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Holes
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Trout and Linda have the rifle and the shovel, yet Kate is the one who smiles. In this scene, who holds the power?
The tension Trout and Linda have the rifle, the shovel and Kate's bare feet on the hot ground, while Kate has only her refusal and, by her own words, nothing left to lose.
Notice who holds the weapons in this scene and who seems unafraid.
After twenty years Kate Barlow returns to Green Lake, a dry ghost town where she hears Sam's voice. About three months later Trout and Linda Walker break in and demand her loot. They make her walk barefoot on the hot ground, and when a lizard bites her she smiles and tells them to start digging. The chapter ends with Kate Barlow dying laughing.
Start with Kate's reply to Linda: "I’ve been wishing I was dead for the last twenty years." Ask what a threat is worth against someone who has already lost so much.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: Kate's return, the break-in, the walk, the lizard and the last line.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences in the same pattern: one long walk or task, then what happened each time the person stopped.
Debate Take sides: who holds the power in the last part of the chapter, Kate or the Walkers? Each side uses at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why the author lets Kate laugh at the end without saying why.
Easier Read the walking scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 5 only.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student to find one more line where Kate says something that might not be true, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Kate says, “There is no loot,” and later says Trout will never find it. What do you think she is doing?Inference
What it asks It asks what Kate is doing when she denies the loot and then says it can never be found, and how far the chapter lets us know.
She is hiding something real and daring them to look for it.
But I sure hope you like to dig.
can dig for the next hundred years and you’ll never find it
There is nothing to find, and she sends them digging out of spite.
There is no loot
I don’t know what you’re talking about
A strong answer Kate first says there is no loot and that she does not know what Trout means. Later she says they could dig for a hundred years and never find it. Both lines are hers, and the chapter never shows any loot. A strong answer can read her as hiding something or as sending them on an empty hunt, and says what each reading would mean for Trout and Linda.
2. Kate says, “Oh, Linda, I’m so sorry,” then later tells her and Trout, “Start digging.” How can she feel both ways?Character
What it asks It asks what Kate's pity for a girl she once knew and her hard last words to her say about Kate.
Her pity is real and stays with her, even when she is harsh.
She had been a cute freckle-faced girl with beautiful red hair.
Oh, Linda, I’m so sorry
Her pity is quick and gone; the bitterness she has carried for years rules her at the end.
I’ve been wishing I was dead for the last twenty years
Start digging
A strong answer Kate remembers Linda as a cute freckle-faced girl and sees her now blotchy and scraggly, so her sorrow seems real. But the same Linda jerks Kate's head back by her hair and whacks her with a shovel, and Kate ends by telling them to start digging. A strong answer says whether the two feelings fit together or whether one pushes the other out.
3. Linda says, “We’re desperate.” Does being desperate excuse what she and Trout do to Kate?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh need against cruelty and decide whether the first can excuse the second.
Desperation explains them but does not excuse them: no one needs to jab a throat or whack bare legs.
Trout jabbed her throat with the rifle.
Whenever she stopped, Linda whacked her with the shovel.
Their need is real and heavy, which makes it harder to judge them harshly.
We’re desperate.
I kept thinking: It has to rain soon.
A strong answer Linda says the money is all gone and that she kept hoping for rain while it just got hotter and hotter, so their need is real. But their answer is to jab Kate's throat, fire a rifle above her head and whack her with a shovel whenever she stops. A strong answer takes a side, uses lines from both, and says whether need can ever make that treatment right.
4. Kate says, “I know it is hot, but I feel so very cold.” How does that line change the way we see this hot, empty place?Tone
What it asks It asks how a line about feeling cold sits against the heat and emptiness around her, and what mood the contrast makes.
The cold is her grief: no heat can reach what she has lost.
My hands are cold. My feet are cold. My face is cold. My heart is cold.
Sometimes she could hear Sam’s voice echoing across the emptiness.
It shows how alone she is: the only warmth she feels is a voice and an arm she imagines.
And sometimes she would hear him say, “I can fix that,” and she’d feel his warm arm across her shoulders.
She knew she was crazy.
A strong answer Kate says it is hot yet she feels cold in her hands, feet, face and heart, so the cold must be inside her. The only warmth in the scene is Sam's voice and the arm she feels around her shoulders. A strong answer says what the cold means and why the author sets it in a hot, dry place.
5. The chapter ends with “Kate Barlow died laughing.” Why might the author end on those words?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the plain last sentence leaves with the reader, and why the author gives no reason for the laugh.
It feels like Kate's own ending: she dies on her own terms, laughing at them.
Kate smiled. There was nothing they could do to her anymore.
Kate Barlow died laughing.
It feels bleak: she laughs at the very moment she dies, which is a strange and sad sound.
I’ve been wishing I was dead for the last twenty years
Kate Barlow died laughing.
A strong answer The last sentence is plain: it gives her death and her laughing, and nothing more. Just before it Linda screeches and Trout demands, and the contrast makes Kate's laugh stand out. A strong answer says whether that laugh feels like a victory or a sorrow, and why the author does not explain it.
1. Linda says that by the time they are finished, Kate will wish she were dead. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how Kate answers that.
What it asks It asks how Kate responds to a threat meant to frighten her, and what her reply shows about what is left to threaten.
She answers with calm: the threat does not reach her.
Go ahead and kill me, Trout
She yawned.
She answers with despair: it is a sad thing to say, not a brave one.
I’ve been wishing I was dead for the last twenty years
She knew she’d been crazy for the last twenty years.
A strong answer Linda promises that Kate will wish she were dead, and Kate says she has wished that for twenty years. She also tells Trout to go ahead and kill her, and she yawns at his first threat. A strong answer can call this calm or call it despair, and uses one line of what Kate says and one of what she does.
2. Trout and Linda both try to stop the lizard, and both miss. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what that moment shows about how their plan is going.
What it asks It asks the student to judge whether the lizard exposes a plan that is slipping or only a stroke of luck.
Their plan is failing: they cannot even protect Kate or themselves, and she still gives them nothing.
Linda tried to hit it with the shovel, and Trout shot at it, but they both missed.
“Where is it?” Linda screeched.
Their plan is still working: the lizard is chance, and they still have the means to hurt her.
She felt the shovel jab into her back, and she fell onto hard dirt.
It’s just going to keep getting worse and worse for you until you take us to it.
A strong answer Both of them miss, so the lizard reaches Kate before they can stop it, and afterward Linda is screeching and Trout is demanding the same answer. But the lizard is chance, and they still hold the rifle and the shovel. A strong answer decides whether the plan is failing or only interrupted, and uses one piece of evidence from each side.
3. Kate remembers Linda Miller as a girl with beautiful red hair. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what has happened to Linda since then.
What it asks It asks what has worn Linda down, and whether the cause is the dry years, her own choices or both.
The drought has worn her down: the money, the trees and the livestock are gone.
Now her face was blotchy, and her hair was dirty and scraggly.
But it’s all gone. It dried up with the lake.
Her own choice played a part: she married for money, so when it dried up she had nothing else.
You married him for his money, didn’t you?
Linda nodded.
A strong answer Linda was a cute freckle-faced girl with beautiful red hair, and now her face is blotchy and her hair is dirty and scraggly. She says the money dried up with the lake, along with the peach trees and the livestock. She also nods when Kate says she married Trout for his money. A strong answer names the cause, drought, choice or both, and gives two pieces of evidence.