Stanley's Father Character Analysis in Holes

Stanley's father is the third Stanley Yelnats. He's an inventor, though his inventions are never very successful. He claims not to believe in the family curse but he also regularly blames mishaps on Elya Yelnats. When Stanley is convicted, his father is working on discovering a way to recycle old sneakers. While Stanley is at camp, he learns that the stench from this endeavor may lead to his family's eviction from their home. Stanley's father experiences a breakthrough immediately after Stanley carries Zero up the mountain and breaks the curse: he develops what he later names Sploosh, which is a fruity and spicy spray to cure foot odor. Clyde Livingston later promotes the product.

Stanley's Father Quotes in Holes

The Holes quotes below are all either spoken by Stanley's Father or refer to Stanley's Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

All of them had something else in common. Despite their awful luck, they always remained hopeful. As Stanley's father liked to say, "I learn from failure."

But perhaps that was part of the curse as well. If Stanley and his father weren't always hopeful, then it wouldn't hurt so much every time their hopes were crushed.

Related Characters: Elya Yelnats, Stanley's Father, Stanley Yelnats

Page Number and Citation: 9

Explanation and Analysis:

The narrator explains the Yelnats family curse and notes that the Yelnats men in particular are all extremely hopeful individuals. By suggesting that this quality may be part of the family curse, the narrator shows how fate and destiny have the potential to infiltrate all parts of Stanley and his family's lives. This becomes even more important later, as this introduces the idea that every element of the story, even these seemingly inconsequential character traits, are the work of destiny. Later, these will come to the forefront and help the novel to flesh out the idea that all of these Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dol

Stanley's Father Character Timeline in Holes

The timeline below shows where the character Stanley's Father appears in Holes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...of course, doesn't actually believe this, but things do seem to go wrong a lot. Stanley's father is an inventor, though none of his inventions have been successful. (full context)

...sky. Stanley took it as a sign and raced home with the smelly shoes to his father , though he was arrested before he got home. He only found out later what... (full context)

...who can afford to send her kid to summer camp. She also explains that while Stanley's father is close to a breakthrough with his sneaker project, the landlord is threatening to evict... (full context)

...refuses to tell Zero what Stanley's mother wrote, but eventually gives a basic explanation of Stanley's father 's project and his mom's joke. Zero seems to not recognize the reference to the... (full context)

...Stanley thinks about his parents and wonders if they've been evicted for the smell of Stanley's dad 's experiments. He wonders if they'll be homeless, and wonders, too, if the camp told... (full context)

...has no idea what's in it. Ms. Morengo explains that she's a patent attorney helping Stanley's father with his new invention, and she looked into the events that took place on the... (full context)

Ms. Morengo explains that Stanley's father invented a product to cure foot odor and passes the boys samples. Zero thinks it... (full context)

...the fact that Stanley's mother doubts that there was ever a curse, it's true that Stanley's father invented his foot odor cure the day after Elya Yelnats's great-great grandson carried the great-great-great... (full context)

Stanley's Father Character Analysis

Stanley's Father Quotes in Holes

Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

Stanley's Father Character Timeline in Holes