“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