One. Conventional Idea of the Curse
- Supernatural
affliction that renders its victim helpless unless the curse is
counteracted with equal or greater supernatural forces. There is nothing
the werewolf can do during the full moon except transform into a violent
Hairy Beast and wreak havoc on the community.
- The
conventional idea of a curse is fatalistic. “There is nothing I can do” or
“Nothing can be done” or as said in Chinese: “Mei banfa.”
- Because the curse is overpowering, the victim is considered helpless and therefore has no moral imperative to do anything about the curse.
Two. Radical Idea of the Curse in Holes
- A
curse can be brought upon from supernatural powers, but rooted even more
deeply than that, the curse is born from a moral failure, a betrayal, an
unfulfilled promise. In other words, not fulfilling your potential does
not merely result in a vacuum or an empty existence; it sets into motion
the inversion of a good life and even worse a moral failure creates a
curse that is passed down from one generation to another and another and
so on until one person stands up and counteracts the curse with an act of
defiance and courage.
- We are
not helpless when we are beholden to the agonies of a curse. We have the
tools to eradicate the curse from our lives.
- Not only do we have the tools or the means to eliminate the curse from our lives, it is our moral imperative to do so.
Three. In
the novel, what is the source of the curse and what do we learn about the
nature of curses in general?
The great great grandfather on page 38 leaves a cursed life for not fulfilling a promise. His hardships don’t just contaminate his existence. They contaminate the existence of his entire family, leaving a legacy of the Curse, passed down from one generation to another.
We learn that curses can afflict us even if we don’t deserve to be afflicted with them. The bad behavior of one family member curses an entire family.
Examples
Example #1: Parents raise two daughters who turn out okay,
but the parents spoil their son who in his twenties doesn’t go to school or
hold a job. He’s a petty drug dealer and his life has brought shame to the
entire family. Shame on a family is a curse.
Example #2: A college-age woman recognizes vanity in her
family and relatives who put unhealthy emphasis on appearances, fashion, cars,
etc. She sees the same vanity in herself and feels helpless to do anything
about it and as a result she hates herself. She is cursed.
Example #3: A young man recognizes that his father is
stubborn and obdurate, which means unmoved by persuasion until it’s too
late. The father and mother
divorce mainly because of the father’s stubborn attitude, which results in
chronic psychological abuse. The young man dislikes his father for stubborn
quality but the young man has the same quality even though he doesn’t recognize
it. The young man grows up to have the same relationship problems as his
father. Thus we can conclude that the father has passed a curse down to the
son.
Example #4: Parents who divorce pass down a greater chance
of divorce for their own children.
Example #5: Parents who are alcoholics pass down their
alcoholism to their children.
Example #6: Parents with unhealthy eating habits pass their
eating habits to their children who suffer from not just obesity but social
problems, lower success rate in school and college, etc. This is a curse.
Example #7: Parents who don’t value education pass this
trait to their children who are less likely to go to college or succeed in
college. This is a curse.
Example #8: A boy grows up admiring his older brother who’s
popular with the ladies. However, the older brother is a chauvinist who
disrespects women and has learned to be a pathological liar in order to be a
“player.” The younger brother grows up emulating this retarded version of
masculinity. Hence, the younger brother is cursed.
Example #9: A girl grows up admiring her older sister who
learns how to manipulate men so that she can have her way. The younger sister
emulates her older sister’s behavior and becomes an unpleasant, tyrannical
manipulator. Hence, she is cursed.
Example #10: A boy grows up with parents who see themselves
as victims. Their whole existence is a giant pity party. The boy grows up
identifying himself as a victim. He’s cursed.
Example #11: A nation elects a President who is by all
accounts unqualified for the position and this President lies to us in order to
get us into a war that results in a catastrophic quagmire resulting in a 1.2
trillion dollar deficit, worldwide infamy, compromised military strength,
profit-mongering for special interest groups getting fat cat contracts in the
country we wrongly invaded, and the underpinnings of the Great Depression, Part
II. This Wrong War is the Great Curse that hurts us, our children, and our
children’s children and there seems no end to this nightmare. And to add to the
insult of the Great Curse, its perpetrators get away with it facing absolutely
no accountability. A curse is not just something that afflicts individuals; it
afflicts entire communities and entire countries.
Four. What
curses exist in the novel Holes?
Curse #1: Camp Green Lake used to be a lush community but
not it is a dried-out wasteland roiling with evil tendencies, governed by an
evil prison warden whose evil nature suffuses the environment evidenced by the
poison lizards.
Curse #2: Stanley’s family is poor; his father is an
unsuccessful inventor; this is a legacy from the great-great grandfather.
Curse #3: Stanley is overweight and kids tease him. He seems
himself as a victim.
Curse #4: A family joke blames the family’s “bad luck” on
Stanley’s great-great pig-stealing grandfather, see page 7.
Curse #5: Stanley is innocent of a crime he did not commit
and the manner in which the tennis shoes fall into his lap prove that the curse
is almost cosmic or supernatural in nature.
Curse #6: The habit of blaming one’s bad fortune on someone
else is sort of a curse in its own right because fatalism or learned
helplessness, the belief that there is nothing we can do to improve our
situation, is a sort of curse. See page 8.
Curse #7: Zero suffers from illiteracy, the inability to
read and write, which is a curse.
Curse #8: Elya is warned that if he doesn’t fulfill his
promise to carry the piglet up the mountain until it’s fully grown, he and his
entire family will be cursed on page 31.
Curse #9: Digging holes is a curse. The digging of holes
represents blood, sweat, and tears amounting to nothing, a life of futility.
This feeble life is juxtaposed to Elya’s curse on page 31.
Curse #10 Zero was the “runt” in the way the pig was a runt
that had to be fed in order to grow stronger. Starting at the bottom in life is
often perceived as a curse. See page 37.
Curse #11 A loving school teacher Miss Katherine falls in
love with Sam the Onion Man. Sam is a black man, and it is forbidden in the
racist society for her to love Sam. Sam is murdered and this not only curses
Miss Katherine, turning her into a bitter outlaw; the curse devastates the
whole town. See Chapter 26.
Five. The Curse As Part of the Human Condition
Most of us, perhaps 95% or so, are cursed with the Two Great
Afflictions.
The first curse is explained by the narrator in Jim
Harrison’s novel The Beast God Forgot to Invent when he begins his novel by
saying “The human race pisses away its life on nonsense.” I have a student for
example whose friend spends twelve hours a day chatting on Nike Talk.
The second curse is my own observation, namely, that most
people walk around Planet Earth with their heads up their butts and are content
to die in that manner. Here’s an example: I know many young men who have a
loving, beautiful girlfriend, the best thing to ever happen to them, but they
abandon these women because these young men think they “can do better.”
If you don’t like this metaphor, then look at this way: Since the beginning of time, the majority of the human race has been controlled by a small elite because the elite knows that the masses are blinded by their love of Bread and Circus, cheap food and entertainment. The Powerful Elite know that as long as they provide the masses with Bread and Circus they can control them.
A modern day example of Circus, which is also a Curse, is
American Idol. Hyped up on crystal meth, smarmy, self-congratulatory,
sentimental, bombastic, and hopelessly juvenile, American Idol is the
incarnation of the Ugly American Who Desperately Longs to be a Celebrity for a
pathetic sense of self-worth. In this regard, American Idol is the Great Curse
of modern times.
Six. Essay Option That Pertains to the Curse
In one page, define the radical idea of the curse in
the novel Holes. Explain how the idea of a curse in the novel is different than
the conventional idea of a curse. Then in two pages analyze the novel’s
prescription for removing the curse. Finally, in another 2 pages, describe a
personal struggle you had with a curse, as defined in the novel, and explain
your success, or failure, with removing the shackles of this affliction or
curse.
Be sure to include 3 research sources in your paper. You can include material posted on this blog as research material.
Seven. Class Activity
On a piece of paper write about a personal encounter, with
yourself or someone you know, who was cursed and explain the outcome of that
curse.
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