Victim Mentality

What does the future hold for us? No one knows, no one knows for

sure, only God. With anticipation and optimism we view it as a variety

program or better yet as smooth road with bumps every let's say

million miles throughout which a myriad of events take place that can be

both positive and then again not so positive. However, a person should

always tend to look at their future with a constructive and upbeat outlook,

which enables them to grow in all aspects of their health triangle.

Nevertheless, there are those who view the future with a completely

unenthusiastic, depressing, downbeat, and negative outlook. This is

categorized as a victim mentality. Blaming everyone else for what occurs in

your life and world and believing that the future only holds negative things

for you is not healthy and is not fair for yourself or those around you and

your immediate environment. By doing this your just making yourself carry

extra baggage in addition to your daily stress and unexpected problems

that arise when everything seems to be going right. The perfect example of

a victim mentality is Stanley Yelnats the main character from the book

Holes. As an overweight child he tends to question his life and his overall

purpose for his peers make fun of him and he therefore has a tough time at

school. In addition, to this however, is the fact that his family has been

cursed with a bad luck due to a spell put on his great grandfather.

Therefore, there is not much good luck to look forward to in life for his bad

luck never seems to cease. Not to mention that they live under subsistence

conditions meaning that they have just enough money to make it each day,

they are quite poor. It is basically his grandfathers fault that he has a

miserable life and he blames everything on everyone else. Then again he

always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

To top it all of he is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention

camp for boys, for a crime he did not commit where boys are forced to dig

large holes daily. It was either this or jail at such a young age. Since his

parents were poor he did not have a big choice. Once again this is his "no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfathers fault. In this camp

he has a tough time as the new kid and is made to live and work under the

most atrocious conditions and is made fun of, excluded, and taken

advantage of. However, in the long run these friends end up helping him

overcome his victim mentality. As the book progresses, Stanley slowly

develops physical strength and personal strength. He identifies the people

who threaten him, like the Warden, and while he tries not to get in trouble

he also stands up for his own right and the rights of his friends. Stanley

gradually develops the self-confidence necessary to disregard the opinions

of the majority of the boys and form a friendship with Zero, the least

popular kid in the camp.

Although the cruelty of those around him initially cause Stanley to

become hard and treat Zero with contempt, he eventually realizes that what

he is doing and he and Zero form a strong friendship. They each make

sacrifices for one another and by the time that he leaves Camp Green

Lake, Stanley is physically and emotionally stronger.

In the meanwhile his father is back home struggling with his bad luck.

He invents many gadgets ands creative things but they always turn out to0

be a failure because of his bad luck which explains their money problems.

The family's bad luck struck him when he moved from New York to

California and was robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. If Stanley's great

grandfather had not been robbed then Stanley might be living in a mansion

in California instead of in a Texas apartment that smells of burning rubber

and foot odor caused by Stanley's father's attempts to invent a way to

recycle old sneakers. They blame their misfortune on others.

As time progresses Stanley begins to realize that the digging has a

purpose and he is determined to get to the bottom of it. They are searching

for lost treasure that had been lost for over ten years. One day Stanley

decides to run away with Zero from the whole camp environment because

they aren't being treated fairly