The Lords of Discipline By: Pat Conroy - Book Report/Review Example

14 December Book Review: The Lords of Discipline The Lords of Discipline novel is based on several themes that include but are not limited to brotherhood, coming of age, betrayal, and a man’s attempts to falsify the code of honor of his own. The venerable Charleston based Carolina Military Institute provides the scene and the time is the fall of the year 1966. A senior on the honor court of the cadets, Will McLean is assigned the responsibility to keep an eye on the first black cadet who gets the admission into the college.

It so happens because of the spread of a rumor that The Ten, which is a secret organization might be attempting to get the lack student who has been admitted into the college off the campus. Will McLean is by nature, an outsider. He plays the game of basketball for the school. Although military prowess is appreciated, encouraged, and liked in the school, yet athletics are belittled in the school. When he is asked to serve as the mentor of the black student that the school has admitted for the first time, Will McLean gets drawn into a severe form of racial politics as well as threat of violence that are the fundamental elements of the Institute and although are apparently invisible to people, yet exist just underneath the Institute’s surface.

Will McLean irritates the group of conservative roommates he has with his daring questions based on the escalating Vietnam War. However, Will McLean is not quite sure of himself as he runs a healthy yet uncertain romantic affair with Annie Kate Gervais. Annie happens to be a native of Charleston that is known for its classical beauty. The most extravagant features of Charleston that both threaten and captivate the country boy that Will McLean cultivates in himself are the fragrant gardens as well as Federal mansions.

The Lords of Discipline is in many ways a very unique novel with very different and unusual themes. The novel projects the desperation of the cadets to show their manhood and strength in a cruel and regimental environment. One of the cadets happens to have the determination to be a man in a very unique way because of which, his search for reality and truth eventually lead him as well as the group of his beloved friends to a sad conflict with the crooked system. “.I have a need to bear witness to what I saw there.

I want to tell you how it was. I want precision. I want a murderous, stunning truthfulness. I want to find my own singular voice for the first time….Some of the boys of the Institute and the men who are her sons will hate me for the rest of their lives. But that will be all right. You see, I wear the ring” (Conroy).The Lord of Discipline has a good mix of suspense, adventure, and humor. The feeling of the novel is that of generosity and rare honesty. The novel has been authored with excellent force and power of language.

These and many other unique elements helped the novel make Pat Conroy surface as a very powerful fictional voice. Works Cited:Conroy, Pat. The Lords of Discipline. Open Road. 2010, Print.