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Part 1, Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Holes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate and Destiny
Cruelty vs. Kindness
Justice
Power, Money, and Education
Man vs. Nature
Summary
Analysis
When Stanley wakes in the morning, he can barely get out of bed because he's so sore. He only gets up because he knows the rising sun is his sworn enemy. As he begins his second hole, he's careful to dump his dirt far away and tries to protect his raw hands with his cap. At one point, Stanley drops his shovel. As he reaches to pick it up, he notices a rock with a fossilized fish in it. Stanley hopes the Warden will find the fossil interesting.
Stanley's conception of the sun as his sworn enemy suggests that he's beginning to develop the view that nature is something to be fought, not something that could help him. Notably, the Warden cultivates this view very carefully, and it will later come to light that this is because the Warden's entire family is positioned opposite characters who are aligned with nature.
Themes
Stanley digs slowly as he waits for the water truck. When it arrives, he realizes that Group D always lines up in the same order: X-Ray first, then Armpit, Squid, Zigzag, Magnet, Zero, and finally Stanley. When Mr. Pendanski fills Stanley's canteen, Stanley hands over the fossil and points out the fish. Mr. Pendanski agrees that it's interesting, but says the Warden isn't interested in fossils. The other boys pass the fossil around and admire the fish.
The fact that the Warden isn't interested in objectively interesting fossils suggests that the Warden may be looking for something specific, regardless of what Mr. Pendanski and Mr. Sir told Stanley. This also suggests that finding things may be far more difficult than Stanley initially thought, given that it's unclear what they're even looking for.
Themes
