Freedom!

"The bitter thing was all the spirit, all the gallantry, was wasted. For even more than inferiors, they accepted and looked forward to being Capped. It was a part of becoming a knight, or of turning from a girl to 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?" (p. 111)

Right now in 6th grade, we have a lot of freedom. We make many choices, and we have to decide what's best for us. Our parents make these choices too. You can find choices that come with freedom everywhere. As you can see, Chapter 6, is full of freedom. At this point, when the quote was said, he was in the castle and living in luxury, specially treated for by royalty. This is near the point when he started to fall in love with Eloise. Throughout the chapter he struggles on whether he should stay with the Counts family, or go to the White Mountains. This has to do with freedom, because he has to choose between freedom and luxury. Before he met Eloise, he would have known what to do, he would have chosen freedom and put freedom above everything. Love made everything complicated for Will, changed how he thought about freedom. It was still something he wanted but not as treasured. Freedom was and probably still is very important to Will, that's why it was so disappointing that Eloise didn't want freedom either as she was already capped. He thought that she cared about him and they could actually be together. The sad reality is that Eloise, because she was capped couldn't love anyone but the Tripods. Freedom pushed Will on, it's what brought Will so far into the story, his want, need and love for freedom. The capping marked the end of freedom, so Will did everything he could to avoid loss of freedom, imagination, emotions and control over his thoughts. This is why he despised the Tripods so much, they came to end freedom by capping the people there. Jack was only a demonstration of the loss of want for freedom because once he was capped he said that the things he talked about like man-made objects were nonsense. The quote above talked about how running away from home showed spirit and courage, to the people of the Counts Castle. Will was saying that the spirit was wasted, because the people there still looked forward to being Capped and that it was even more revered there than in Wherton. You could see that it upset Will a lot that even in the castle they didn't want freedom. Will basically is telling us that he thinks kindness and courage is overrated even though it shouldn't be because they didn't have a mind of their own to use it wisely and direct it. He was probably hoping that because Eloise showed sympathy, unlike Jack, she wanted freedom as well. If he stayed with Eloise, he would lose so much, like true happiness, emotions, and control over thoughts. This didn't compare to luxury, but he still struggled to choose. When Eloise showed surreal happiness in living with the Tripods and serving the Tripods, he tried to tell her but she told him he would understand once capped (Page 136). After she said that, he realized that he couldn't convince her and all hope was lost, he left dejected and alone. This was helpful because he didn't have to struggle for freedom, but he was still hurt and sad because he loved her and had thought that he could be with her, but it wasn't meant to be. Eloise was destined to serve the Tripods as was customary, she might not have wanted that earlier, but once capped, she didn't object to it, it only gave her more reason to be happy to give devotion to the people who controlled her mind and thoughts. Will couldn't give devotion to the Tripods and he didn't want to either. If he stayed, he would be capped and be forced into a fake commitment to the Tripods. After all, he shouldn't have wasted the long journey to only give it all up for Eloise.You could see that Beanpole and Henry were expecting him to stay because they were so surprised that he came.

Freedom can be found in many places, and come with struggles and choices, the whole book and Chapter 6 rotates around and relies on the idea of FREEDOM!