In Louis Sachar’s book Holes, the protagonist Stanley Yelnats is sent to a correctional camp after being wrongly convicted for stealing donated sneakers. Stanley is born under a curse and is bullied because he is overweight and poor, giving the audience a misguided first impression of him as an unsuspecting hero. But throughout the course of the book, it shows that the protagonist unexpectedly develops into a hero who saves one of his best friends from turning into “buzzard food,” and unknowingly breaks the family curse. During Stanley’s ordeal stay at Camp Green Lake, he not only changes mentally to display heroic traits like altruism, perseverance and bravery he has also changed physically to be a stronger, healthier individual.
Sachar effectively portrays the protagonist to have altruism. Although Stanley’s first day “digging for character” is “hot and sore,” the reader is shown altruism from Stanley as he pulls through to remember to use his
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For example, Stanley continues to carry Zero up “Big Thumb” to seek refuge even though he is exhausted and in need of food and water. Helping Zero after he collapses from sickness, possibly caused by the consumption of ‘sploosh’ (old spiced peach jam). “He thought only about each step, not the impossible task that lay before him,” (page 170), which further displays his ultimate perseverance. Stanley also shows this character trait whilst digging, keeping in mind Stanley is obese, “he glanced helplessly at his shovel. It wasn’t defective. He was defective,” despite this he continues to have determination to finish digging his hole in the heat. Stanley faces challenges, to others which might have seemed insurmountable but he uses perseverance; therefore clearly states that he is an inspirational character . It is also evident that he shows bravery throughout the novel to overcome these
Essential to overcoming adversity is the ability to cause change in yourself and others. In the book, Michael Vey Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans, Michael Vey has to learn how to use his powers; This helps him become a hero. He grows because he is faced with tough challenges where he must either adapt, or be defeated by his adversity. Ultimately, Richard Paul Evans shows us that, love can make a normal person a hero.
The reason his hope makes him weak is because Stanley gets crushed every time as what he hopes never happens. “He is overweight and kids at his middle school often teased him about his size.” (7 Sachar) Kids at Stanley’s school bullied him and made him feel weak. He feels weak because of his weight. Before he had been picked on, he probably didn’t think being overweight was a big deal, but now that he is being picked on, it is a big deal.
Throughout the book Knowles teaches the reader each of the boy’s has their struggles but, each boy also has their own unique strengths. For example, when Finny came to get Gene to go and watch Leper finally jump out of the tree and Gene could not go and watch that because he had to study
Despite the odds being against him, Robin Woods broke free of a cyclical prison system run on neglect and prejudice. He used books and self-education to rise above the expectations he and the people around him had placed on his life. Robin Woods was set up for failure, as both a child and adult, by the education and justice systems. Robin’s story is one of resilience, determination, and self-reliance.
This goes to show that by exploring his options and opening up his mind to things helped pull him out of this dark place he was in and start thinking of how he was affected by his environment and many other things. He realized that his environment, genetics, or just bad luck affected him more than he thought it did when he was younger. He shows how thankful he is when he states, “People who taught me that no accident of birth-not being black or relatively poor, being from baltimore or the Bronx or fatherless-would ever define or limit me”(5) and when he states, “What changes was that I found ii was surrounded by people-starting with my mom, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and leading to a straight of wonderful role models and mentors-who kept pushing me to see more than what was directly in front of me, to see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within myself”(5). These quotes demonstrate how thankful he was for the people that helped take care of him and change him for the better even if he didnt treat them lively for a while. This shows that if you surround yourself with kind, loving, and caring people, you can
Stanley arrived at Camp Green Lake as a shy and selfish person, his time with Zero has completely remade him to be a selfless person that cares for others. He had a long and difficult time at Camp Green Lake that, along with the help of Zero changes him because he goes from selfish to selfless. In the begining Stanley was selfish and only thought of himself. Zero asked Stanley to teach him how to read, and all Stanley said was “Sorry, I don’t know how to teach.”
The famous scientist, Albert Einstein, once said, “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character”. In Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken, Louie demonstrates the importance of these words with his confident personality. Through fighting in the war, getting stranded at sea, and being tortured in prison camps, Louie still remained strong and hopeful. If it wasn’t for his confident personality, he may not have made it through these trials. A delinquent from a young age, if Louis put his mind to something, he couldn’t be stopped.
By thinking of his family, Salva is able to keep walking even though he’s tired, thirsty, hungry, and his feet hurt. The second example of Perseverance is when Salva is in the refugee camp. He hates the refugee camp and wants to get out of there. “I only need to get through the rest of this day, he told himself. This day and no other.”
He has to go thru a lot in this book just to survive but he never stops trying each day he got up and did what was necessary to survive another day. You could learn a lesson from this book never stop trying one day something good will
He tries to forgive himself but he cannot, no matter how hard he tries. The heroic characteristics as well as the flaw leads him to be a tragic hero. On top of his road to self discovery he must deal with the ever declining social structure of the town. He tries to stand out as an honest resistor to the hangings, which ultimately leads to his
In the book Holes, by Louis Sachar, Stanley in told to go to camp with scorpions, rattlesnakes, and yellow-spotted lizards. The theme of Holes is perseverance because in the story Stanley learns survival, shows risk taking by stealing the truck, and escapes from Camp Green Lake. Throughout the story Stanley learned more and more about survival. So he could stay healthy and alive. If Stanley didn’t learn survival he could have, very well, died.
The Color of Water is a memoir of James McBride’s life. James tells us about his struggles of childhood. In The Color of Water he went through phases which ranged between good and bad. James began to hang around with the wrong crowds and that did not develop him in a good way. He found out how it would affect him in the long run and decided to change how he was living.
The first example of this is when chou walks home after a long day of hard work, “As they approach their village and then their home, Chou's neck throbs painfully, her lower back burns, and her calves are tight from the long journey. But she does not complain. She knows that the life of a poor villager is always filled with aches and pain from hard labor.” (Pg) Chou is used to a life filled with hard labor and understands that she must not complain in the conditions she and her family are under. This shows persistence because Chou stays strong and doesn't say anything about her pain and she knows if she did, it would be disrespectful and show that she isn't grateful.
The family pair struggles to maintain enough food for themselves, but despite that the boy still tries to give up his food in order to help others. Not only did he insist in helping a man as rude as Ely, but wanted to help the lost kid on the road. “We could get him and take him with us…. I’d give that little boy half of my food”( McCarthy 86). This displays the naturally generous and unselfish characteristics of the boy.
However, through the characteristics of Stanhope who cares about Raleigh till the end, and shows consideration towards all the other soldiers, he is portrayed as an admirable character. Also, the period when the play was performed and the effect of the play towards the audience leaves lingering imagery, which helps them to understand Stanhope and presents Stanhope as a character to be admired. Throughout the anti war play Journey’s End, the author portrays Stanhope as a protagonist with ambivalent characteristics: he is a hero and workaholic on one hand, but an alcoholic and victim of war on the other.