The White Mountains - The THEME

Hi all you daily bloggers, this time I'm back to talk about a book that we have been reading called 'The White Mountains'.

DESCRIBE how Will is feeling about life in the castle-Give three examples of things he likes about it there.

• "To live wretchedly, like a hunted animal, suffering hardship and despair or this life, with its fullness and security and happiness." Page 125.

~He likes the luxury, the food and all the nice clothes that were given to him.
~He enjoyed his time with Eloise, The Comtesse and the others.

~He got a lot of attention as the Comtesse and Comten treated Will like Will was their son because their sons were far away from them.

~He also liked the fact that he was offered to be a knight.

Will still has questions in his mind of what it would be like to be capped... Describe some of the concerns about being capped and how these concerns relate to the lack of
freedom.

• "Was I to abandon my hope of freedom, surrender the mastery of my mind, for the sake of wearing jeweled leather and having other men touch their caps to me?" Page 121.
  

• "Before capping there might be doubts and uncertainties and revulsion; perhaps these people had known them too. When the cap was put on the doubts vanished. How great a loss was that? Was it a loss at all?" Page 123.

• 'I had thought at first that the Comtesse and the others might be curious about I and want to know how a boy had come by such a possession' but they had shown no interest at all in it. They kept no relics of the skill of the ancients, and time meant nothing to them." Page 125.
  

I think the concerns about being capped are the fear of abandoning your own freedom and surrendering your thinking to the Tripods. When you are capped all of your thoughts automatically turns off. It's like all this while you have a brain switch in your mind and suddenly when you are capped the Tripods have this power to control you and that means they have the power to turn off and on that switch whenever they want. What I mean by 'the fear of abandoning your own freedom is like Henry, Will and Beanpole they had a choice. To leave home to the White Mountains the place where Tripods didn't rule or stay seated and to wait for the next capping day where they surrender their freedom and their thinking. for the second quote, I really think there were at least 5% of people who lived in that area (where Will lives) had doubts and uncertainties about the term 'Capping'. I also think that it was a very big loss to people as you need your brain to think. For the third quote I think because the Comtesse and the others didn't really care or wonder about how Will had come by such a possession. This proved to me that Capping is a great deal. Even when Will had found such a possession the Comtesse and others didn't care. They didn't ask questions or put any thought into it. Also, if Will was Capped he'd loose all interest in what he has been exposed too.

Will finally decides to leave the castle as Eloise has been appointed the position as the Queen of Tournaments. I thought it was very thoughtful of Eloise to take a chance of getting punished to say one last goodbye to Will. When she says goodbye Will is heartbroken because she clearly showed him that she didn't really care about Eloise. His emotions were for her and it was clear to Will that Eloise's emotions didn't return the favor. At this point, Will feels ashamed because he realizes that Eloise doesn't care for him. this is one of the reasons why Will decided to leave the castle because before all that was making him stay at the castle was Eloise and now that Eloise has gone to be the servant of the Tripods there's nothing making Will stay at the castle. So now, Will decides that he will start his journey to catch up with Henry and Beanpole. When he was reunited with them, he didn't want to mention Eloise to them because he felt ashamed and mentioning Eloise to the others brought back the sad memories. He still misses her though but the thought of Eloise at the service of the Tripods didn't make Will happy. Will accepted the fact that Eloise accepted Capping as the countless others had done, not understanding and knowing no alternative.