist giving a thumbs-up.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: Fell in love with the nurse that tended to him after he was rescued.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: For some unknown reason, Kate Barlow decided to spare his life.
  • You Will Be Spared: He was quite likely the only person Kate spared, though she still left him stranded out in the middle of nowhere several miles away from any civilization.

    Elya 

Elya Yelnats

Portrayed By: Damien LuvaraForeign voice actors

The protagonist's "no good, dirty, rotten, pig stealing great-great-grandfather". He is responsible for getting his family cursed with bad luck.


  • Butt-Monkey: Became one after forgetting to bring Madame Zeroni up the mountain. He's also blamed by his descendants in the present day for causing the family curse, being thought of as nothing but a dirty rotten thief.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: In-universe. While his own descendants believe the family curse started with him stealing a pig, in reality, he was cursed because he forgot to fulfill a promise he made to a close friend until it was too late for him.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: He was too infatuated with Myra to see that she was a terrible choice for a wife until her inability to choose between him and Igor causes him to realize she isn't worth it.
  • Nice Guy: The whole "no good, dirty, rotten, pig stealing" part about him is untrue. He was a nice kid who cared for Madame Zeroni, but forgot to fulfill his promise.
  • The Oath-Breaker: Elya set off the family curse by forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni.
  • Oh, Crap!: Happens when he realizes he forgot to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain, but it's too late since he already set sail for America.
  • Only Friend: It's implied that he's the only friend Madame Zeroni has in the village.
  • Phrase Catcher: His descendants sure have a habit of referring to him as a "no good, dirty, rotten, pig stealer".
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He went to America without carrying Madame Zeroni up the mountain, leading to the curse that brought great misfortune to his family.

    Sarah 

Sarah Yelnats (née Miller)

He fell in love with a woman named Sarah Miller. She could push a plow, milk a goat, and, most important, think for herself. She and Elya often stayed up half the night talking and laughing together.

Elya's wife after he moves to America.


  • Betty and Veronica: The logical, sensible Betty to Myra's ditzy Veronica.
  • Foil: To Myra, as they both serve as love interests for Elya, but Sarah was able to do everything that Madame Zeroni said Myra couldn't.
  • Happily Married: Despite the misfortune Madame Zeroni's curse brought upon her and Elya's lives, she never resented him for anything and loved him to the end.
  • Nice Girl: She's a respectable young lady who stuck with her husband through thick and thin.
  • The Reliable One: She refuses to leave Elya even after he tells her he's cursed for breaking a promise.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: She's the only stroke of good luck in Elya's life after he was cursed.
    • Screw Destiny: One could interpret her decision to stay with Elya this way.
  • Woolseyism: In-Universe, she changes some of the words of "the pig lullaby" so that the lyrics rhyme in English.

Inmates of Camp Green Lake

    In General 

    Zero 

Hector Zeroni/Zero

Portrayed By: Khleo ThomasForeign voice actors

The youngest of the D Tent boys, who keeps to himself and rarely speaks to anybody. He becomes close to Stanley, setting off a chain of events that change their lives forever.


  • Barefoot Poverty: While he lived on the streets, hence why he stole Clyde Livingston's shoes.
  • Beware the Quiet Ones: Combined with The Dog Bites Back, he finally stands up for himself after Mr. Pendanski insults him constantly. In the movie, he's seen clutching a pool ball in anticipation of defending Stanley from a bully.
  • Book Dumb: He doesn't have much formal education, which leads to most of the characters deeming him stupid; at the start, he's functionally illiterate. His friendship with Stanley begins when the former begins tutoring him. That being said, he's not the idiot he's thought to be, as shown by him being able to do math in his head quickly and accurately.
  • Deuteragonist: Zero has the most important plot and development after Stanley with many backstory links. Not only is it revealed that he was the one who stole Clyde Livingston's shoes, but he's also a descendant of Madame Zeroni.
  • Disappeared Dad: His father is never spoken of, likely having either died or abandoned him.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After Mr. Pendanski taunts him one too many times, Zero swings his shovel into Pendanski's face, knocking him out.
  • Deus ex Machina: Stanley carrying Zero up the "God's Thumb" mountain and singing the "Pig Lullaby" song to him as he drinks from a stream is what breaks the Yelnats' family curse, because a descendant of Elya Yelnats fulfilled the promise of Madame Zeroni by carrying one of her descendants up a mountain and saving his life.
  • First Friend: Is this to Stanley and vice versa.
  • Good with Numbers: In the book, the first clue Stanley gets to how smart Zero really is (despite his lack of formal education) is that he can quickly and correctly do math in his head.
  • Honor Before Reason: After running away from Camp Green Lake, he refuses to return despite dying of thirst out in the desert.
  • Missing Mom: Downplayed. His mother was the only parent in his life, but due to their dire circumstances, she often had to leave him alone for long periods of time by ordering him to stay in one spot and not leave until she returned for him. One day, she never returned at all. At the end of the book, he hires a team of investigators to find her, and is reunited with his mother again.
  • Never Learned to Read: Being poor and homeless meant he never got a formal education. Stanley takes it upon himself to teach Zero, which pays off later in a Karmic Jackpot.
  • Nice Guy: He's certainly one of the more well-meaning characters, especially to Stanley.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It's revealed later in the story that it's his fault that Stanley got sent to Camp Green Lake in the first place. He stole the shoes Clyde Livingston was auctioning off for charity and while trying to evade the police, he threw the shoes off the edge of a bridge, which then fell on Stanley's head. Stanley doesn't get angry with him or rat him out, though.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Everyone thinks Zero's an idiot, since he never reacts to anything they say to him, but he really does it because he knows it's smarter to keep his head down and mouth shut.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's the smallest person, but the fastest digger and capable of physically strangling the much taller Zigzag. He also batters Pendanski with a shovel hard enough to leave him concussed with one swing.
  • The Quiet One: Stanley's the only one he starts to talk to, much to the others' shock.
    Zero: (regarding Clyde Livingston's shoes) Did they have red X's on them?
    (the other boys suddenly stop talking and stare at him in shock)
    Squid: (to Stanley) You got Zero to talk!
    Armpit: Hey yo, what else can you do, Zero?
  • The Reveal: He's descended from Madame Zeroni, and the real thief of Clyde Livingston's shoes.
  • Shrinking Violet: His usual demeanor.
  • Smarter Than You Look: While he's dismissed as an idiot due to a lack of formal education, Stanley figures out that he has a good deal more intelligence than he's given credit for.
  • Street Urchin: He and his mother were homeless for a time, so he often had to resort to stealing things to survive.
  • Telepathy: Possibly. Stanley sometimes feels like Zero can see into his head, and one of the first things he tells him is "you didn't steal those sneakers". While it's later revealed that Zero's the one who stole the shoes Stanley was accused of stealing, whether he knew those were the same sneakers at the time is unclear.
  • The Unfavorite: He's the least popular boy at the camp by a good margin, and the only person Mr. Pendanski openly insults.
  • Un-person: After he runs into the desert and is assumed to be dead, the Warden orders Mr. Sir and Pendanski to destroy all records of Zero being a prisoner and prevent an investigation into the camp's practices because they let a camper die on their watch. The investigation happens anyway for different reasons and the lack of Zero's file bits them in the ass hard.

    Armpit 

Theodore Johnson/Armpit

Portrayed By: Byron CottonForeign voice actors


  • Adaptational Backstory Change: In the movie, he gets his nickname for reasons you'd expect. However, in the books, as revealed in Small Steps, he got his name because that's where a scorpion stung him on his first day, and he complained about it afterward.
  • Breakout Character: The sequel, Small Steps, focuses on him.
  • The Big Guy: Big enough that his school's coach keeps begging for him to be on the football team.
  • The Bully: Initially is this to Stanley.
  • The Ditz: Has some really spacey moments and ends up accidentally insulting the warden due to his foolishness.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": Do not call him by his real name, Theodore, less you want him to put you in a headlock and throw you to the ground. He grows out of it after returning home and is actively trying to lose the nickname in the sequel, with mixed success.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Not in the book, where his mother is never mentioned (though the sequel does show that they don't have a bad relationship), but in the film he is given book!Squid's scene where he asks Stanley to call his mom and tell her he's sorry, using his real name.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he has some anger problems, it's shown (especially in the sequel) that he can be very kind to others.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Armpit is explained to have gotten his name not from being smelly, but because early in his time at Camp Green Lake a scorpion stung him in the arm and the pain from the venom settled around his armpit, which he subsequently wouldn't stop complaining about. (In the movie, it is because he's smelly.)
  • Odd Friendship: Armpit is a black teenage ex-delinquent, and one of his closest friends is a disabled white ten-year-old girl.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: In the book, it's mentioned that his nickname comes from an incident early during his stay at Camp Green Lake where he got stung by a scorpion, causing pain in his armpit that he complained about incessantly.
  • The Pig-Pen: In the movie, he's this, as, from what's said, he doesn't bathe or, at least, wash under his arms. In "Dig It," he sings, "I don't take showers and I don't brush my teeth; all I do is dig holes, eat and sleep."

    X-Ray 

Rex Washburn/X-Ray

Portrayed By: Brendan JeffersonForeign voice actors


  • Adaptational Nice Guy: He's much nicer to everyone else in the film. In particular, even though he is the only one who doesn't greet Stanley and Zero when they return in the book, he's just as overjoyed as everyone else when they come back in the film and even parts with Stanley with some final emotional words before he leaves.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Outside Camp Green Lake. In The Camp Green Lake Survival Guide, Stanley visits him at home and finds him struggling with homework and having friction with his mom. X-Ray's smart, but he's frustrated at having to work within society and is always looking for ways to do less work.
  • Blind Without 'Em: He wears large thick glasses that frequently get dirty from the dirt and dust.
  • Con Man: He's very good at bringing people around to his way of thinking, which is part of how he ends up D Tent's leader. But it's all too easy for this to turn into conning people, as in the case of his first conviction.
  • Foil: Funnily enough, to Trout Walker. Both considered themselves to be above the people around them because of an irrelevant factor - Trout's money and X-Ray's status as the longest-serving camper - and treated them extremely badly. Both also use their race for their own gain - Trout by preying on people's bigotry and X-Ray by calling on the old racist stereotype of white people taking advantage of black people. And, at the end of their stories, they get nothing (Trout doesn't find the treasure and X-Ray doesn't get out of Camp Green Lake) while the people they mistreated get what they want, one way or another (Kate sees Sam again and Stanley and Zero escape Camp Green Lake).
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Downplayed. He's not evil necessarily, but he's one of the most openly antagonistic of the D Tent boys towards Stanley.
  • Ironic Name: He admits to Stanley at one point that he has rather poor eyesight (already implied by his large glasses), and that his nickname is actually just a play on his real name.
  • Jerkass: He's nice if you agree with him. Don't, and have fun watching the rest of the camp abandon you with him. He's also a bit of a bully to Stanley, doing things like taking his food early on and making Stanley give up the gold lipstick tube belonging to Kate Barlow he found just so he can get a day off. When Stanley and Hector return to camp, he's the only D Tent member who doesn't greet them or wish them luck when they leave. In Small Steps, after he gets out of Camp Green Lake, he clearly has learned nothing and goes back to doing the same get-rich-quick schemes. However, after one of those blows up in his face and almost gets him sent back to jail, he appears to finally wise up and accepts a legitimate job offer from Armpit's boss.
  • The Leader: Of the D Tent boys, and comes close to being the leader among all the boys at the camp.
  • Magic Feather: His favorite shovel is supposedly shorter than the others, so it allows him to dig smaller holes. However, if there's any difference between his shovels and the others, it's so slight that no one except X-Ray can tell the difference.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He uses self-pity to con Stanley out of a day off.
  • Meaningful Name: "Rex" is Latin for "King", which his nickname (which is "Rex" in Pig Latin) hints at. Fittingly, he's the self-appointed leader of the boys of D Tent, and easily convinces the more physically imposing kids to follow his orders.
  • Not What It Looks Like: X-Ray was arrested for selling what everyone thought was cocaine and marijuana, but it turned out to be chopped-up aspirin and parsley. However, selling aspirin without a pharmaceutical license was still illegal.
  • The Old Convict: A form of it. He's been around the longest and adjusted the best to Camp Green Lake (too well in Stanley's opinion) and thus, is the best at coercing the others to agree with him.
  • Pig Latin: His nickname is his real name in Pig Latin.
  • Too Clever by Half: He's definitely smart for his age group, but always convinced he's smarter than the adults and the entire legal system. This leads to both his first conviction - which he probably thought he'd get away with since he wasn't actually selling drugs - and his plot in Small Steps, where he's convinced he can pull off a ticket scalping scheme, even though he flaunts his identity at every step.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: Is this to Armpit in Small Steps, convincing him to invest most of his hard-earned money into a ticket scalping scheme.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Subverted in that it's doom for the Warden and the camp staff rather than the heroes. Because Stanley gives up the lipstick tube that belonged to Kate Barlow to X-Ray, X-Ray plants the tube in the hole he was digging in. Thinking the treasure is in that area, the Warden directs the boys' attention (and a heavy amount of manpower) to the area around X-Ray's hole and not the location where Stanley had originally found it, leading to a massive wild goose chase and nothing to show for it.

    Zigzag 

Ricky/Zigzag

Portrayed By: Max KaschForeign voice actors


  • Berserk Button: Do not touch his TV, or he will crush your hand into the dial button so hard it will be cut open.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Zigzag may seem harmlessly weird, but smart campers realize that the crazy ones are just as bad as, if not worse than the mean ones.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: He reads an old TV guide like he's reading it for the first time every time, watches the broken TV in the Wreck Room (and gets really mad if it's fiddled around with), always somehow knows what the time and date is, and has a fascination with watching things burn.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Has a lot of strange ideas about surveillance.
    • Properly Paranoid: The movie implies that his theory that the Warden has cameras in the showers is right on the money.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Stanley considers it this when Zigzag calls Zero weird.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Eagerly asks Stanley what color the yellow-spotted lizard's blood was in the movie (after Mr. Sir blasted one).
  • Pet the Dog: While he's a bit "off", he's not that bad of a guy. He admits that he didn't want to hurt anybody when he started the fire that got him sent to Camp Green Lake, and before Stanley leaves camp, he apologizes for the fight they had before.
  • Pyromaniac: He was arrested for burning styrofoam on his school's lawn, only for the flames to get out of control and burn down a portable classroom.
    Zigzag: I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just like watching things burn.
  • Wild Hair: He got his nickname for his stand-up, frizzy hair.

    Squid 

Alan/Squid

Portrayed By: Jake M. SmithForeign voice actors


  • Alcoholic Parent: His mother is one. However, he clearly has some regrets involving her and asks Stanley to apologize to her for him.
  • Disappeared Dad: He left many years ago.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Implied to have this, based on his family background and surly disposition.
  • Don't Ask: He snarls at Stanley to leave him alone when the latter overhears him crying.
  • The Dragon: Is the second highest-ranking member of D-Tent, and often follows X-Rays' orders.
  • The Eeyore: He bitterly thinks Stanley and Hector's chances of survival in the desert are as good as his mom's chances of giving up booze.
  • The Generic Guy: He's got no standout quirks or personality traits like the other inmates. He's just a basic tough-guy type.
  • Noodle Incident: We never find out what he got arrested for, but he eventually tells Stanley to apologize to his mother for him.
  • Sand In My Eyes: "I got allergies, okay?"
  • Sour Outside, Sad Inside: He acts like a nasty tool, but his home life would mess anybody up.

    Magnet 

Jose/Magnet

Portrayed By: Miguel CastroForeign voice actors


  • Friend to All Living Things: Magnet insists that keeping cute animals in cages is the real crime.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Magnet never said what happened after he leaped on the supply truck to escape. The others never asked him either.
  • Meaningful Name: Got his nickname for claiming his hands are like magnets.
  • Pet the Dog: He likes animals. Heck, the reason he ended up in Camp Green Lake in the first place was because he tried to steal a puppy.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At one point he tried escaping Camp Green Lake by hitching a ride on the supply truck. An hour later, he showed up at dinner and asked for the ketchup, the others going along with it and not asking what happened.
  • Sticky Fingers: Where his nickname comes from. He was arrested for stealing a puppy he felt was overpriced (it was apparently $1000) and at his house, the police found $12,000 worth of stolen merchandise. Magnet even claims his fingers are like little magnets. Even at Camp Green Lake, he still can't resist stealing things.

    Barf Bag 

Lewis/Barf Bag

Portrayed By: Zane Holtz

The inmate who previously occupied Stanley's place, until he was taken to the hospital.


  • Agony of the Feet: He stepped on a rattlesnake and got bitten. Intentionally.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: What his rattlesnake bite was. In the film, he even took his shoe off first to make sure it happened.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He deliberately got bit because he wanted to get out of Camp Green Lake.
    • According to the Camp Green Lake Survival Guide, just after he woke up from his snakebite induced coma, he escaped from the hospital he was in thinking he would be sent back to to Camp Green Lake, not knowing it had been closed down following the events of Stanley's stay there.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: While he is only mentioned a few times in the book and only appears once at the beginning of the film, his absence from Camp Green Lake during his recovery opened up a vacancy, which is what allowed Stanley to go to the camp in the first place.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Supposedly, he often vomited. Good thing we weren't around to see it; however, Stanley did get his bed.

    Twitch 

Brian/Twitch

Portrayed By: Noah PoletiekForeign voice actors

An inmate who arrives after Stanley. He is constantly twitching and loves fast cars.


  • Adaptational Jerkass: Heavily downplayed in the Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide. Twitch is depicted as being very annoying and intrusive to the other campers and their belongings albeit unintentionally. Stanley even describes him as an example of what not to do at Camp Green Lake.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His attention span is very short, and he's implied to have ADHD.
  • Fragile Speedster: He's the fastest digger Camp Green Lake has ever had aside from Zero... for about 15 minutes. Then he loses his strength and grows too tired to dig.
  • Hassle-Free Hotwire: He was arrested for hotwiring a sports car and stealing it for a joyride.
  • Keet: He's really hyper, though the Camp nearly breaks his spirit.
  • Twitchy Eye: More like Twitchy Everything. According to him, he starts twitching even more when he gets near a nice car.
  • With Friends Like These...: The Survival Guide recounts Twitch as being nothing but annoying with the other campers seemingly just tolerating his presence. However, Twitch is still given a nickname by the other campers, meaning they see him as one of them.

Staff of Camp Green Lake

    Mr. Sir 

Mr. Sir

Portrayed By: Jon VoightForeign voice actors

One of the head administrators of Camp Green Lake. He's the primary enforcer of the Warden.


  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed in the movie: he's still villainous, but he does have more moments of humor and mirth.
  • Addiction Displacement: He's constantly eating sunflower seeds in an effort to avoid smoking. He lapses back at the end of the book.
  • Bait the Dog: He appears to be a Reasonable Authority Figure when he offers a thirsty Stanley a Coke. Nope - it was for the security guard and Mr. Sir appears offended that Stanley might expect kindness from him.
  • Berserk Button: Don't ask him about the scars on his face after the Warden slashed him.
  • The Brute: In addition to being the Warden's dragon.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": He does not like being called by his real name Marion.
  • The Dragon: The primary enforcer at the camp; for a while, Stanley thought he was the Warden.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Cruelly denying a thirsty Stanley something to drink while joking how he'll be thirsty for the next eighteen months is a perfect introduction to what kind of person he is.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He uses his gun only to defend himself from yellow-spotted lizards. He does threaten Stanley with it at one point but never fires at him.
  • Gender-Blender Name: In the film, his real name is revealed to be Marion Sevillo. This might be a reference to John Wayne, who also had that first name and changed it to a more manly-sounding one.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Midway through the book he gets three scars on the side of his face from the Warden slashing him with her rattlesnake venom-painted nails.
  • Hate Sink: Among the three main members of the Camp Green Lake staff, he's the first one to be a clear target of the readers' hate, being an irritable, cold-hearted, and all-around unpleasant man. Lessened somewhat in the movie, where he gets some funny lines.
  • Idiot Ball: He occasionally has his moments of acting stupid for the sake of the plot:
    • He knows that the Warden doesn't really care about "building character" and is actually looking for Kate Barlow's treasure. Despite this, he chooses to report Stanley's supposed theft of his sunflower seeds by telling the Warden that Stanley "found something." Naturally, she gets excited, only to learn the real purpose of their visit. Small wonder she ends up striking Mr. Sir across the face with rattlesnake venom.
    • There's also a small scene in the film where Pendanski can be heard chewing out Mr. Sir over Stanley's attempt to steal the water truck. Which might not have happened if Mr. Sir hadn't left the keys in the ignition. At a camp for juvenile delinquents. And this is after they accepted a new camper who got arrested for stealing a car.
  • Jerkass: He's the most overtly mean of the Camp Green Lake staff we get to see.
  • Large Ham: In the film, Jon Voight plays Mr. Sir much more humorously.
  • Laughably Evil: In the movie, Mr. Sir gets a lot of funny moments.
  • Named by the Adaptation: In the film, his true name is revealed to be Marion Sevillo.
  • Noodle Incident: He's revealed at the end to have had past dealings with the Attorney General, to the point that the AG knows him by name and that he's violating his parole by carrying a gun.
    "Been a long time since El Paso, Marion."
  • Oral Fixation: He's constantly chewing sunflower seeds. It's explained by him being a former smoker who picked up the habit to help him quit, and it stuck.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • When Zigzag asks for an extra carton of juice because it is his birthday, Mr. Sir actually gives him one, surprising everyone.
    • In the movie, when Stanley is first attacked by a lizard, Mr. Sir shoots it and tries to calm Stanley down.
  • Retired Outlaw: Implied to be one when the police arrest him at the end of the film for carrying a firearm, a violation of his parole. According to the Survival Guide spin-off, Mr. Sir was actually an outlaw who works at Camp Green Lake to hide from the authorities.
  • Riddle for the Ages: In the book, it's never revealed why he goes by "Mr. Sir," nor why he is so insistent that the campers refer to him as such whenever they speak to him. In the movie, he uses the name because his real one is Marion.

    Mr. Pendanski 

Mr. Pendanski

Portrayed By: Tim Blake NelsonForeign voice actors

The counselor of D Tent. He initially appears much nicer than Mr. Sir and claims he wants to reform the boys.


  • Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed. The only difference in his actions between the book and film is that in the film, he doesn't even pretend to be a good person or not as good with the facade otherwise.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's just as rotten as the other staffers, but does a better job of hiding it.
  • Condescending Compassion: In the film, his Establishing Character Moment is doing this to Zero.
    Mr. Pendanski: (in a disgustingly perky voice) You know why we call him Zero? Because there's nothin' going on in his stupid little head!
  • The Evil Genius: Is good with computers and hacking, hence why the Warden gets him to erase everything they can on Zero.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He seems like a nice guy and the Token Good Teammate, but it's really just a mask for a sadistic and petty man.
  • Hate Sink: He is clearly not intended to be likable, given how he treats Zero like dirt and tries to hide his mean-spirited personality with a façade of friendliness.
  • Jerkass: Beneath his friendly act is a callous, passive-aggressive douchebag who is just as selfish and cruel as the other camp staffers.
  • Jerkass to One: Even though he's a nasty, self-centered prick, he tries to disguise his true character by putting on a friendly, almost fatherly persona towards the campers. However, he doesn't bother trying to act nice to Zero, openly insulting and belittling him and not addressing him by his real name. This is because he thinks Zero's too stupid and passive for his opinions to really matter; as far as he's concerned, the boy won't even notice he's being mistreated and will dig holes regardless.
  • Kick the Dog: While he's nice to almost all the campers, he's not above giving a jab or two to Zero. It's the first hint that he's not really as nice as he seems at first. Eventually, The Dog Bites Back when Zero snaps and hits him in the face with a shovel.
  • Nice to the Waiter: Of the "treats people on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder badly and thus is a bad person" variety. What makes him Faux Affably Evil is the fact that he has absolutely no problems with degrading or insulting Zero because he thinks Zero is "too stupid" to fight back.
  • One Bad Mother: A rare male example. He takes on the nickname "Mom" and pretends to be the nice counselor to Mr. Sir's mean, but he's just as sadistic as the other staffers beneath his avuncular mask. The "Camp Green Lake Survival Guide" even points out that his nice guy act makes him worse than Mr. Sir who doesn't try to hide who he is behind a façade.
  • Pet the Dog: He gives a few genuine favors to Stanley, such as offering him a ride back in his truck or giving him extra water after Mr. Sir stops giving him any.
  • Playful Hacker: In The Guide to Surviving Camp Green Lake, it's revealed he was expelled for hacking his college's database and changing his grades. This gets him hired by the Warden.
  • Prefers Proper Names: Pendanski insists on referring to the campers by their proper names in an attempt to maintain an illusion of respectability (such as Stanley, Theodore, or Lewis as opposed to "Caveman", "Armpit" or "Barf Bag"), save for Zero, whose actual name, Hector, he doesn't bother to remember.
  • Team Dad: Subverted. While he plays the part of a concerned parental figure towards the campers (who semi-jokingly call him "Mom"), he's really a two-faced rat bastard who couldn't care less about them.
  • Token Good Teammate: His kindness contrasts the sternness and occasional outright cruelty of Mr. Sir and the Warden. It's all an act, though.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: He often assures the boys that they've still got a life past Camp Green Lake, even though it feels like they've been digging forever. At one point he even holds a meeting to ask them what job they hope to get. This is all an act and a means of manipulation, however.

    The Warden 

The Warden (Louise Walker)

Portrayed By: Sigourney WeaverForeign voice actors

The Warden runs Camp Green Lake, and owns the desert it's on. For the most part, she's rarely seen by the campers, and they and the staff know better than to mess with her.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Despite all the bad things she has done throughout the book, it's hard not to feel at least a little sympathy for her when Stanley takes his great-grandfather's treasure chest for good without even letting her see what's inside.
  • Bad Boss: She slashes Mr. Sir's face with her nails while they're coated in her special rattlesnake venom polish just because he annoyed her.
  • Bait the Dog: When she first appears in person, she seems to be something of a Reasonable Authority Figure despite her severe idea of justice and fearsome reputation. Of course, she's later revealed to be even worse than initial descriptions of her implied.
  • Berserk Button: She isn't amused by Armpit trying to pass off a piece of junk as a valuable treasure.
  • Big Bad: As the main antagonist of the book, she's the head of the camp, and everyone else answers to her.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When she is shown the lipstick tube she is sweet on the boys, making sure they get plenty of water and giving them words of encouragement as she has them expand on the area where X-Ray said he found it. After several days of digging and nothing to show for it, she gradually becomes nastier and shows her true colors which she keeps for the rest of the book except when dealing with the authorities.
  • Character Catchphrase: "Excuse me?" When she says this, you know that you are digging two holes: the one you're supposed to do, and your grave.
  • The Dreaded: Everyone's afraid of her. Even people that have never met her. It's subverted with Miss Moreno and the Attorney General.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": She's mostly just called "The Warden".
  • Evil Is Petty: After it's revealed Zero has been helping Stanley dig his holes in exchange for reading lessons, she demands that they go back to digging their individual holes and that Stanley will no longer teach Zero. Stanley accepts the first without complaint, but takes offense to the second, and says that there's no reason he can't keep teaching Zero to read. Her reason? "Because I said so."
  • Evil Redhead: Both the book and film versions have red hair. She inherited it from her grandmother Linda.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Her politeness and casual manner don't fool anyone. As soon as she faces you, it's definitely clear who is the one in charge.
  • Femme Fatalons: An interesting case, as her nails aren't much sharper/longer than average but her nail polish does help inflict a nasty wound on one of the counselors. Said nail polish is made with rattlesnake venom.
  • Freudian Excuse: Her grandfather, Trout Walker, was not a pleasant person, and forced her to dig for Kate Barlow's money in the desert every single day, even on her birthday and Christmas.
  • Hereditary Curse: Right before her death, Kissing Kate Barlow cursed Trout Walker by saying that neither he nor his descendants will ever lay eyes on her treasure. When Stanley and Zero are escorted out of the camp, Warden Walker begs Stanley to let her see what the treasure is, as a form of closure, but Stanley coldly refuses and he and Zero leave the camp, while the Warden and her cohorts are being processed before being taken away in handcuffs.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: She orders Zero's file to be deleted in an attempt to cover up his supposed death. When Stanley's lawyer asks to see it, it causes her entire web of lies to suddenly collapse right in front of the authorities.
  • Humiliation Conga: Goes through this at the end of the story. First, her authority breaks down, then Stanley finds the treasure and it has his family name on it, which proves she's lying to a lawyer and a state Attorney General, and she and the other camp staff are arrested. The movie takes it a step further, with Stanley snubbing her from seeing what's inside the chest and thus, denying her even the closure of knowing what she spent her whole life looking for.
  • I Never Told You My Name: Somehow, she knows Stanley's nickname even though he never met her before. When he asks the others about this, they tell him she has tiny security cameras hidden across the camp.
  • Ironic Echo: When she begs Stanley to at least see what's in the treasure chest, he simply says "excuse me?" before shutting it away.
  • Meaningful Appearance:
    • One of the first things Stanley notices about her is her black cowboy boots with turquoise stones. Kissin' Kate's final scene in the book reveals that they were her boots first — or at least, she had a very similar pair. Given the Warden's cabin was Kate's cabin originally, it's not too unlikely that the boots originally belonged to Kate.
    • She's also established early on to be a freckly redhead. It's later revealed that she inherited these traits from her grandmother.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: She uses the pretense that her harsh form of justice is intended to punish juvenile delinquents for the good of both them and society. However, while most of them do legitimately deserve punishment (though not as harsh as hers), her actual motivation is to enrich herself by exploiting their labor.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: In her first appearance, she rewards X-Ray with a day off and a double shower for finding Kate Barlow's lipstick tube, then tells Mr. Pendanski to refill everyone's canteen, even though they just had their hourly refill five minutes ago. Although she acts as though it's a Pet the Dog moment from her, it's really just to motivate the campers into digging harder in hopes of finding more treasure.
  • Samus Is a Girl: She's not revealed to be a woman until a third of the way into the book.
  • Sloth: Sits in her air-conditioned trailer watching TV all day while the boys do the back-breaking work of finding Kissin' Kate's treasure.
  • Soft-Spoken Sadist: After she slashes Mr. Sir's face for wasting her time, she speaks to him in a soft and casual tone while he writhes in pain.
    Mr. Sir screamed and clutched his face with both hands. He let himself fall over, rolling off the hearth and onto the rug.
    The Warden spoke softly. "I don't especially care about your sunflower seeds."
    Mr. Sir moaned.
    "If you must know," said the Warden, "I liked it better when you smoked."
  • Tranquil Fury: She never has to raise her voice to make it clear when she's displeased with someone.
  • Villain Ball: Assuming that she owns the land of Camp Green Lake, which seems to be the case, she could have avoided all of this by hiring a bunch of contractors to dig up the treasure for her, and then she would no doubt have gotten away with it. She just preferred the idea of free/inexpensive labor that she got from prisoners, and it turns out to be her downfall.
  • Villains Want Mercy: A variation in the movie - after the camp staffers have been arrested and Stanley and Zero get ready to leave, Louise pleads with Stanley to let her see what's inside the treasure chest, most likely to at least get some closure and know just what she was digging up in the first place.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The way she runs Camp Green Lake and treats the campers (and lets her counselors treat them, for that matter) is inexcusable, but when you learn that her grandfather was an abusive asshole that forced her to dig every day of her childhood, not even taking a day off on Christmas or her birthday, and consider the fact that in the end, she never even gets to see the treasure she's dedicated her life to looking for, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for her.

Residents of Green Lake

    Kissin' Kate Barlow 

Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow

Portrayed By: Patricia ArquetteForeign voice actors

She was a wonderful teacher, full of knowledge and full of life. The children loved her. She taught classes in the evening for adults, and many of the adults loved her as well. She was very pretty. Her classes were often full of young men, who were a lot more interested in the teacher than they were in getting an education. But all they ever got was an education.

An infamous outlaw of the Wild West who robbed settlers and kissed the men she killed. This feared bandit, however, used to be a sweet schoolteacher who brewed delicious spiced peaches in the idyllic town of Green Lake.


  • Agony of the Feet: In the book, when Trout and Linda Walker finally found her, they tortured her by making her walk barefoot on the hot ground to try and make her give up the location of her treasure.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: In the movie, she opts to let a yellow-spotted lizard bite her rather than die of dehydration or give Charles and Linda Walker her accumulated loot.
  • Break the Cutie: At first, she was a perfectly nice lady who loved teaching and just wanted to be with Sam. And then she has one really bad day...
  • Broken Bird: She was a sweet and beloved teacher until her schoolhouse was burnt down and her black lover killed, after which she went off the deep end and became a murderous outlaw.
  • Calling Card: After becoming "Kissin' Kate," she would always leave lipstick kisses on the corpses of the men she killed.
  • Death Seeker: In the film at least, when Trout angrily tells her that he'll make her wish she was dead, her response is calmly saying, "I've been wishin' I was dead for a long time."
  • Defiant to the End: Kate is not the least bit intimidated by Trout and Linda's threats, instead telling them both off and laughing in their faces.
  • Died Laughing: After being bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, she just simply laughs at Trout and Linda Walker when they demand to know where she hid her treasures.
  • Driven to Suicide: In the film, she's waiting for death next to Sam's boat after her outlaw days are done and makes a yellow-spotted lizard to bite her to die from its poison. In the book, it bit her on its own and she just took it.
  • Due to the Dead: Implied in the movie, seeing as Kate's corpse isn't anywhere near Sam's boat in the present day.
  • Dying Curse: She didn't expect to die right after, but before she gets bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, she tells Trout Walker that he and his descendants could spend the next century digging up the dried lake bed and never find the treasure she buried. Exactly 100 years later, the treasure is found by Stanley, and he deliberately snubs Trout Walker's granddaughter (the Warden) from seeing it.
    Kate: You, your children, and your children's children will dig for the next one hundred years and you will never find it.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: In the movie, her gang of outlaws included Native Americans, another oppressed group in the 1800s. As her descent into crime was caused by the murder of her black lover, it's clear that even as an outlaw she still retained her tolerant and open-minded views.
  • Face Death with Dignity: In the book, she's bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard and calmly succumbs to its poison. In the film, she commits suicide by making it bite her.
  • Freudian Excuse: She snapped after having one really bad day where the whole community turned against her, torched her schoolhouse, and killed the man she loved.
  • Friend to All Children: As a kind and caring teacher, she was beloved by all her students.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: She started off as just a simple schoolteacher in a small town. Then she had one really bad day and became one of the most feared outlaws in the Wild West.
  • Hot Teacher: Lampshaded. She taught two courses - one for children and one for adults. The men were more interested in her than in getting an education. But all they ever got from her was an education.
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...: She says this verbatim at one point. She wasn't physically dying, but she was dead inside.
    Kate: It's so hot, Sam, but I feel so cold...
  • Kiss of Death: Her trademark, which she adopted after a drunken sheriff pressured her for one in exchange for Sam's life. The next day, Kate gave the sheriff the kiss after she killed him, and subsequently kept up the practice for every person she killed. Tellingly, she never gave a kiss to Stanley Yelnats I when she robbed him, opting instead to spare him (albeit still leaving him out in the middle of the desert with few, if any supplies).
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Relationship rather, but her romance with Sam, a black man, turned the entire town against her.
  • The Mourning After: Sam was the only man she ever loved. She grieves for him up to the day she dies.
  • Odd Friendship: With Sam, before it turned into more than that. She was a beautiful, privileged, and very white schoolteacher, while Sam was a poor black farmer.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Her first act as Kissin' Kate was assassinating the sheriff that refused to act on the night of Sam's murder and demanded a kiss from her as a trade-off to just run Sam out of town rather than lynch him. After shooting him, she then gave him that kiss he asked for.
  • Pet the Dog: While it's debatable just how much this counts, she spared Stanley Yelnats I's life for some unknown reason. Good thing too, as this leads to better things later on.
  • Sanity Slippage: Seeing your lover be murdered out of racist hatred and your schoolhouse be burnt to the ground right before your eyes would do that to you...
  • Schoolmarm: Back in her days as a teacher. She taught children of all ages, as well as adults.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: With Sam. She's a white woman, he's a black man... in the 1880s.
  • Supreme Chef: Her spiced peaches were loved by all the residents of Green Lake. And they still taste good after being stored in a jar for a hundred and ten years.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: She briefly expresses sympathy for Linda when she finds out her former student has married Trout Walker, even though the two of them are pointing a gun in her face and demanding the location of her treasure.
    Kate: Oh, Linda, I'm so sorry.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: If she hadn't lost everything she cared about, she'd have never gone mad and become a serial killer and bank robber.

    Trout Walker 

Charles "Trout" Walker

Portrayed By: Scott PlankForeign voice actors

His real name was Charles Walker, but everyone called him Trout because his two feet smelled like a couple of dead fish. This wasn't entirely Trout's fault. He had an incurable foot fungus. […] He was the son of the richest man in the county. His family owned most of the peach trees and all the land on the east side of the lake. Trout often showed up at night school but never paid attention. He talked in class and was disrespectful of the students around him. He was loud and stupid. […] But Trout didn't want to learn. He seemed to be proud of his stupidity.

The richest man in the town of Green Lake, Trout had a little crush on Kate Barlow. When she rejects him, he doesn't take it very well.


  • Abusive Parents: Was this towards his children and his grandchildren. His granddaughter, the Warden mentions he forced them to dig for Kate's stash every day and never allowed them to take a single break, even for their birthdays or Christmas.
  • All for Nothing: He led a lynch mob against Sam and killed him for being the one to win Kate's affections. This in turn caused Green Lake to face divine punishment in the form of a drought and his wealth evaporated with the lake. He then went on to spend the rest of his life looking for Kate's loot and died never even coming close to finding it, leaving the task to his descendants to carry on. Ultimately, his efforts were rendered meaningless as Kate's loot was found by the descendant of its rightful owner while his granddaughter got arrested and left with nothing, not even being allowed to see what she spent her whole life looking for.
  • And Your Little Dog, Too!: Aside from killing Sam, he also shot Sam's donkey, Mary Lou, just because.
  • Break the Haughty: First he gets rejected by the woman he was infatuated with. When he takes revenge by killing her lover, a major drought hits Green Lake. His fortune dried up with the lake and he went on to spend the rest of his life trying to look for Kate's stash to no avail. Deconstructed in that, despite making him less smug and arrogant, it has the unfortunate side effect of making him unhinged and extremely bitter.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: In the novel, he forces Kate to walk barefoot through the desert until she tells him where she buried her loot.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: He was nicknamed "Trout" because his feet smelled like dead fish thanks to suffering from a foot fungus problem. Downplayed in that he doesn't seem to be too bothered by it.
  • Entitled Bastard: He's basically a spoiled rich kid who never grew up. He's so used to owning everything in town that the one time he was denied something he wanted he went on a rampage.
  • Entitled to Have You: Towards Kate after she rejects an offer to go out with him.
    Trout: No one ever says 'no' to Charles Walker!
    Kate: I believe I just did.
  • Expy: His characterization (in the film) is similar to Gaston—a handsome but morally repulsive man who is beloved by his hometown and gets everything he wants except the girl he's in love with, and when he's rejected for another man, he tries to Murder the Hypotenuse.
  • Fatal Flaw: His urge to get anything he wanted cost him big time: when he couldn't get Kate, he murdered Sam, which brought the drought that ruined him. His need to find buried treasure damned him and his family to a life of hardship and obsession, fruitlessly searching for treasure.
  • Gruesome Grandparent: Was this towards his granddaughter Louise, which is why she is such a bitter and cynical woman.
  • Hate Sink: As a greedy, racist, and abusive sociopath, it's easy to tell that Trout is not meant to be liked. This serves to make Kissin' Kate and the Warden much more sympathetic by comparison, as well as give you a reason to root for Kate despite the fact that she's a robber and a Serial Killer (it helps that Trout's the reason she became those things in the first place).
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: He went from being the scion of a wealthy family in his youth to a destitute old man wasting his life digging for treasure.
  • Impoverished Patrician: When the drought killed the town, he lost his fortune.
  • Jerkass: A smug, entitled, and very unpleasant person all around.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Takes the story to its darkest points whenever he appears.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: It stopped raining after he killed Sam, costing him his fortune. When he tried to rob the woman whom he drove to become an outlaw, she cursed him and his family to spend the rest of his days digging for the money she stole and hid away. The narration even implies that The Almighty Himself punished the entire town of Green Lake for murdering Sam.
  • May–December Romance: One of Kate's former child students ends up marrying him (as an adult, fortunately), though as Kate correctly assesses, she only did it for his money.
  • Never My Fault: He probably was aware on some deep level that murdering Sam led to him losing his wealth. He didn't want to admit to it and move on.
  • Not Good with Rejection: After Kate rejects him, he responds by burning her school building down and killing her lover Sam in cold blood.
  • Not Worth Killing: Maybe. When he confronts Kate for the first time, she threatens him for a moment, only to change her mind and decide not to. It's not clear if it's this trope or if she simply doesn't care anymore (though her tone in the film indicates how done with living she is), but given that her M.O. as an outlaw was also kissing the men she killed, she absolutely was not going to do that to him.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: And how! He acts like he's entitled to Kate's affections, and lynches Sam out of racist hatred because he can't conceive why a white woman would ever choose a black man over him.
  • Predecessor Villain: Even though he's long dead by the time the main plot rolls around, his actions caused everything at Camp Green Lake.
  • Rich Jerk: He believed his wealth made him inherently better than others, especially Sam who was a poor black farmer.
  • Sanity Slippage: Drove himself insane trying to look for the money Kate Barlow stole during her days as an outlaw.
  • Smelly Feet Gag: His nickname is a reference to how his feet smell like rotten fish. It's due to him suffering from the same odor-causing foot fungus affecting Clyde Livingston.
  • Smug Snake: “The duck may swim on the lake, but my daddy owns the lake.”
  • Threat Backfire: Declares to Kate in their final confrontation that he's going to "make her wish she was dead" in order to get her to tell him where her loot is buried. Her response is a cool and calm "I've been wishin' I was dead for a long time..."
  • Tyrannical Town Tycoon: Played with—he's the son of the man who owned the town next to the lake where the story is set. He invoked this trope to try to get Kate to go out with him.
  • Upper-Class Twit: A much darker example but he's rich and not a clever man.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He's disturbingly despicable for a children's story, and unlike the other antagonists, he has no sympathetic aspects and there's nothing entertaining about him.

    Sam 

Sam the Onion Man

Portrayed By: Dulé HillForeign voice actors

Sam's onion field was somewhere on the other side of the lake. Once or twice a week he would tow across the lake and pick a new batch to fill the cart. Sam had big strong arms, but it would still take all day for him to row across the lake and another day for him to return. […] Sam claimed that Mary Lou was almost fifty years old, which was, and still is, extraordinarily old for a donkey. […] Sam was not much older than twenty, so nobody was quite sure that Mary Lou was really as old as he said she was. How would he know?

A black onion farmer who lived at Green Lake and was well-liked by the citizens for his delicious onions and the remedies he came up with them. However, after kissing Kate Barlow, the whole town turns against him.


  • Character Catchphrase: "I can fix that."
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: Plenty of his customers aren't really sure if his onion remedies really work, but buy them anyway because they don't like to take chances (plus many of the actual medical practices of the time, such as putting leeches on a sick person's body to "suck out the bad blood", left a lot to be desired). A century later, though, they're proven to actually work when the onions from his now-deserted garden save Zero from death and discourage yellow-spotted lizards from biting Zero and Stanley.
  • Hidden Depths: Was also a well-read man despite his station, being able to quote famous literature to Kate.
  • The Lost Lenore: Male example. His death turns Kate into a fearsome outlaw, and 20 years later she was still mourning him. It also marks the day the drought on Green Lake began. Lampshaded and foreshadowed when he recites a verse from Annabel Lee, a poem about another dead love from the poet who wrote about the original Lenore, Edgar Allan Poe.
  • Magical Negro: Of a sort. While he doesn't have any mystical powers, Sam is gentle and kind, continually helps Kate fix her schoolhouse before beginning a relationship with her, and his death is what begins the drought that ruins the economy of Green Lake and Trout Walker's fortunes. Even after his death, his boat named after Mary Lou shelters Zero from the sun, with the peaches stored inside from Kate feeding him for a time. Stanley and Zero find more food left by him after they find his onion crop atop God's Thumb mountain. The crop ends up saving them twice over, not just from starvation, but also by repelling the yellow-spotted lizards, which keeps the boys from being bitten when they find the treasure in a hole full of the animals and despite being practically covered in them.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Relationship rather than marriage. His romance with Kate, a white woman, turned the entire town against him. Justified, considering the time period they lived in.
  • Meaningful Echo: "I can fix that." First the roof, then the windows, the desk, the door, and eventually Kate's broken heart.
  • Mr. Fixit: Kate starts asking him to fix things in the schoolhouse so she can have an excuse to see him, until it's so pristine there's nothing left to be fixed except her breaking heart.
  • Nice Guy: He's friendly and considerate, and has no problem fixing everything in Kate's schoolhouse — though that may just be so he can be around her. Either way, it's not hard to see why she fell for him.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: If the townspeople hadn't killed him, not only would there be no drought, but Kate never would've become an outlaw, stolen Stanley's great-grandfather's money, and buried it somewhere in the desert. That means that without Sam's death, Camp Green Lake wouldn't even exist.
  • Snake Oil Salesman: Sam is a rare sympathetic example. He definitely exaggerates what his onions can do, such as claiming his donkey is over a hundred years old in the film (fifty in the books, which isn't unheard of), but he's at least telling the truth about their health benefits (which they have many in Real Life) and their effectiveness against yellow-spotted lizards. The townsfolk buy both his onion cures and regular medicine from the doctor so nobody gets hurt if his medicine doesn't work.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: With Kate. In the 1880s, a relationship between a black man and a white woman, no matter how loving, spelled "disaster" by default for both parties. And hoo boy does it spell disaster for Kate and Sam.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Sam was a good, kind, hard-working person who never hurt anyone. His only "crime" was kissing the white woman he was in love with, for which he was senselessly murdered.
  • Where da White Women At?: He and Kate both loved each other dearly. Deconstructed due to the time period they lived in - the sheriff says that his relationship with Kate must have been predatory and exploitative, regardless of her own consent in the matter.

    Linda Walker 

Linda Walker

Portrayed By: Allison Smith

Linda Walker (née Miller) was one of Kate's students. She ended up marrying Trout for his money, only to end up in the poor house once the lake dried up.


  • Evil Makes You Ugly: Kate remembers Linda was a "cute freckle-faced girl" in her youth, but as an adult who married the openly racist Jerkass Trout Walker for his money, she's much worse for the wear.
  • Evil Redhead: She had red hair, which was also passed down to her granddaughter, Louise "The Warden" Walker.
  • Gold Digger: Kate accuses her of marrying Trout for his money, something she doesn't deny.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: She used to be cute and pretty as a young girl, but poverty left her with dirty, scraggly hair and a blotchy face.
  • May–December Romance: She was in the fourth grade when Trout was an adult and ended up marrying him when she grew up for his fortune.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Linda was once a beloved student of Kate's. As an adult, she's become a desperate Gold Digger who would go so far as holding her own former teacher at gunpoint for money.

    Yellow Spotted Lizards 

Yellow Spotted Lizards

Small but deadly lizards that are indigenous to Green Lake. Their venom causes a swift but painful demise.


  • Bright Is Not Good: Like many venomous animals in real life, they have bright eye-catching colors (in this case, the yellow spots) to advertise the fact that they're dangerous.
  • The Dreaded: Everyone is scared of them, especially Mr. Sir. Kate was the only person to show complete calm in their presence... and that's only because she had nothing left to live for.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The only thing their name doesn't indicate is how highly venomous they are.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: There's really no telling what could make one mad enough to get it to bite you.
  • Killer Rabbit: A tiny lizard characterized by the fact that it's covered in yellow spots... and its venom causes instant death.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: The book versions are based on various real-life venomous lizards, most notably Gila monsters (which is where they get their black and yellow coloration). The film mixes them with bearded dragons (overall shape and appearance) and frilled lizards (neck frills, ability to run on their hindlimbs).
  • Non-Indicative Name: Downplayed - while they do have yellow spots (exactly eleven), the book notes that they're very hard to see on their yellow-green bodies; more immediately-noticeable features that one might have expected them to be named after are their red skin around the eyes, black teeth, and milky-white tongues. If you get close enough to a live one to be able to see and count the spots, you'll likely soon be dead.
  • Non-Malicious Monster: As scary and dangerous as they are, at the end of the day, they're just animals trying to survive out in the harsh desert.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Aside from their spots, they also have red eyes that pop out sharply against their bodies (technically only the skin around them is red, while the eyes themselves are yellow, but the red is what most people remember).
  • Rule of Cool: The film makes them played by bearded dragons, with special effects frills around their necks. An illustration in the "Camp Greenlake Survival Guide" shows them looking more like generic varanids.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Downplayed in that it doesn't hurt or kill them, but these deadly animals are repulsed by the smell of onions, which ends up saving Stanley and Hector.

In Latvia

    Madame Zeroni 

Madame Zeroni

Portrayed By: Eartha KittForeign voice actors

Desperate, Elya went to see Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian woman who lived on the edge of town. He had become friends with her, though she was quite a bit older than him. She was even older than Igor Barkov.

An Egyptian fortuneteller and mentor to Elya Yelnats, responsible for the curse on the Yelnats family. She disapproves of his romantic longing for Myra Menke, but helped him anyway in making him a more attractive suitor.


  • Anti-Villain: She was rather fond of Elya and initially wished him no malice, but put a curse on his line because he failed to repay his end of the bargain and likely cut short her life.
  • An Arm and a Leg: She's missing her left foot, though it's never explained why.
    She was sitting in a homemade wheelchair. She had no left foot. Her leg stopped at her ankle.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: She mentions she has a son in America, who Elya constantly searches for in faint hope that he can break the curse. But Zeroni's descendants don't show up again until Zero.
  • Cool Old Lady: She was very helpful to Elya, giving him advice and telling stories. Until he forgot about his promise.
    The other boys of his village liked to mud wrestle. Elya preferred visiting Madame Zeroni and listening to her many stories.
  • Creepy Good: She is a sinister appearance, but she's actually a very helpful woman...unless you break a promise to her.
  • Curse: "If you forget to come back for Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity."
  • Disproportionate Retribution: She curses Elya’s entire family line because he, and only he, forgot to fulfill his end of a bargain they made. Her spirit lifts the curse after Stanley, a descendant of Elya, inadvertently fulfills said promise.
  • Ethnic Magician: She was Egyptian (Romani in the movie), and seemingly put a curse upon Elya and his descendants.
  • Good Is Not Nice: She's ultimately a good person, but she's not afraid to tell Elya off for obsessing over a Brainless Beauty. And when Elya doesn't keep her end of the bargain, she unleashes a curse on him.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: She's not a villain per se, and she had a good reason to be mad, but she is the one who set the curse of bad luck on the Yelnats lineage.
  • Large Ham: In the film version, to an extent, even topping her announcement of Elya's curse with an out of nowhere Evil Laugh. Comes with the territory of being played by Eartha Kitt.
  • Noodle Incident: How and why an Egyptian woman made her way to Latvia is never explained.
  • Pet the Dog: Despite the Disproportionate Retribution involved with cursing Elya’s entire family for his mistake she lifts the curse after Stanley, a descendent of him, accidentally fulfills Elya’s end of the bargain more than a century later by carrying Hector, a descendant of Zeroni, up a mountain so he can drink from a pond, which saves his life.
  • Race Lift: In the novel, she's Egyptian. In the film, she's made a Romani but is played by the black Eartha Kitt.
  • Telepathy: Maybe. She has large piercing eyes that some of the locals believe can see into people's hearts and minds, and she asks Elya what's wrong before he tells her he's upset, but the former could be mere superstition and the latter might just be her reading his body language.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Elya and Zeroni initially were friends, until he forgot to fulfill a promise he made to her and she put a curse on him.

    Myra Menke 

Myra Menke

Portrayed By: Sanya Mateyas

Madame Zeroni: Myra's head is as empty as a flowerpot.
Elya: But she's beautiful.
Madame Zeroni: So is a flowerpot. Can she push a plow? Can she milk a goat? No, she is too delicate. Can she have an intelligent conversation? No, she is silly and foolish. Will she take care of you when you are sick? No, she is spoiled and will only want you to take care of her. So, she is beautiful. So what? Ptuui!

The beautiful daughter of Morris Menke, and Elya's object of affection.


  • Brainless Beauty: Madame Zeroni describes her as having a head as empty as a flowerpot.
  • The Ditherer: What convinced Elya she wasn't worth it is that she's unable to decide between Elya (a young, muscular, good-looking, and genuinely loving man) and Igor (an ugly pig farmer who is forty-two years her senior).
  • Dumb Blonde: At least in the movie, she appears to be one of the only blonde people in the cast for the flashbacks set in Latvia, and she's dense as anything.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In the film, it is implied that she regrets driving Elya away as she looks very uncomfortable when Igor embraces her afterward.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her stupidity and inability to properly choose a suitor would drive Elya to unintentionally break his promise to Zeroni, starting the curse.

    Morris Menke 

Morris Menke

Portrayed By: Ravil IsyanovForeign voice actors


  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: His name would fit far better on an American of Eastern European descent than an actual Eastern European.
  • Bad Boss: A downplayed version in the film, where Elya first sees Myra when working for him. He refuses Elya his daughter when he has nothing to offer, and appears to have a dislike of him when saying his name as a choice for Myra to marry.
  • Greed: When he asks what Elya can offer him in exchange for Myra's hand, Elya says his love. Igor offers him a pig. In his words, "I'd rather have a fat pig."
  • Jerkass: He laughs at Elya's request to marry Myra, and has no qualms about marrying her to someone forty years older than her. He also states, when Elya brings his now fat pig to him for his daughter's hand in marriage, that he used to think Elya was a "good for nothing book reader."
    Madame Zeroni: Morris Menke is a schmuck.
  • Might Makes Right: Believes in a version of this. In the book, Elya is much stronger after carrying his pig up the mountain many times to make it bigger, and it shows. Morris is impressed by this, saying he thinks Elya would make a fine mud wrestler.
  • Named by the Adaptation: The book only calls him "Myra's father". In the film, his name is stated to be Morris.

    Igor Barkov 

Igor Barkov

Portrayed By: Ken DavitianForeign voice actors

Elya went to her father to ask for her hand, but so did Igor Barkov, the pig farmer. Igor was fifty-seven years old. He had a red nose and fat puffy cheeks.

The other suitor for Myra's hand.


  • Dumb Muscle: The town loves its mud wrestlers, and Igor is one of the biggest of them. But he can't even count to ten.
  • Meaningless Villain Victory: While not a villain, he serves as the biggest opponent for Elya attempting to marry Myra. He succeeds, but only because Elya realized that Myra is a terrible choice for a bride.
  • Old Man Marrying a Child: Myra is 15. Igor is 57.

Other Characters

    Clyde Livingston 

Clyde Livingston

Portrayed By: Rick Fox

An all-star baseball player for the Texas Rangers, whom Stanley is a major fan of. At the end of the film, he stars in a commercial for Stanley Yelnats III's foot odor product.


  • The Ace: Magnet mentioned him being the fastest player in baseball, once scoring four triples in a single game.
  • Ironic Nickname: Played with - his nickname, "Sweet Feet", is a reference to how fast he can run, but due to having a severe foot fungus problem that makes his feet smell bad, everyone tends to point out the irony in that.
  • Parental Abandonment: He was an orphan who grew up in the orphanage that he donated his shoes to. What happened to his parents was never mentioned.
  • Smelly Feet Gag: Due to suffering from the same foot fungus that made Trout Walker's feet smell like rotten fish.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: During his testimony, he gives this to Stanley about him supposedly stealing the pair of shoes that would go to the orphanage, even telling Stanley that he wasn't a real fan of his. Though he drops his grudge when he later finds out that Stanley was innocent and makes it up to the Yelnats when their foot odor cure helps cure his foot fungus problem.

    Derrick Dunne 

Derrick Dunne

Portrayed By: Robert Armour (deleted scenes)

A bully at Stanley's school who would get away with bullying Stanley as a result of being smaller than him.


  • Adapted Out: He is not seen or mentioned in the movie, save for two deleted scenes.
  • The Bully: Although he's small, he is still able to be this to Stanley since the latter isn't able to stand up for himself.
  • Spanner in the Works: Taking Stanley's notebook is essentially the root of how Stanley got into the shoes situation that landed him at Camp Green Lake. This leads to Stanley breaking his family's curse and recovering his great grandfather's fortune. It even leads to Camp Green Lake getting shut down and The Warden, Mr. Sir, and Mr. Pendanski getting arrested.
  • Villainous Rescue: Does this for Stanley at the end. Stanley's lawyer Miss Morengo explains that he's being freed because it turned out he has an alibi, which he corroborated — Stanley couldn't have stolen Clyde Livingston's shoes because he was with Stanley (specifically, picking on him by taking his notebook and throwing it in a toilet) when the shoes disappeared.

    Carla Morengo 

Carla Morengo

Portrayed By: Roma Maffia

A lawyer who works for the Yelnats family after Stanley Yelnats III's foot odor cure makes enough money to hire her.


  • Accidental Hero: She got more than she bargained for by bringing the Attorney General of Texas to help get Stanley out of Camp Green Lake. Doing so not only met her own goal but also brought down Camp Green Lake altogether.
  • Big Good: Although she doesn't get a lot of time in the story, she takes up this role after the Yelnats family hired her.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: While initially reluctant to also get Zero out of Camp Green Lake, she wastes no time getting him out as well when Zero not having a file (thanks to Pendanski deleting it) means that he doesn't belong there either.

Alternative Title(s): Stanley Yelnats Survival Guide To Camp Green Lake, Small Steps

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