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 on 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 drives cadets deemed unworthy of graduating from the institute to drop out by any means necessary, Will learns that graduation and lives are on the line.
Contents
Background
Although Conroy drew on his experiences as a cadet at The Citadel, and also references traditions and locations of both Norwich University and Virginia Military Institute (VMI), he has said that the story is fiction and not based on his life or that of any other graduate of a military academy. Citadel alumni were critical of the novel, considering it a thinly veiled and unflattering account of the school, and Conroy was ostracized by his alma mater and effectively banned from campus for over 20 years after its publication. In 2000, The Citadel invited Conroy back to campus to receive an honorary doctorate, and again the next year as commencement speaker.
Plot
An aged 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 was not interested in a military career. He only attended the school on account of his father, also an alumnus. Will is fulfilling a deathbed promise he made to his father that he would graduate from CMI and wear the honored CMI ring. Will is a sarcastic young man who seldom agrees with the rigidity of CMI, but is generally well-liked and his professors and peers recognize him for his integrity and fairness. Will struggles to fit into 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 anti-war, 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. For example, when Will plays a game against the Virginia Military Institute, which is considered their biggest rival game, he notes that VMI was the only team all season that did not harass him and his teammates.
Retired US Army Colonel Thomas "The Bear" Berrineau, the Commandant of Cadets, asks Will to look out for the institute's first black cadet, Tom Pearce. The Bear knows that Will is the only cadet unopposed to racial integration. 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. Will knows their relationship has no future either, because Will is Irish-American, Catholic, and not wealthy. Will attempts to aid a struggling freshman, Poteete, who has been targeted by numerous upperclassmen. Shamed by his inability to cope with the harshness of the institute's freshman system, Poteete hangs himself, leaving behind his ominous claim of a "house where they take freshmen" to be tormented outside the oversight of the Commandant's office.
In an extended flashback, Will describes his own plebe year three years earlier. He learned that the only way to survive is to bond closely with the other members of his class against the cadre. Having entered the college on a basketball scholarship, Will is also protected by other members of the basketball team who don't want to see Will physically harmed and, at one point, rescue him from a particularly brutal hazing incident. Many of Will's classmates are not so lucky, and they resign from the school due to the unrelenting hazing.
Characters
Will McLean – The protagonist and narrator, who is heavily based on Pat Conroy in his college years. Will is independent, irreverent and sarcastic, and, unlike the rest of his classmates, does not wish to join the military after graduation. He is, however, generally well-liked on campus for being fair, kind, and with a firm sense of integrity. Unlike most of his classmates, Will never advances beyond the rank of cadet private. The story is told retrospectively some time after his graduation.
Tradd St. Croix – Will's roommate and friend, from a very rich and respected old Charlestonian family. Will was close to him and his parents, Abigail and Commerce St. Croix, but their friendship ends after Will discovers he was a member of The Ten.
Dante "Pig" Pignetti – Will's roommate and friend, and a brawny Italian-American from New York. 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, driving him to suicide.
Mark Santoro – Will's roommate and friend, another Italian-American from Philadelphia who is loyal to Will to the end. He dies fighting in Vietnam some time after graduation, the most decorated Carolina Military Institute graduate of the Vietnam War.
Tom Pearce – The first black student to attend the institute, whom Will is assigned to watch over and ensure he fairly makes it through his plebe year. Pearce does survive his first year at the institute, but is intimidated into silence by The Ten and ultimately cuts ties with Will.
Annie Kate Gervais – A young pregnant woman from an upper-class Charlestonian family that has fallen on hard times whom Will befriends and later falls in love with. Annie Kate struggles with loneliness due to the fact that she must hide her pregnancy after her baby's father refuses 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 not to contact her, but not before confirming to Will that Tradd was the child's father.
Reception
The novel received generally positive reviews.
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 kills himself by hanging, having earlier survived attempting suicide by jumping off a roof (having been thwarted by Mark and Will). In the film, he is an outcast but not suicidal. He is seen saying he will be accepted if he performs the dangerous stunt of jumping from one rooftop to another. In his attempt to do so, Poteete misses and falls.
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, and as part of Will's deal with Durrell, Pignetti is to be reinstated at the Institute and allowed to complete his degree.
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. In both the book and 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. Tradd in the film expresses some remorse over The Ten's misdeeds. The film makes a brief aside to Tradd's lack of manliness, with Commerce commending how Will looks good in uniform whereas Tradd does not seem soldierly "even if he was wearing a suit of armor".
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.