Holes and Onions

Holes is one of my favorites from when I was young. When I saw that this is the book that my next blog would cover, I did not know what I was going to discuss. After I reread this time around, I could not help but note the significance of the holes and the onions.

Onions, typically considered a pungent and harsh vegetable and probably my least favorite veggie at that. In this book, Sachar even makes me want to eat onions. The descriptions of the golden onions and the taste of them makes even my mouth water. Whenever they are mentioned it is focused on the good and healing aspects of the onions. While they were important during the flashbacks in the book, they are also what save Stanley and Zero when they are starving, Zero is suffering from food poisoning and even from the YELLOW SPOTTED LIZARDS!!! It is interesting that Sachar chose the onion to be the healing, good symbol in this book.


Holes, typically dug to bury something or find something that is hidden. No surprise that holes are the negative symbol in this book. A few times the holes are referred to as graves. They represent what the "bad" kids have done and their punishment. They often released their hatred for the dirt and the deep holes that they had to continuously dig by spitting into them. Metaphorically, all the holes must be filled in for the story to resolve itself into a happy ending.