White Mountains Blog 4

"The bitter thing was all the spirit, all the gallantry, was wasted. For even more than inferiors, they excepted and looked forward to being Capped. It was a part of becoming a knight, or of turning from a girl to a lady. Thinking of this, I saw how good things could be meaningless in isolation. What value did courage have without a free and challenging mind to direct it?"

In this quote Will is thinking of how the people who live in the castle do not have free minds and how meaningless the spirit and gallantry was. Will is also thinking about how, if he were to be Capped, he would be happy and 'free' in one sense because he would not know that he was brainwashed. But he says it does not mean anything "in isolation" I think he means that if you are good or do something good then it does not matter unless you make a free choice to do a good thing. For example if I give money to charity but am being told to by the teachers and not my on will I will not have my own free and challenging mind to guide my actions.

I think this relates to the theme freedom that is explored in the rest of the chapter because Will gets to know the Comte and Comtesse and Eloise but finds out that they are really nice. Until he realizes that they were actually slaves to the Tripods. The turning point in the chapter was when Will pulled of Eloise's turban and he sees her Cap and realizes that he must, "forget about it and concentrate on the important thing, which was getting to the White Mountains." (page 117) But then Comtesse asks him to stay and become a knight and Will is tempted. "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) At the end of the chapter Will is not sure about it but he stays and says goodbye to Henry and Beanpole, because he does not know whether to be loyal to the people that he knows and are kind to him in the Red Castle who were brainwashed or to the people on the White Mountains who do not even know who he is. This shows that he is exercising his free and challenging mind in his own way.