The Lords of Discipline
The Lords of Discipline is a 1980 novel by Pat Conroy that was later adapted in a 1983 film of the same name.
The story centers around Will McLean, who is in his fourth year at the fictional Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, South Carolina. Will’s experiences are heavily based on Pat Conroy’s own experiences at The Citadel, a real military college in Charleston. The story is narrated in first person by Will, who attends the Institute between 1963 and 1967. Will recounts his years at the Institute, especially focusing on the school's brutal culture of hazing and abuse. After discovering a secret society that convinces freshmen deemed unworthy of graduating from the Institute to drop out by any means necessary, Will and his friends' graduations and lives are threatened.
Background
Although Conroy drew on his experiences as a cadet at The Citadel, he has said that the story is not based on his life or that of any other graduate of a military academy and is fictionalized. Conroy's novel received criticism from some Citadel alumni who considered its thinly veiled account an unflattering picture of the school and Conroy was ostracized by his alma mater and effectively banned from campus for over 20 years after publishing the novel. In 2001, Conroy was invited back to campus where he gave the commencement address and was given an Honorary Doctorate.Plot
Will McLean, returning to the Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, South Carolina an unknown number of years after his graduation, tells the story of his life at the Institute. In 1966, Will was an English major on a basketball scholarship, in his fourth and final year at the Institute. Will is not interested in a military career, and had only attended on account of his father, also an alumnus, whom he made a deathbed promise years ago to attend and eventually wear the ring. He is generally well liked and his professors and peers recognize him for his integrity and fairness, although he is also sarcastic and independent. Will struggles to fit in the strict military environment, but finds solace in his three roommates, who have become his closest friends: Tradd St. Croix, the son of an upper class Charlestonian family and two brawny Italian-American boys from the North, Dante "Pig" Pignetti and Mark Santoro. They all look forward to graduation, although Will's friends will head off to fight in the Vietnam War, which Will is personally against. However, Will does have some pride in the Institute, representing it in basketball. Though antiwar, he also despises the discrimination the Institute faces from civilian students of other colleges due to its military association, which he sees at away games. In a sidebar, when Will plays a game against the Virginia Military Institute, it is considered the biggest rival game, but also notes VMI was the only team all season that did not harass him and his teammates.Colonel Berrineau, the Commandant of Cadets who is commonly known as The Bear, asks Will to look out for the Institute's first black cadet, Tom Pearce, knowing that Will is the only liberal in the student body. Will also begins a secret relationship with Annie Kate Gervais, a girl from an upper class Charlestonian family who has become pregnant from a boy who refused to marry her, though their relationship is doomed because Will is Irish-American and Catholic. Will attempts to help a freshman, Poteete, who is struggling with the plebe system, the brutal hazing and abuse experienced by freshmen at the Institute, but he kills himself.
In an extended flashback, Will then describes his own plebe year three years earlier. Will learns that the only way to survive is to bond closely with the other members of his class against the cadre. Many of Will's classmates quit due to the brutal hazing. However, a recruit named Bobby Bentley, who has a problem with urinating on himself due to the stress of hazing, refuses to quit. Conventional hazing methods fail to break Bentley, causing Will's class to come together, making Will's cadre the subject of ridicule of the entire cadet corps. Near the end of the year, Will's freshman class is recognized as cadets, and the hazing ends. Some time before this, Bobby Bentley is taken off campus and withdraws from the Institute the following day for unknown reasons.
Back in Will's senior year, he hears rumors of The Ten, a mysterious Institute secret society that ensures certain cadets, deemed unacceptable to "wear the ring", are run out by any means necessary. Will discovers that the Ten are real and are trying to run Pearce out to keep the Institute all white. Meanwhile, Will and the other seniors are given their Institute rings in preparation for graduation, and Will wins the final basketball game of his career.
Annie Kate's baby is stillborn and she rejects Will, wanting to forget all about the time she spent pregnant. Will looks further into the Ten and reunites with Bobby Bentley, who reveals that, during their plebe year, he was spirited away to a house, and was threatened and tortured to the point that he agreed to quit. Bentley says his ultimate decision to quit was not due to the torture, but the realization he no longer wished to be associated with any organization that would have a group like The Ten. Bentley recalls one member of The Ten, whom they piece together as a high-ranking cadet from their plebe year. Will, Mark, Tradd, and Pig, discovering this Ten member is now a student at a nearby law school, abduct him, then interrogate him on a secluded railroad track until he reveals the location of the house, which is located on the property of the president of the Institute, General Bentley Durrell. When Pearce is kidnapped by the Ten, Will goes to the house but is discovered. He is rescued by Mark and Pig, but their identities are now known by the Ten.
Pearce is intimidated into silence, and the Ten attempt to have Mark, Pig and Will thrown out of the school. Pig is caught on an honor code violation due to the Ten and loses the honor court case, despite the help of his roommates. After he is drummed out of school, he throws himself in front of a train, killing himself. The Ten then attempt to get Will and Mark kicked out of school for excess demerits. Just as they are about to be thrown out, Will discovers that Tradd's father was a member of the Ten. He and Mark read his journals and discover the names of all current and former members. They also discover that Tradd is a member of the Ten and had been feeding the Ten information the whole time, and that Tradd is the father of Annie Kate's baby. Will confronts Tradd and ends their friendship. Will then blackmails the General with the information on the Ten into letting him and Mark graduate. Durrell refuses, claiming their substandard performance and the fact that the graduate they kidnapped want to press charges against them is justification for dismissal, until The Bear enters the General's office, saying that he has contacted multiple cadets who were run out of the Institute and are now considering lawsuits. General Durrell relents when there is also the threat of exposing this to newspapers, as evidenced by Mark seen outdoors mailing letters. However, the Board of Governors gets Colonel Berrineau removed from his position as commandant. Will and Mark are allowed to graduate, and shortly before this he gets a letter from Annie Kate thanking him for standing by her and that he will make a good husband to whatever woman he finds. As Will graduates, he reflects that eight of his fellow cadets would eventually be killed in action in the Vietnam War, among them Mark. Will also reveals that The Ten member and class "golden boy" John Alexander would fade into obscurity, last seen working as a ROTC instructor at a small university, while Mark Santoro topped the entire class in awards for valor. As Will receives his diploma from the Institute, he is coldly told by General Durrell not to disgrace the ring, to which Will simply replies with "Dante Pignetti". The Bear appears at the graduation to congratulate Will. Disgusted at seeing General Durrell's signature on his diploma, Will asks Colonel Berrineau to sign it as Will wants the name of a man he can respect on the diploma. The Bear does not sign, remarking, "there already is, Bubba", pointing to Will's name.
Characters
- Will McLean – The protagonist and narrator, who is heavily based on Pat Conroy himself in his college years. Will is independent and sarcastic, and, unlike the rest of his classmates, does not wish to join the military after graduation. However, he is generally well liked on campus due to his fairness and kindness. He narrates the story some time after his graduation.
- Tradd St. Croix – Will's roommate and friend, from a very rich and respected old Charlestonian family. Will becomes close to him and his parents, Abigail and Commerce St. Croix. Their friendship ends after Will discovers he was a secret member of the Ten.
- Dante "Pig" Pignetti – Will's roommate and friend, and a brawny Italian-American from the North. He comes from a poor family, is prone to violence and is extremely protective of his friends and his fiancée Theresa. He is run out of the Institute by the Ten after they catch him on an honor code violation, causing him to commit suicide.
- Mark Santoro – Will's roommate and friend, a brawny Italian-American from the North who is loyal to Will to the end. He is killed fighting in Vietnam some time after graduation after becoming a decorated soldier.
- Tom Pearce – The first black student to attend the Institute, who Will is assigned to watch over to make sure he makes it through his plebe year.
- Annie Kate Gervais – A young pregnant woman from an upper class Charlestonian family that has fallen on hard times who Will befriends and later falls in love with. Annie Kate struggles with loneliness due to the fact that she must hide herself to hide her pregnancy after her baby's father refused to marry her. Annie Kate ends her relationship with Will after her baby is stillborn. She moves to California to attend college and asks Will to not to contact her, but not before confirming to Will that Tradd was the child's father.
- General Bentley Durrell – A famous Second World War general and president of the Institute, who turns out to have been a former member of the Ten who is still protecting the organization.
- Bobby Bentley – A fellow student who, in Will's freshman year, is targeted by upperclassmen due to his wetting himself. His perseverance over the brutal hazing he experiences inspires Will's class to come together, but he is ultimately driven out by the Ten.
- Colonel "The Bear" Berrineau – The Commandant of the cadets, who is in charge of maintaining discipline and helping students at the Institute. The character was based on Lieutenant Colonel Thomas "The Boo" Courvoisie, an iconic former Assistant Commandant at The Citadel who was the subject of Conroy's first book.
- John "Bucky" Poteete – A freshman who Will tries to help when he struggles under the brutal hazing in the Institute. His suicide after being kidnapped and tortured by the Ten drives Will into a depression.
Reception
Film adaptation
The novel was adapted for the screenplay of a 1983 film of the same name, starring David Keith as Will McLean and Robert Prosky as Colonel "The Bear" Berrineau. The film version took place entirely in McLean's senior year, when he was asked to protect Pearce. Several plot points were changed for the film:- In the novel, Poteete hangs himself after being rescued from the roof by McLean and Santoro before he could jump into his death. In the film, he is bamboozled by other cadets into being declared fit to wear the ring if he attempts a dangerous stunt, jumping from one rooftop to another. When he attempts to do so, Poteete misses and falls.
- In the novel, McLean was assigned the duty of protecting Pearce because of McLean's perceived liberalism. In the film, McLean was assigned the duty to repay The Bear for protecting him during his own plebe year.
- After his "walk of shame", Pignetti commits suicide by walking into the path of a speeding train. In the film, he simply gets into a taxicab called for him and is never seen again. The film states that as part of deal with Durrell, Pignetti was to be reinstated at the Institute's next year to earn his incomplete credits.
- Tradd's motivation for joining The Ten is not as well explained in the film, and the novel's entire "Honey Prince" subplot of Tradd's effeminate nature is never depicted, apart from a brief aside by Tradd's father Commerce in the opening. In the film, Tradd admits it was his father also being a member, ensuring him legacy status, and was enthralled with membership in The Ten being the Institute's highest honor, but expresses some remorse over The Ten's activities.
- The entire plotline concerning McLean and Annie Kate Gervais, the mother of his roommate Tradd St Croix's illegitimate—and ultimately stillborn—child, is not in the film.
- In the film, Pearce apologizes for turning his back on McLean, explaining that he did it because of survival, and if he did not make it, "the next nigger has my record around his neck like a rock". In the novel, McLean has no further contact with Pearce after that.