Holes - Louis Sachar

Holes

 

By. Louis Sachar

Lexile 660L

 

Holes - Lexile 660L 인데 <Matilda> 보다는 어려웠습니다

 

 1.     학교폭력, 운명, 친구, 행복에 대한 디즈니식 아동문학

 

처음의 소제목을 위처럼 적어봤습니다.

제가 대단한 평론가도 아니기에, ‘학교폭력, 운명, 친구, 행복에 대한 디즈니식 아동문학

‘이라는 한 줄 감상평이 절대적인 정답이 당연히 아닙니다. 제가 이 책을 읽고 느낀 점의 대강에 불과합니다.

 

주인공 ‘스탠리’는 덩치는 크지만, 학교에서 더 작은 아이들에게 놀림의 대상으로 괴롭힘을 당하는 아이입니다. 선생님들조차 그의 구원자나 조력자가 되어주지는 않습니다. 그래도 다행인건 그의 가족은 돈은 없지만 화목합니다. 이런 스탠리가, ‘까마귀 날자 배 떨어진다.’는 격으로, 엉뚱한 곳에 엉뚱한 시간에 있어서 절도범으로 몰리게 되고, 소년원 같은 교화시설로 떠납니다. 이 책의 시작은 호수 없는 호수에 도착하는 장면으로 시작합니다.

 

아래는 “변호사는 필요 없어.”, “진실을 말하면 돼.”라는 장면인데 너무도 웃픈 장면이라 옮겨적어 봤습니다.

 

[ Because of the baseball schedule, Stanley’s trial was delayed several months. His parents couldn’t afford a lawyer. “You don’t need a lawyer,” his mother had said. “Just tell the truth”

Stanley told the truth, but perhaps it would have been better if he had lied a little. He could have said he found the shoes in the street. No one believed they fell from the sky.

It wasn’t destiny. He realized. It was his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather! ]  <p. 33>

 

 

2.     아래와 같이 서로 다른 인물들의 장면 전환이 인상적입니다.

 

여느 이야기나 소설에서도 이런 식의 장면 전환은 당연히 있을 것인데, 저는 왜 이 소설 속의 장면전환이 인상적인지 모르겠습니다. 마치 <왕좌의 게임>이라는 드라마 중에서 갓 태어난 ‘존 스노우’가 우는 화면에서 성인인 ‘존 스노우’의 모습으로 넘어가는 장면처럼 인상적입니다. 스탠리 조상의 이야기에서 스탠리의 이야기로 장면 전환이 인상적이기도 하고, 별 것도 아닌 것 같으면서도, 성취감을 느끼는 스탠리의 모습 또한 인상 깊어서 길지만 옮겨 적어 봅니다.

 

[ His cap was stained with blood from his hands. He felt like he was digging his own grave

In America, Elya learned to speak English. He fell in love with a woman named Sarah Miller. She could push a plow, milk a goat, and, most important, think for herself. She and Elay often stayed up half the night talking and laughing together.

Their life was not easy. Elya worked hard, but bad luck seemed to follow him everywhere. He always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He remembered Madame Zeroni telling him that she had a son in America. Elya was forever looking for him. He’d walk up to complete strangers and ask if they knew someone named Zeroni, or had ever heard of anyone named Zeroni.

No one did. Elya wasn’t sure what he’d do if he ever found Madame Zeroni’s son anyway. Carry him up a mountain and sing the pig lullaby to him?

After his barn was struck by lightning for the third time, he told Sarah about his broken promise to Madame Zeroni. “I am worse than a pig thief.” He said. “You should leave me and find someone who isn’t cursed.”

“I’m not leaving you.” Said Sarah. “But I want you to do one thing for me.”

“Anything.” Said Elya.

Sarah smiled. “sing me the pig lullaby.”

He sang it for her.

Her eyes sparkled. “That’s so pretty. What does it mean?”

Elya tried his best to translate it from Latvian into English, but it wasn’t the same. “It rhymes in Latvian.” he told her.

“I could tell,” said Sarah.

A year later their child was born. Sarah named him Stanley because she noticed that “Stanley” was “Yelnats” spelled backward.

Sarah changed the words of the pig lullaby so that they rhymed, and every night she sang it to little Stanley.

 

“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs,

“The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies.”

While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,

Crying to the moo-oo-oon,

“If only, if only.”

 

Stanley’s hole was as deep as his shovel, but not quite wide enough on the bottom. He grimaced as he sliced off a chunk of dirt, then raised it up and flung it onto a pile.

He laid his shovel back down of the bottom of his hole and, to his surprise, it fit. He rotated it and only had to chip off a few chunks of dirt, here and there, before it could lie flat across his hole in every direction.

He heard the water truck approaching, and felt a strange sense of pride at being able to show Ms. Sir, of Mr. Pendanski, that he had dug his first hole.

He put his hands on the rim and tried to pull himself up.

He couldn’t do it. His arms were too weak to lift his heavy body.

He used his legs to help, but he just didn’t have any strength. He was trapped in his hole. It was almost funny, but he wasn’t in the mood to laugh.

“Stanley!” he heard Mr. Pendanski call.

Using his shovel, he dug two footholds in the hole wall.

He climbed out to see Mr. Pendanski walking over to him.

“I was afraid you’d fainted,” Mr. Pendanski said. “You wouldn’t have been the first.”

“I’m finished.” Stanley said, putting his blood-spotted cap back on his head.

“All right!” said Mr. Pendanski, raising his hand for a high five, but Stanley ignored it. He didn’t have the strength.

Mr. Pendanski lowered his hand and looked down at Stanley’s hole. “Well done,” he said. “You want a ride back?”

Stanley shook his head. “I’ll walk.”

Mr. Pendanski climbed back into the truck without filling Stanley’s canteen. Stanley waited for him to drive away, then took another look at his hole. He knew it was nothing to be proud of, but he felt proud nonetheless.

He sucked up his last bit of saliva and spat. ] <p. 48~ p. 50>

 

 

3.     가장 좋아하는 장면 입니다 – 이유도 없이 행복하고 싶다

 

He was too happy to fall asleep. He knew he had no reason to be happy.

이 책에서 가장 좋아하는 구절입니다. 가장 인상 깊었던 장면이기도 하고요.

“왜 행복한지 이유도 모르겠지만, 딱히 행복할 이유도 없지만, 잠을 못 이룰 정도로 행복하다.”  저는 이런 행복을 아주 어렸을 때에 느껴보고, 그 이후로는 이런 행복이 없는 삶을 살아왔습니다. 여러분은 어떠십니까?

 

스탠리가 도둑의 누명을 쓸 때처럼, 저는 지금 제가 ‘잘못된 시간에 잘못된 장소’에 있는 것만 같습니다. 온갖 걱정과 두려움, 낙담과 후회와 자책으로 가득 채운 맘으로 살고 있습니다. 계속해서 답을 찾고 소망을 갈구하긴 하는데 좀처럼 길은 보이지 않습니다. 그리고 이런 문제들에 함몰되고 쫓겨서 행복할 겨를이 없습니다. 참으로 바쁘게 사는데, 스탠리의 말대로 “자기 무덤을 파는 것.” 같습니다. 정신 없이 바쁘게 구덩이를 파고 자기 무덤을 파면서 살고 있는 저를 돌아보며, 별다른 이유 없어도, 헤벌죽 웃으며 행복하고 싶습니다. 의미도 찾지 못하며 열심히 구덩이 파는 것을 멈추고, 자주 돌아봐야겠습니다. 자주 기도하고 성경 읽고, 주위를 둘러봐야겠습니다.

 

아래는 이 책에서 제가 제일 좋아하는 장면을 옮겨 적은 것 입니다.

 

[ Two nights later, Stanley lay awake staring up at the star-filled sky. He was too happy to fall asleep. He knew he had no reason to be happy. He had heard or read somewhere that right before a person freezes to death, he suddenly feels nice and warm. He wondered if perhaps he was experiencing something like that.

 

It occurred to him that he couldn’t remember the last time he felt happiness. It wasn’t just being sent to Camp Green Lake that had made his life miserable. Before that he’d been unhappy at school, where he had no friends, and bullies like Derrick Dunne picked on him. No one liked him, and the truth was, he didn’t especially like himself.

He liked himself now.

 

He wandered if he was delirious.

He looked over at Zero sleeping near him. Zero’s face was lit in the starlight, and there was a flower petal in front of his nose that moved back and forth as he breathed. It reminded Stanley of something out of a cartoon. Zero breathed in, and the petal was drawn up almost touching his nose. Zero breathed out, and the petal moved toward his chin. It stayed on Zero’s face for an amazingly long time before fluttering off to the side.

 

Stanley considered placing it back in front of Zero’s nose, but it wouldn’t be the same.

It seemed like Zero had lived at Camp Green Lake forever, but as Stanley thought about it now, he realized that Zero must have gotten there no more than a month or two before him. Zero was actually arrested a day later. But Stanley’s trial kept getting delayed because of baseball.

 

He remembered what Zero had said a few days before. If Zero had just kept those shoes, then neither of them would be here right now. As Stanley stared at the glittering night sky, he thought there was no place he would rather be. He was glad Zero put the shoes on the parked car. He was glad they fell from the overpass and hit him on the head.

 

When the shoes first fell from the sky, he remembered thinking that destiny had struck him. Now, he thought so again. It was more than a coincidence. It had to be destiny. ]  p. 205~206

 

아래는 제가 두 번째로 이 책에서 좋아하는 구절이 담긴 단락입니다.

This was where he wanted to be when he died.

호수 없는 녹색호수캠프에서 성취감도 느끼고, 괴롭히는 무리들 속에서 함께할 친구도 얻으며, 스스로 선택과 결정을 하며 문제를 헤쳐나갈 수 있는 그 밑바탕은 그의 가족의 사랑이라고 생각합니다. 아래에 옮겨 적어 봅니다.

 

[ He tried to think about other things. He didn’t want to die with the images of the Warden, Mr. Sri, and the lizards etched into his brain. Instead, he tried to see his mother’s face.

His brain took him back to a time when he was very little, all bundled up in a snowsuit. He and his mother were walking, hand in hand, mitten in mitten, when they both slipped on some ice and fell and rolled down a snow-covered hillside. They ended up at the bottom of the hill.He remembered he almost cried, but instead he laughed. His mother laughed, too.

He could feel the same light-headed feeling he felt then, dizzy from rolling down the hill. He felt the sharp coldness of the snow against his ear. He could see flecks of snow on his mother’s bright and cheery face.

This was where he wanted to be when he died.

“Hey, Caveman, guess what? Said Mr. Sri. “You’re innocent, after all. I thought you’d like to know that. Your lawyer came to get you yesterday. Too bad you weren’t here.”

The words meant nothing to Stanley, who was still in the snow. He and his mother climbed back up the hill and rolled down again, this time on purpose. Latter they had hot chocolate with lots of melted marshmallows. ]  <p. 230 >

 

4.     맘껏 사랑하자

 

어떻게 살든지 시간은 흐릅니다.

후회와 자책 속에서 살든지,

좌절과 낙담 속에서 살든지,

두려움과 걱정 속에서 살든지,

경제적으로 살기 위해 살든지,

시간은 흐릅니다.

 

내가 죽을 때의 모습과 시간과 장소를 정할 수는 없지만, 살아있는 시간 동안 맘껏 사랑하고 행복했으면 좋겠습니다. 뚜렷한 이유 없이 불행하지 말고, 별다른 이유 없이 행복했으면 좋겠습니다.

 

5. 영어공부 후기

 

2회독 하는데 한달이 걸렸습니다.

책은 재미있고 좋았습니다. 다만 제 영어 실력에는 1회독 하는데 시간이 너무 걸린다고 생각합니다.

영어 공부만을 목적으로 한다면, 좀 더 쉽거나 짧은 책을 골라서 3일 안에 1회독 씩을 하는 책을 골라야겠습니다.