The White Mountains Week 2

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- How will Beanpole help Will and Henry on their journey to the White Mountains?

- First of all, I should probably introduce Beanpole. Beanpole's real name is Zhanpole, although I prefer to call him Beanpole. When Beanpole introduced himself to Will and Henry, Henry had called him Beanpole. Since I like the name Beanpole better, I'll use this name instead. Beanpole is different from Will and Henry. He is a local in this place where Will and Henry is new, and he can speak both English and the local language. He's tall, but the more interesting thing is that he wears glasses, something Will and Henry had never encountered before. Actually I thought of this just now, but maybe it is that in this place there are still some man made objects that are left. One thing that all three boys have in common is that there ages are similar, and that they all haven't been capped yet. This is why Beanpole was curious about Will and Henry and wanted to follow them. Personally, I don't really like Beanpole and I don't trust him. It's mostly because we don't have much information about him, and he could turn up to be a traitor. I was pretty much the only one who thought of this. After listening to my idea Kat and Momo were a little bit unsure, and Peggy stuck to her idea. However, there are still benefits of Beanpole's addition to the group.

The most important thing is that he's a local. I mentioned this before, because it is really important. He can speak both the local language, and English. Something actually surprised me, and that was that Beanpole approached Henry and Will speaking English. Of course, he was there when Henry and Will were being questioned in a different language, but that doesn't necessarily mean they come from England. So this led me to think that Beanpole knows a bit more and has quite some knowledge (actually I thought of this just now). If Henry and Will travels with Beanpole, Beanpole will be able to talk to the local people in their language and they will be able to blend in. They probably won't be so noticeable. Also he knows the land well, and he can lead the group to the White Mountains. Although Captain Curtis had given the two boys some directions when they got off the boat, it wasn't enough for them to get to the Mountains itself. Beanpole can act like a guide. When Beanpole helped Henry and Will get out of the house, he wanted to know why the boys were trying to further in land. This shows that he's curious, and Henry and Will told Beanpole about the possibility of gaining freedom. Beanpole seemed interested enough, and he decided to go on with them. This puts them into the same situation, looking for freedom. At least this way they will be able to understand each other more.

I'm not going to talk too much about how things can go bad with Beanpole joining the journey, but there are some negative sides to it. Even if Beanpole can talk to the people and attempt the whole group to 'blend in', still people will get suspicious of three uncapped boys travelling with packs. In addition it would look even weirder if they noticed that only one of the boys spoke their language and the other two spoke a different one, although they wouldn't observe that closely. Also, this was my original idea from the start, Beanpole can betray them later whenever he wants to. He knows the land, he speaks the language, and now that he gained some information about the White Mountains he'll have no trouble going by himself. What's the need of Henry and Will? However, despite the fact that I don't find Beanpole reliable I don't really think he's a spy. Well, we'll just have to wait and see!