Blog Desert Archetype #3
Holes Trailer
The award-winning book Holes, written by Louis Sachar was made into a film in 2004 due to its popularity. The entire plot of the movie revolves around a boy named Stanley, and the infamous Camp Green Lake, which used to be a paradisiacal town with a huge lake in the middle, blossoming trees all over the place, and a peaceful yet bustling town. However, Camp Green Lake has now turned into a desert wasteland completely void of people except for a detention center that forces lawbreaking minors to dig holes in the desert as a form of punishment but more importantly to find a hidden treasure.
Throughout the film, the desert setting evokes the grim sensation of hopelessness that perfectly describes Stanley's feelings throughout the majority of the movie. The desert is filled with environmental hazards that could potentially kill the prisoners such as venomous lizards and the irresistible wave of heat accompanied by a lack of water. These desert conditions were brought about by the unjust murder of Sam an honest man who used to live in Camp Green Lake when it was a town. The current desert conditions symbolize the punishments/curse of infertility and misery to the family that owns the land for their wrongful actions. These near death like conditions are brought to an end once Stanley finds the treasure hidden in Camp Green Lake and gets the wardens of the camp arrested for abusive treatment. The end of the curse upon the land is both literally and symbolically broken by the first drops of rain after 200 years of no rain.
Ultimately, Holes teaches me that the desert archetype can and is used to punish those who are unjust and to deliver justice to those that deserve it.
"Holes - Trailer." YouTube, 18 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEvLRtDKT0c.
The award-winning book Holes, written by Louis Sachar was made into a film in 2004 due to its popularity. The entire plot of the movie revolves around a boy named Stanley, and the infamous Camp Green Lake, which used to be a paradisiacal town with a huge lake in the middle, blossoming trees all over the place, and a peaceful yet bustling town. However, Camp Green Lake has now turned into a desert wasteland completely void of people except for a detention center that forces lawbreaking minors to dig holes in the desert as a form of punishment but more importantly to find a hidden treasure.
Throughout the film, the desert setting evokes the grim sensation of hopelessness that perfectly describes Stanley's feelings throughout the majority of the movie. The desert is filled with environmental hazards that could potentially kill the prisoners such as venomous lizards and the irresistible wave of heat accompanied by a lack of water. These desert conditions were brought about by the unjust murder of Sam an honest man who used to live in Camp Green Lake when it was a town. The current desert conditions symbolize the punishments/curse of infertility and misery to the family that owns the land for their wrongful actions. These near death like conditions are brought to an end once Stanley finds the treasure hidden in Camp Green Lake and gets the wardens of the camp arrested for abusive treatment. The end of the curse upon the land is both literally and symbolically broken by the first drops of rain after 200 years of no rain.
Ultimately, Holes teaches me that the desert archetype can and is used to punish those who are unjust and to deliver justice to those that deserve it.
Having seen this movie, it is fairly obvious to me that the desert archetype plays a huge role in the film (the first image that comes to mind when thinking about it is that of the desert). I had never really considered the symbolic meaning of this setting in the movie until now and your analysis sheds a lot of light on this. Had the story taken place anywhere else, it would be lacking in the many things you mentioned here, so this was a great choice for an example of this archetype. Good job:))
ReplyDelete