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