Pat Conroy’s Novel Life An author study by Mark Lougee

• The Great Santini• The Lords of Discipline• Sunday Book Review: The Lords of Discipline

The works that I read

• Both of these stories are partly based off of Pat Conroy’s life

• “If you've read much of Conroy at all, you know that almost all of his works - if not every one of them - draw from much of his own life.” (Caskey)

How the characters are like Pat Conroy

Ben Meecham- the main character of The Great Santini

Will McLean- the main character of The Lords of Discipline

They both share his love of basketball They both share his love of the south

“Georgia Born” [like Pat Conroy], “Ben Felt a strong kinship to the blood red earth his father hated, loved the fragrant land he saw mostly in night passages, whose air was filled with country music and virile smells of crops and farm machinery possessing the miles between towns. It was the one place he could hold to, fix upon, identify as belonging to him. He was rooted in Georgia because of the seal on his birth certificate.” (The Great Santini 50)

“You can be moved profoundly by other vistas, by other oceans, by soaring mountain ranges, but you can never be seduced. You can even forsake the low country, renounce it for other climates, but you can never completely escape the sensuous, semitropical pull of Charleston and her marshes.” (The Lords of Discipline 19)

Will’s decision to attend the Citadel

Bens Father and Pat’s father

“I’ve never received anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.”(The Great Santini 63)

“Anyone who knows me well must understand and be sympathetic to my genuine need to be my own greatest hero. It is not a flaw of character; it is a catastrophe.” (The Lords of Discipline 104)

Other ways in which the stories are similar

•Marine corps•Mixed feelings towards tyrannical rule• The Effects of War

Works Cited•Caskey, Bryan. "Permanent Press." : Sunday Book Review: The Lords of Discipline. N.p., 17 July 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.•Conroy, Pat. The Great Santini. London: Black Swan, 1996. Print.•Conroy, Pat. The Lords of Discipline. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. Print.•"Free Republic." Latest Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.•Http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basketball.png. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.•"MudBay Images: Gothic Frame." MudBay Images: Gothic Frame. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.•Www.abovetopsecret.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.•Www.richard-seaman.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.•Www.vickyjrose.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.