Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake (Holes 1.50)

final answer

I think this was an easy question, especially if your name happened to be one of the five choices given. Even if it wasn’t, you should have gotten the correct answer, but only you know your own name. You’re on the honor system.

Whatever your name is, after you’ve been at Camp Green Lake awhile, you’ll be given a new name. Chances are it will be something weird or gross. That’s good. No matter how weird a name you get, you should be glad. It means you’ve been accepted. If you’ve been there two weeks and they still call you Scott, or Chris, or Rebecca, you’ve been doing something wrong, and you better figure out what it is.

If you’re lucky, your new name will get a nickname. In my group, Squid was sometimes called Squidly. Zigzag was also called Zig or Ziggy. X-Ray was X. Armpit was also just plain Pit. I was either Caveman or the Caveman.

But don’t forget who you really are. And I’m not talking about your so-called real name. All names are made up by someone else, even the one your parents gave you.

You know who you really are. When you’re alone at night, looking up at the stars, or maybe lying in your bed in total darkness, you know that nameless person inside you.

Your life is about to be ripped apart. You will be turned into a digging machine. You muscles will toughen. So will your heart and soul. That’s necessary for your survival. But don’t lose touch with that person deep inside you, or else you won’t really have survived at all.