'Lords of Discipline' broods upon truths of brotherhood, betrayal

All Things Literary

Although my paperback copy of Pat Conroy’s "The Lords of Discipline" is 498 pages, it took me only a week to read. The first time was during my freshman year of high school. Five years later, I have not found a book I enjoy as much.

Conroy’s novel takes the reader into the world of the Carolina Military Institute. The year is 1967, and the protagonist is Pvt. Will McLean, a senior at the military college.

Conroy tells the story of four distinct personalities — that of McLean and his three roommates — who come together against the backdrop of aristocratic Charleston, S.C.

While the setting is one of beauty and high social status, the plot reveals a sinister side exposing the racism and corruption of the institute.

The reader follows McLean through his horrible freshman year in the plebe system — a hazing system where freshmen are broken and then built again by the institute into the ideal cadet.

The novel later returns to his senior year where he is assigned as a liaison to Tom Pearce, the first black student in the history of the institute.

Life at the institute revolves around the words "honor" and "code." When McLean uncovers a mysterious group within the institute determined to run Pearce out, because of his race, his personal code and the college’s code come into direct conflict with each other. Subsequently, McLean and his roommates are caught in a series of events that threaten their future at the institute.

Along the way, McLean’s inner rebel is revealed. Like most cadets, he was changed by the plebe system.
But, unlike his classmates, McLean resists becoming the man the institute wants him to be — an honorable man of the military. McLean survives the system, and — as a result — he has earned the right to be critical of it.

In the novel, characters create lifelong friendships and fall in and out of love, but they also are betrayed by their fellow man.

The genius of this book corresponds with its setting — it’s the story of a man’s college experience, but it’s an experience most readers cannot imagine until they immerse themselves in McLean’s world.

Conroy’s language is masterful — offset by the crude, realistic words of the characters.

By placing readers inside McLean’s head, Conroy brings them into direct contact with the power of the institute, the camaraderie of military brotherhood and the emptiness of betrayal and loss.