In the book, Will still had concerns and questions about what it would like to be capped. In page 123, it said: 'When the Cap was put on, the doubts vanished. How great a loss was that? Was it a loss at all? The Tripods, apart from the act of Capping itself, did not seem to interfere much with men.' I think that Will was thinking: 'What's so bad to be Capped when we don't have any doubts after it?' and I think he also thought again about the Tripods: 'Are they really bad?' or 'But they only interfere with Capping!' Another example was in page 122: 'They were Capped, they accepted the Tripods and all they stood for, but that did not prevent them from being, as I had seen in the Comte and the Comtesse and Eloise and now in others, warmhearted, generous and brave. And happy.' This passage explained how Will thought about the Comte, the Comtesse and Eloise and how they were still like normal people: warmhearted, generous, brave and happy. I think that Will wanted to be like them too and I also think that he wondered in he would be able to be like them if he was Capped. The last example, in page 121, said: 'Whatever privileges I was given, I would still be a sheep among sheep. In the morning, though, waking early, I thought of it again. I rejected it again, too, firmly but less quickly, and with a feeling in virtuous to do so.' This passage showed how Will kept on thinking about Capping. I think that Will wanted to be Capped but he could not choose easily because of loyalty to his friends. He kept on trying to push the thoughts about Capping out of his mind, but I suppose it was hard for Will to do so. These concerns relate to a lack of freedom because if Will chose to be capped, his mind would not be free. In page 125, it had said that 'I had thought at first that the Comtesse and the others might have been 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.' These concerns relate to a lack of freedom because when Will said that the Comtesse and others showed no interest in his watch and time meant nothing to them, it clearly showed that they weren't free, but only controlled.
Will finally decided to leave behind the castle after he found out that Eloise is going to leave. He was shocked that Eloise was leaving, and had decided better for himself. In page 137, it said: I went back to my room, and undressed, tried to sleep. There were too many kinds of horror. Horror at what had happened to Eloise. Horror of the creatures who could do this sort of thing to others. Horror, above all, at how closely I had come to falling-no, to throwing myself-into something beside which suicide was clean and good. What had happened was not Eloise's fault. She had accepted the capping as countless others had done, not understanding and knowing no alternative. But I had understood, and had known better. I thought of the blankness in Beanpole's face, the contempt in Henry's, the last time I had seen them, and was ashamed.'This showed that Will thought Eloise, the Comte and the Comtesse were the same as all the other Capped people, and how he was horrified of what he could have done-being Capped. He decided then that freedom was the most important thing, and he went on with his journey and found Beanpole and Henry. Together, the three boys reached the White Mountains, in despite of what might have ended the three boys journey which was: anything.
