Intro: In the young adult fiction novel ‘Holes’, Louis Sachar displays a key theme, resilience, as an

important strength for many of the main characters. Personal resilience is the ability to recover from
setbacks, to embrace change and to soften, rather than fight, in the face of hardship. Sachar portrays
15-year-old Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist of the novel, and his friend Hector Zeroni as extremely
resilient characters, able to carry on with life after all of the traumatising events that had taken place
at Camp Green Lake. Other key characters in Holes such as the Warden, didn’t possess enough
personal resilience to bounce back from her own past experiences which ended up leading to her
ultimate defeat at the end of the novel. Kate Barlow who is arguably a good character, did
somewhat possess an amount of personal resilience however it was not enough to overcome Sam’s
death and save her from the murderous life of an outlaw. Whenever material treasure was a subject
of matter in the text it always caused dispute between the characters. It changed the weaker
characters whole outlook on life so they were only focussing on the treasure rather than the reality
and the overall value. Sachar clearly demonstrates that personal resilience is more valuable than any
material treasure.

Para 1: Sachar highlights resilience as a vital trait needed in order to keep ahead of the game and to
continue to pursuit life’s challenges after every bump in the rollercoaster.

 Sachar puts the readers in a position to perceive S and H as resilient characters

 Stanley and Hector were resilient enough to be currently living a fortunate and normal life
even though they went through so much at Camp Green Lake – personal resilience enabled
them to go back to living a normal life
 Quote/s
 They received material treasure also but how much good has it done/will do after years of
traumatising events and ‘torture’

Para 2: Sachar provides information demonstrating that material treasure can have a tunnel vision
effect on those who do not yet possess enough personal resilience to widen their eyes and look at
the bigger picture and what it is really worth on a scale of money vs life and time.

 Kate Barlow struggled after the death of Sam- so distraught she became an outlaw
 Money and treasure wasn’t worth anything for her,
 Quotes (thought she was crazy- after Sam’s deaths) proving not resilience enough to bounce
back after Sam’s death - led to death
 Warden wasn’t resilient enough to give up the treasure, spent years wasting time, ruined
her whole life
 Whole life built around treasure, time, effort all lead to her defeat, ruining her whole life.
Had to sell the land “had been in her family for generations”
 Her resilience wasn’t strong enough to get over her delusional plan
 And warden
 She had money however saw no purpose of having it as it gave her no benefit or pleasure

Para 3:

Resilience is something that any amount of money cannot afford.

In his novel Holes, Louis Sachar demonstrates that personal resilience is more valuable than any
material treasure. He portrays material treasure as a distraction to the most important things in life
and he shows that its overall value is just a miniscule quantity compared to the value of life, courage,
bravery and resilience, all of which were extremely important themes and character strengths within
the text. Sachar illustrations to the readers that characters who have not yet developed enough
personal resilience are not strong enough to look at the bigger picture in some situations and
bounce back from previous hardships and take each new challenge as it comes with an optimistic
mindset. Sachar proves that personal resilience can assist characters such as Stanley and Hector to
accomplish their goals and overcome every challenge and obstacle in the way of what they want to
achieve. Louis Sachar clearly demonstrates that the value of material treasure is so insignificant
compared to the astounding value of personal resilience, something of which an endless amount of
money cannot afford.

Perseverance

Questions to ask myself.

Have I clearly agreed/disagreed with the topic statement?

Have I explained why/why not? - What are my arguments/reasons for agreeing/disagreeing with the
topic statement?

Which characters/events/quotes, etc. will prove my case? Have I selected the best quality evidence
from the text to support my case?

What evidence can I find to demonstrate that my position is the correct one?

(How does Sachar deliberately use characterisation/language/dialogue/quotes/juxtaposition of

characters/symbolism/narrative style/flashbacks/perspective/voice/themes, etc. to portray certain
characters to position readers to admire/respect/reject their value/attitudes/actions?)

How does sachar encourage us to prefer some characters over others?

Synonyms for resilience:

Courage/integrity/morality/perseverance/bravery/strength of characters/growing
confidence/growing self-belief/self-respect/self-esteem/resisting other’s fate…

Conclusion. Finish with a quotes or zinger sentence, global statement but relates to the topic

Criteria:

Response to essay topic

Use of evidence

Use of essay structure

Quality of writing