1A Lesson Plan #1 for Holes

 

One. Conventional Idea of the Curse 

1. 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.
2. 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.”
3. 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 

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.