“Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

At the beginning of the book, the author makes it clear that Stanley is innocent of the crime that ends up sending him to Camp Green Lake. This is also the first mention of Stanley being particularly unlucky and how he is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, an idea that surfaces many times in the book.

“Everyone in his family had always liked the fact that ‘Stanley Yelnats’ was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every other Stanley Yelnats before him.”

Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist of the book, is connected with many other Stanley Yelnatses of past generations. His name is an indicator that his family’s past follows him and has a deep history, highlighting the theme of The Connection Between Past and the Present.

“In a way, it made him feel a little better about having to sleep in a cot that had been used by somebody named Barf Bag. Maybe it was a term of respect.”

When Stanley gets his nickname, Caveman, he feels happy that he has earned some semblance of respect to even get a nickname. This makes him feel better because he’s worried that Barf Bag got his name because he puked a lot, something that would make his cot very disgusting.