Sretenovic 1

Lola Sretenovic

Mrs. Jett

Language Arts 6A

22 January 2022

If You Could Live Forever: An Analysis of Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting is a fantasy novel for children written by Natalie Babbitt. The author

used the elements of plot, setting, and characterization to explore a theme of eternal life and to

write a remarkable and interesting novel.

While walking in her family’s woods, Winnie stumbles upon a magical spring, but she

does not know that the spring grants eternal life. The Tuck family knows, because 87 years ago,

they drank the water and suddenly stopped aging. Winnie considers drinking the water, but the

Tucks take her to their home to explain the secret of the spring and why immortal life is not as

good as it appears to be. Meanwhile, a stranger discovers the power the spring’s water holds and

covets the spring for himself in order to sell the water to many people and become wealthy. He

wants to force Winnie to drink the water to make her stay young forever and help him advertise

the water. To protect Winnie and the secret of the spring, Mae Tuck hits the stranger and he later

dies. Consequently, Mae is sent to jail. Winnie helps the rest of the Tuck family rescue Mae

Tuck. While leaving, Jesse Tuck gives Winnie a bottle of the magical water that she can choose

to drink and join Jesse when she turns 17 years old, Jesse’s age. Winnie remembers when Angus

Tuck told her about how eternal life is a curse that cannot be escaped, so she chooses not to drink

the water.

With a careful choice of setting, the author contributed to the development of the story.

Tuck Everlasting takes place in and around a small village called Treegap in a hilly area in the
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Northeastern United States. The exact location of the village is not told but is left unspecified,

showing that the story could happen anywhere. The book’s action happens in the protagonist

Winnie Foster’s house, the Tuck family’s house, the mysterious Treegap woods, and the Treegap

village. The time period is not known exactly, but the clothing, dirt roads, horse-driven carriages,

style of houses, and way of living hint that the time period is Late Victorian. In the epilogue, the

dates of Winnie’s birth and death are revealed and the reader can conclude that the story begins

in 1880, when Winnie is 10 years old, and ends in 1950.

The novel has many interesting characters whose interactions push the story forward. The

main character is Winnie Foster, a ten-year-old girl unhappy with her strict, unfulfilling life. She

lives with her mother, father, and grandmother who are caring but overprotective. They insist that

Winnie stays out of trouble, but Winnie is tired of being controlled and dreams of an adventure.

She is brave, because she runs away from her home in the middle of the night and saves Mae

Tuck from jail. She cares about people and animals, like when she saved a toad from being eaten

by a dog. The Tuck family consists of Angus Tuck, Mae Tuck, and their two sons, Miles and

Jesse. The Tucks are strange but gentle people and they have been immortal ever since they

drank from a spring, which happened 87 years ago. They stopped aging and have looked the

same since that time. Angus Tuck is wise and kind hearted. He regrets drinking from the spring

of immortality and often dreams of a life where he had never encountered the spring. He is

opposed to the secret of the spring being given away because he does not want people to

massively begin drinking the water of immortality, which would ruin their lives. Mae Tuck

initially felt unhappy about her family’s situation, but has adopted it as reality. She is kind and

compassionate, but is untidy and lives in an unorganized house. She and Angus make crafts, like

quilts, and sell them to earn money. Miles Tuck is 22 years old and very hardworking. He works
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as a blacksmith and carpenter. Just like Angus Tuck, he is unhappy and regrets drinking from the

spring. He was abandoned by his wife and children when they realized that he did not age. Jesse

Tuck is 17 years old and he is the first member of the Tuck family that Winnie encounters. He is

content with his immortality and even offers Winnie a bottle of the spring’s magical water at the

end of the book, in case she decides to drink it and join him. He works wherever he can find a

job, sometimes working in the fields and sometimes working in saloons. The antagonist of the

story is a man in a yellow suit. At the beginning of the book, he feigns being friendly and speaks

with Winnie and her grandmother, telling them that he is searching for a family, who are actually

the Tucks. However, he has ulterior motives. He is hungry for money and wants the spring and

the woods to belong to him, so that he can sell the magical water to people and become wealthy.

He almost forces Winnie to drink the water of immortality, so that she can remain a ten-year-old

girl and help him advertise.

The author uses the plot to tell an exciting story. In the exposition, the author establishes

the setting and introduces the characters. Then, the rising action events follow. Winnie meets

Jesse Tuck drinking water from a spring in her family’s Treegap woods. Jesse stops Winnie from

drinking the water. Then, Mae and Miles Tuck come and take Winnie home. The Tucks explain

their story and experience with the spring. At the same time a stranger in a yellow suit hears the

entire story. He steals the Tucks’ horse and rides to the Foster family saying that he knows where

Winnie is and will bring her back if he is given the Treegap woods. After getting the woods, he

returns to the Tuck family. The man begins to take Winnie against her will, and Mae Tuck hits

him and kills him. This is the climax of the story. The falling action events follow. Mae Tuck is

sent to jail. Jesse Tuck gives Winnie a bottle of the magical water in case she chooses to drink it.

Together, they make a plan to save Mae. Winnie runs from her home at night and switches places
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with Mae in her jail cell. Miles and Jesse help Mae escape. Mae is saved and the Tucks leave

Treegap. The resolution happens 70 years later. The Tucks pass through Treegap again, which

now has many more houses and businesses. The Treegap woods burned up in a wildfire. The

Tucks find Winnie’s grave and find out that she was a wife and mother and lived for 78 years.

Now readers know that Winnie did not choose eternal life but instead chose to live her own life

the way she originally would have.

Tuck Everlasting has several themes. One important theme is that every choice has its

advantages and drawbacks. Winnie had a choice to drink the water of immortality or not, and she

chose not to. She came to this decision after Angus Tuck explained, “‘... Dying’s part of the

wheel, right next to being born. You can’t pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being

part of the whole thing, that’s the blessing. But it’s passing us by, us Tucks … You can’t have

living without dying. So you can’t call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks

beside the road’” (Babbitt 63, 64). Another theme is that instead of dreaming about eternal life,

people should make their lives fulfilling and good. Winnie decided not to live forever, but to

have a fulfilling life.

Tuck Everlasting became a classic among children’s literature, because of its unique

characters, interesting setting, exciting plot, and important themes. Both adults and children

enjoy reading this book.

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Works Cited

Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. Scholastic, 1975, pp. 63, 64.

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