The Lords of Discipline

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Summary: Conroy is a master, this proves it
Review: The Lords of Discipline is an excellent book of friendship, love, pride, betrayal, redemption, and honor. It comes at you from all angels. No matter what genre you normally read, this book is for you. So well written and so touching, it will make you laugh at the humor of the situations , cry out of loss, feel pride when triumphs occur, and feel anger along with the cadets. Superbly written by an author who makes everything come alive. The characters seem to be real and so close that you could've known them yourself. The setting is so well established you can actually see what is going on. This is the type of book that draws you in and keeps you on your toes. Just when you think you know what is going to happen next, the plot line makes a sudden change and makes you want to know more. This book will make you want to read it again and again , and you probably will. If you enjoy any type of literature, The Lords Of Discipline is a must read. You'll never forget the characters, you'll wish you could forget the things they go through. As this is a semi-autobiographical book, you'll read the events of the Plebe year and tell yourself it doesn't happen, but it does. You'll see the world through the eyes of Carolina Institute Cadet Will McLean. You'll see the Viatnam war for what it was and you'll see the injustices of the world as he saw them. You won't regret having read this book

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Summary: The Lords of Discipline
Review: The Lords of Discipline is as story about a young man, Will McLean, who is going to college at the South Carolina military institute, a school made to mold boys into men. The institute is the college Will's father went to and while Will's father was on his deathbed he makes Will promise to go to the institute. The book tells us about the friends and enemies he makes, and the experiences and struggles he faces while attending the school.
Will's freshman year or Plebe year, is extremely difficult. The school sees it as a year to break down the boys in order for them to build them up in to men. They also see it as a way to weed out the weaker boys so that they will not be able to ruin the school's name. It was the upperclassmen's or the cadre's job to break the freshmen then to put them back together, stronger than they were before. Every time they encounter a freshman, they yell at them and make them do pushups and other activities until they become exhausted. Will dislikes how harsh freshmen year is that he vows when he is an upperclassman that he will never be curl to the freshmen. The second night of plebe year is the worst of experience of all. The young men call it hell night. The upperclassmen have a series of sweat-parties. They make all the freshmen stand in rows doing pushups and holding their gun out in front of them, for hours and hours, in the hundred degree South Carolina weather. The sweat parties last all night long, at the end of the night they are told to go to their rooms. All of the freshmen are too weak to even walk the short distance to their rooms, so they are all crawling. As Will is crawling to his room he runs into a boy named Tradd. Tradd is known as one of the weaker boys at the institute. He is called the honey prince. This boy, who is too weak to even crawl, is collapsed on the floor with people crawling over him. Will stops and helps him to his room. Tradd becomes Will's first friend at the institute, and they later become roommates. Will's two other roommates and best friends are Pig and Mark, they are the strongest boys in their class. The four boys have a very tight bond of friendship, and later become blood brothers. They help each other out all the time whether it is with school or beating up enemies or lending money.
Will's friend Tradd is part of a very high-class family in Charleston, the town of the institute, Will goes to Tradd's house often on the weekends for dinner. One evening on leaving Tradd's house Will finds a note on his car from a neighbor telling him not to park there. As he looks around he sees the person that left the note it is a strange girl in a raincoat. Later she tells him her name it is Annie Kate, and that she is wearing the raincoat because she is unmarried and pregnant. Will becomes her only friend and companion because only he and her mother are to know she is pregnant. Will falls in love with her, but after her baby dies she no longer wants to see him, because he reminds her of a time she wants to forget.
While trying to be a good companion for Annie Kate, Will is asked to keep an eye on a freshman Pearce, as favor for colonel Bear. Pearce is the first black man ever to attend the Institute. During all of this, he stumbles upon a group called the Ten. No one knows if the ten really exists or if it is just a rumor, the Ten is supposed to be a group of ten people scare away the boys that they believe are not good enough to be at the Institute. But Will asks around and finds the first group of `ten' does exist, and they are after Pearce and that it is ran by the head of the school, the General.