A main theme in “Boot camp” is indoctrination, and how an entity such as Lake Harmony can slowly distort someone’s perspective on what is considered moral or unmoral. Through out the early/mid sections of the novel, Garret the main character is a smart ,self righteous young-man, who’s decisions are justified to himself.

   For example, he pursued a relationship with his teacher Sabrina not because he wanted bragging rights, or to be cool. Garret was attracted to his teacher because they had a lot in common, when it comes to education, views, ideas, and personality. However Garrets parents, decided that enough was enough, and Garret had to be disciplined efficiently, so they got “transporters” to ship him off to Lake Harmony.

 This is when the struggle of Garret vs. himself comes into play, Garret resists the indoctrination of Lake Harmony at first, but his grasp on what is right and wrong, starts to get twisted, through constant verbal/physical/psychological abuse, and the Lake Harmony signature agenda of tearing down an occupants ego, then rebuilding with the principles of the desired traits the parents want, an obedient young child that wont argue.

  Close to the end of the novel, Garrets will completely gets shattered, his escape plan fails. Garrets gets shipped back to camp, this is when Garret realized he had to play by camp rules to get out. Garret started embracing what he needed to become to get out, a ruthless thug. Garret starts reporting the newer kids for talking at lunch, and disobeying rules he once considered unmoral

Tranquility Bay, was most likely the inspiration for “Lake Harmony” from Todd Stressors’ Novel Boot Camp.

Tranquility Bay is an American owned behavior medication camped located on the island of Jamaica. For $38, 000 a year parents can have their children and their attitudes sent away to be modified to their liking.

David Van Blarigan was 16 years old when he called his brother Timmy a” butt”. His Parents dragged him to the bathroom and literally washed his mouth out with soap for the verbal profanity of saying “butt”.

Hiram Van Blarigan (grandfather),knew the boy was just growing up and testing his parents to see how much he could get away with. However David crossed the line and his parents premeditated

to ship him off to be disciplined  by strangers, instead of his parents

On November 10^th at 12:30 AM David was awoken by his father with two burley strangers telling him get up now or else he would be hand-cuffed to the car outside parked in front of their house. The “Transporters” As Strasser call’s them took David away that night, to ship him off to Tranquility Bay a behavior modification camp located in Jamaica, where US law has no jurisdiction.

Like “Lake Harmony” in “Boot Camp” the camp is over-crowded, teachers and nurses are not certified, intimidation & fear is used to tear down a kids ego and then rebuild it to the desired liking of the behavior modification camps system. If kids try to resist the system of the camps indoctrination they simply break the child’s will until the child realizes the only way they have a chance of getting out is playing by camp rules.

Lile and her husband, Kendall Ross Bean, 44, with whom she runs a piano advice hotline, arrived at Tranquility Bay to collect their daughter after attending a parental seminar that concerned both of them.

“ several girls asked them for hugs. She recalls one saying, "It has been so long since I have had a mother's hug."

Todd Strassers’ Character “Garret” had a relationship with his teacher,was one of the 70% percent of teenagers that have tried marijuana and spoke back to his parents a handful of times. Unfortunately in reality parents are sending their children out of the country to “Behavior Modification Camps” for petty acts of child like mistake we’ve all made.

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20125924,00.html - Text To Text connection

“I’m getting close to level five myself. Joe says I’m progressing really fast. He says sometimes the kids who’ve resisted the most change the fastest once they’ve learned their lessons. I understand what he means. At sixteen we think we know everything, but the truth is we’re too young and immature to really know anything. Like yesterday I had to report a level one for whispering at lunch, but he should have known better. If he ever wants to be more than a minimum wagers, he’s going to have to shape up”

The quote above illustrates how Lake Harmony has literally beaten their indoctrination into Garret. When Garret first arrived their he was defiant and resisted Lake Harmony’s indoctrination, because he knew their system was unstable.

Garret tried to escape with two others across the US/Canadian border. However, “the transporters” who were pursing them sunk their “skiff”(small aluminum boat).Garret faced a dilemma, make it to Canada and have complete freedom, out of Lake Harmony’s jurisdiction & live with the fact that two people died, or Go back save his pursers & live with a clean conscience  ,and get sent back to Lake Harmony.

  Garret Chose option two. He couldn’t bear the fact that two people would’ve died because of him. Garret gets sent back to Lake Harmony to go through it all over again, this time his will was broken.

Garret becomes a chaperone to the newer Lake Harmony youths. He stays out of trouble, and has become quite obedient. The changes from defiance to obedience just goes to show how easily someone’s personality “can be torn down, and rebuilt”. Strasser illustrates this effectively.

Write about how a character changes and whats purpose it serves.

Write about a problem a character faces:

Garret gets thrown into TI whenever his obedience isn’t satisfactory with the chaperones or higher ranking personal with the Lake Harmony staff, Or whenever Garret won’t consent to doing something for the lake harmony staff. Like Writing a letter to his parents to let them know how he was doing. TI (temporary isolation) is the equivalent of a prisons solitary confinement, no bed, no blanket, no toilet, just a concrete floor with thoughts floating around in your head for twenty three hours a day.

   Garret gets sent to TI for the wrong reasons, the chaperones use it as a tool of abuse whenever they don’t see eye to eye on a subject. Garret Once got sent to TI after a chaperone provoked him into attacking him, Garret didn’t fall for it because he knew what the chaperones intentions were. However Garret got sent to TI anyway to reflect on his past mistakes and he should right his wrongs.

  Garrets time spent in TI is mostly spent reminiscing of his past, about how his parents could have ever sent him to boot camp, about Sabrina his teacher he started dating and seeing daily. How he got caught with marijuana once shattered his parent high expectations of him.

 Garrets visits to TI start off with him having a strong will. Unfortunately Garrets will doesn’t get shattered in one visit instead in increments. After a while the TI makes Garret more obedient and less of a problem to the chaperones and Higher ranked personal of the Lake Harmony staff.

 Setting:

The setting of “boot camp” takes place in an isolated behavior modification camp called Lake Harmony somewhere in the woods, near upstate New York, not far from the Canadian/US border.

Parents that have sent their “troubled youth” to Lake Harmony in Fear of they have been going down the wrong road in life making negative choices. So For $4000/a month they have their children abducted from their homes in the middle of the night by two random strangers, thrown into a truck, handcuffed, and transported to Lake Harmony. During the youth’s stay at Lake Harmony they are subject to Verbal, Physical and psychological abuse. So Staff can destroy, then rebuild the troubled youth’s ego into the clients desired product.

“Keeping my arm behind my Back, the troll (older chaperone) walks me down the hall.

…..”you still don’t get it Garrett (main character) you think you’re so smart, but you’re too stupid to see how it works here. You have no rights. Your opinions’ don’t count you’re just a punk kid with a crap attitude, and you don’t know squat. when are you going to figure out that, what you think doesn’t matter? The only things that matter is what I & your parents think. That’s why you’re here Garret. Because you didn’t listen to your parents. And that’s what you’re going to think about in TI (temporary isolation).”

  Temporary isolation is Lake Harmony’s equivalent to solitary confinement in prison.

The Plot and most of the conflict revolves around Lake Harmony, It’s an every day struggle for Garret. Some of the youth have been at Lake Harmony for over two years, some have gotten out in as little as 6 months if they fully submit to Lake Harmony’s authority and indoctrination.

Task 2

Author - Todd Strasser
Publisher & Copyright Date - Simon Pulse, 2007.
Number of pages - 234
Synopsis-after ingoring several warnings from his parents to stop dating his teacher,Garret is sent  to lake Harmony,a boot camp that uses unorthodox and brutal methods to train students to obey their parents.
Book review - www.goodreads.com/book/show/518593.boot_camp