Setting

Camp Green Lake

The fictional Camp Green Lake is the main setting of the novel Holes by Louis Sachar. The name "Green Lake" is extremely misleading. There has not been a lake there for over a hundred years and everything in the surrounding area is "just a dry, flat wasteland" (Part 1, 0%). With over 35 degrees in the summer months, without a natural source of water, and with the ground dry as dust, the conditions are more than unfavorable for any form of vegetation: with the exception of two oak trees, there is not a single plant on the grounds of the camp, "there weren’t even weeds." (Part 1, 7%)

Camp Green Lake is used in the present as a correctional boot camp for delinquent youths. Here, the main character Stanley Yelnats is sent at the beginning of the narrative. Although the camp has a prison-like function, there are no watchtowers and no fences to prevent the inmates from escaping. Any attempt to escape would be virtually hopeless: the camp is considered the only place with water within a hundred miles.

It is clear from the start that the camp is anything but a luxurious vacation spot. Small cameras and microphones are supposedly hidden everywhere, with which the Warden can monitor the camp around the clock (Part 1, 56%). Moreover, there are only "a few run-down buildings" (Part 1, 7%) and "six large gray tents" (Part 1, 12%) on the grounds. The tents consist only of simple cots, which Stanley calls "smelly and scratchy " (Part 1, 16%), and seven wooden boxes stacked on top of each other to serve as shelves (Part 1, 13%). There is no proper, enclosed shower room: the shower stalls are out in the open so that the water can drain away without a built-in drain (Part 1, 16%).

Wreck Room (Recreation Room)

The Wreck Room is the only place in the camp where the teenage inmates can spend their free time. Just like the rest of the camp, it is in a run-down state. On the sign in front of the door, the inscription "REC ROOM" (short for Recreation Room) was appropriately changed to "...