Discussion Topic

Stanley Yelnats' Family Curse in Holes

Summary:

In Holes, Stanley Yelnats' family believes they are cursed due to an ancestor's actions. Elya Yelnats, Stanley's great-great-grandfather, is blamed for the curse. He sought help from Madame Zeroni, a one-legged gypsy, to win Myra Menke's hand in marriage by stealing a pig. Failing to fulfill his promise to carry Madame Zeroni up a mountain, she cursed the family with bad luck, affecting generations, including Stanley's father, an unlucky inventor.

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Why was Stanley Yelnats' family cursed in Holes?

Stanley Yelnats is arrested for a crime he did not commit. His family blames their bad luck on the person they refer to as "Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" (page 7). Stanley's great-great grandfather stole a pig from a one-legged gypsy who cursed the entire family. His great-great grandfather was a man named Elya Yelnats from Lithuania. He wanted to marry a young girl named Myra Menke, but Myra's father wanted to marry her to Igor Barkov, who offered the father a fat pig in exchange. Elya sought help from Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian woman who gave him a pig in exchange for his promise to carry her up the mountain so she could drink from a stream and hear his song. Elya wound up not marrying Myra, and he went to America as a deck hand, forgetting his promise to the gypsy.

As a result, the family always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and never has any luck. Stanley's father, for example, is an inventor, and though he is intelligent and diligent, he never experiences any luck. His inventions never work out, and the Yelnats are poor. 

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Describe the curse on Stanley’s family in Holes.

Stanley Yelnats comes from a family that believes they were cursed by an ancestor’s actions. This ancestor’s name was Elya Yelnats, but the family refers to him as Stanley's "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" (chapter 1). Elya’s infraction was stealing a pig from a one-legged gypsy, who then called down the curse on the whole family.

The pig was part of a marriage negotiation that Elya was conducting in his native Lithuania; he needed a pig to compete with his rival in offering Myra’s father an appropriate gift. He sought the help of Madame Zeroni, but he failed to uphold his bargain when he left for America.

Although several generations later and the family members do not really believe in the curse, they refer to it whenever bad luck befalls a family member, as frequently occurs.

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