Vulgarity In George Ginny's Holes
At the end of the book Holes (the prequel to Small Steps), Camp Green Lake had been locked down and the boys released. Once the protagonists from Holes, Stanley and Zero, had been freed from the camp, the common 5th grader couldn’t wait for a follow up on what life would throw at them next. Unfortunately, Small Steps didn’t’ posses our desires, instead it follows the story of one of the minor character named Theodore (nicknamed Armpit).
After spending some time in a halfway house, Armpit starts to get his life back on track by taking summer school classes and getting a job in the landscaping busines. He does this not only for self benefits but to improve his reputation with his mom (since he lost her respect for going to Camp Green lake) Shortly after, Armpit befriends a young, white girl named Ginny (who his neighbor and …show more content…
has cerebral palsy).
This stereotype, and message, is not commonly graspable to the average 10 year old (since this book is aimed toward that age).
Surprisingly this “vulgarity” continues throughout the book with scenes such as Armpit’s friend selling parsley as marijuana, an attempted murder and a teen pop rock sensation telling everyone she’s a virgin. Although shocking, these points didn’t fully sway the main intentions of Sachar’s work.
Armpit partly becomes friends with Ginny because no one else would want to be close to her, thus, feeling pity he takes it upon himself to treat her as his sibling. Subsequently, his old pal from camp green lake (X-Ray) appears, from what it seems like from no where, with a get-rich-quick scheme. This involves, scalping tickets to the Kaira Deleon concert, the current teen pop sensation.
Another minor character, what is Sachar thinking? While reading the book it was found motivating to know there was some hope that the person Armpit acknowledged could’ve been a protagonist. Yet it was just X-ray with some cheesy plan. If Sachar would have thrown in at least one “somebody”, then this book would have been a lot more
enjoyable.
So Armpit plays along with X-ray’s scheme and sold all twelve of their tickets but two. So Armpit decides to invite good ol’ Ginny to the concert. At the concert, security confronted the pair because they supposedly had counterfeit tickets.
However, the officers really thought Armpit had Ginny on drugs, which was just symptoms of her disease, yet being black didn’t help Armpit at all either.
It turns out , X- Ray had sold the last tickets to a couple and photo copied them before he gave them away. Surprisingly, Kaira Deleon comes down to see what’s the matter and falls in love at first site with Armpit. Throughout the book, up until this point, Ginny had been considered a main character. Then after the concert she seems to just disappear into thin air. It seems Louis Sachar just stuck Ginny in the beginning to show what a great and humble guy Armpit is. Such events included: Armpit being Ginny’s friend, and him looking after/treating her like a sibling.
After the concert, X-ray and Armpit are confronted by multiple people including: the police, and men that run a ticket scalping business. The two manage to lie to the police about the tickets and attempt to cover themselves with the ticket scalping business people who claim Armpit and X- ray owe them money. The ticket scalping people subsequently fight X- ray and Armpit Again,
Gory fights, and lying to the police? Sachar must have hit his head because he totally forgot about his audience, yet again. It might’ve been a good book for middle school students but for elementary, not so much. All the while, Armpit travels to San Francisco as a v.i.p to one of Kaira’s concerts and ends up in a mess. Kaira’s manager attempted to murder Kaira by framing Armpit but Armpit manages to save Kaira and protrude too many as the hero, even his mom.
Overall Small Steps was a good book…for teenagers that is. Not to say it wasn’t a good book it was just a distraction due to the indecent behavior of many. With all that violence and outlandish behavior, sadly it didn’t become that “must read” as Holes did.
After spending some time in a halfway house, Armpit starts to get his life back on track by taking summer school classes and getting a job in the landscaping busines. He does this not only for self benefits but to improve his reputation with his mom (since he lost her respect for going to Camp Green lake) Shortly after, Armpit befriends a young, white girl named Ginny (who his neighbor and …show more content…
has cerebral palsy).
This stereotype, and message, is not commonly graspable to the average 10 year old (since this book is aimed toward that age).
Surprisingly this “vulgarity” continues throughout the book with scenes such as Armpit’s friend selling parsley as marijuana, an attempted murder and a teen pop rock sensation telling everyone she’s a virgin. Although shocking, these points didn’t fully sway the main intentions of Sachar’s work.
Armpit partly becomes friends with Ginny because no one else would want to be close to her, thus, feeling pity he takes it upon himself to treat her as his sibling. Subsequently, his old pal from camp green lake (X-Ray) appears, from what it seems like from no where, with a get-rich-quick scheme. This involves, scalping tickets to the Kaira Deleon concert, the current teen pop sensation.
Another minor character, what is Sachar thinking? While reading the book it was found motivating to know there was some hope that the person Armpit acknowledged could’ve been a protagonist. Yet it was just X-ray with some cheesy plan. If Sachar would have thrown in at least one “somebody”, then this book would have been a lot more
enjoyable.
So Armpit plays along with X-ray’s scheme and sold all twelve of their tickets but two. So Armpit decides to invite good ol’ Ginny to the concert. At the concert, security confronted the pair because they supposedly had counterfeit tickets.
However, the officers really thought Armpit had Ginny on drugs, which was just symptoms of her disease, yet being black didn’t help Armpit at all either.
It turns out , X- Ray had sold the last tickets to a couple and photo copied them before he gave them away. Surprisingly, Kaira Deleon comes down to see what’s the matter and falls in love at first site with Armpit. Throughout the book, up until this point, Ginny had been considered a main character. Then after the concert she seems to just disappear into thin air. It seems Louis Sachar just stuck Ginny in the beginning to show what a great and humble guy Armpit is. Such events included: Armpit being Ginny’s friend, and him looking after/treating her like a sibling.
After the concert, X-ray and Armpit are confronted by multiple people including: the police, and men that run a ticket scalping business. The two manage to lie to the police about the tickets and attempt to cover themselves with the ticket scalping business people who claim Armpit and X- ray owe them money. The ticket scalping people subsequently fight X- ray and Armpit Again,
Gory fights, and lying to the police? Sachar must have hit his head because he totally forgot about his audience, yet again. It might’ve been a good book for middle school students but for elementary, not so much. All the while, Armpit travels to San Francisco as a v.i.p to one of Kaira’s concerts and ends up in a mess. Kaira’s manager attempted to murder Kaira by framing Armpit but Armpit manages to save Kaira and protrude too many as the hero, even his mom.
Overall Small Steps was a good book…for teenagers that is. Not to say it wasn’t a good book it was just a distraction due to the indecent behavior of many. With all that violence and outlandish behavior, sadly it didn’t become that “must read” as Holes did.