Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt - My HRW

Teaching Guide

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

LEXILE 770

The Novel at a Glance SUMMARY Winnie Foster, a ten-year-old girl who lives in the village of Treegap, is wandering in the woods owned by her family when she encounters a beautiful young man— Jesse Tuck—drinking from a mysterious spring. Through the Tuck family, Winnie learns that the spring is a fountain of youth that the Tucks drank from accidentally many years before. The Tucks whisk Winnie away to their house so they can explain to her why she shouldn’t tell others about the secret spring. Alternately scared and curious, Winnie comes to love the Tucks and their way of life. However, a man who overhears their conversation about the spring has evil plans regarding the water that gives eternal youth. Winnie comes up with a clever plan of her own to stop the man. Along the way, she learns the value of growth and change in life. MORE ABOUT THE WRITER Natalie Babbitt has said that her career as a writer came about partly because of “seeds” planted by her parents years ago. Babbitt grew up during the Great Depression, at a time when many families had very little money for entertainment or for anything else. To keep Natalie and her sister entertained, their mother read children’s books aloud to them for hours at a time. The myths and fairy tales Babbitt heard from her mother made a lifelong impression on her imagination and gave her a love of stories and reading that has lasted through her adult life. At the same time, Babbitt credits her father for giving her “an ear for words” through his love of language and his creative—and often hilarious—use of it. Babbitt still loves reading fairy tales as much as she enjoys writing them and says that she is her own best audience. Babbitt’s family also provided her with examples to learn from as she began her career as a writer. Her sister decided to become a writer long before Babbitt herself did, and their parents assumed that Natalie would pursue her early love of illustration. The two sisters combined their talents and produced a graphic novel, but after an editor asked them to rewrite it substantially, they gave up on the project. After Babbitt married, her husband began a novel that she planned to illustrate. However, his work as a college administrator left him with little time for writing, and he eventually abandoned his literary ambitions. These experiences helped prepare Babbitt for the demands of a literary career and taught her three important lessons about writing. “You have to give writing your full attention, you have to like the revision process, and you have to like to be alone.”

Original content Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.

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Novel Teaching Guide

Tuck Everlasting continued BACKGROUND Setting

Tuck Everlasting takes place in an isolated village sometime in the past. Though the exact year isn’t revealed until the end of the novel, one can guess, based on details in the story, that it takes place before cars or other modern conveniences became available. By not focusing on the exact time or place, the writer allows the reader to concentrate on the timeless internal conflicts that Winnie must resolve. MAJOR CHARACTERS Winnie Foster is a ten-year-old girl who dreams of adventure but is afraid to leave her family’s yard, even if permitted. Through circumstances that are out of her control, she meets the Tuck family, who tell her a story that could change her life forever. Angus Tuck, the oldest of the Tuck family, is the dearest Tuck of all to Winnie. He warns Winnie of the dire consequences of drinking from the magic spring. Mae Tuck, the wife of Angus, often forgets that she has been alive for more than eighty years. She takes one day at a time and tries to protect her family. Miles Tuck, the elder Tuck brother, is serious and thoughtful. He believes that the gift of time should be used wisely. Jesse Tuck, the youngest of the family, sees life as an eternal adventure and is trapped in time as a youth. The man in yellow has spent many years of his life in the pursuit of wealth and immortality. Wily and desperate, he is willing to sacrifice others to satisfy his own desires. MAJOR THEMES Keeping the Natural Order

Angus Tuck states the major theme of the book when he explains to Winnie that although immortality might seem appealing at first, a natural, mortal life, with all the growth and change it brings with it, is far more rewarding than an endless, unchanging existence. The reader eventually learns that Winnie acts on Angus’s advice and embraces a life of growth and human connections, but even before the end of the book, the writer makes it clear that a natural life is best. For example, after Winnie helps Mae Tuck escape from jail, she returns home to Treegap and finds that her adventure has given her a better understanding of her family, as well as making her more interesting to her peers. Because she chooses to return to her everyday life instead of entering the rootless world of the Tucks, Winnie is able to apply what she has learned to her everyday life and has an opportunity to explore new and growing human relationships.


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Tuck Everlasting continued Making Tough Choices

Winnie is presented with one difficult decision after another in Tuck Everlasting, and each choice she makes forces her to leave something behind. For example, after Mae is put in jail, Winnie volunteers to help with her escape. Winnie has to decide whether to betray her parents’ trust or to risk revealing the Tucks’ secret by letting Mae go to the gallows. When Winnie chooses to help her friends, she realizes that she is at last making a difference in the world. After the escape, however, she finds that she must bear the stigma of an accomplice as a consequence of her actions. The novel’s central conflicts underscore the fact that the greatest changes in our lives are frequently brought about by our most difficult choices. Self-Discovery

At the beginning of Tuck Everlasting, Winnie does not seem to have a very thorough understanding of herself—all she knows is that she can’t wait to get away from her family. She imagines that only by gaining freedom from all the bonds that constrain her will she be able truly to be herself. By the end of the novel, however, when Winnie’s death is revealed, the reader sees how deeply she has come to understand herself. Although she lives her entire life within reach of the magic spring, she never drinks from it, even when she is old and near death. The reader can assume that Winnie chooses, despite the freedom offered by eternal life, to remain loyal to the constraints of mortality. The reader never sees Winnie as an adult but can hope that she comes to know exactly what is important to her, and knows that she does not need immortality to achieve it. KEY LITERARY ELEMENT Point of View

The events of Tuck Everlasting are told from the omniscient point of view, in which the reader is allowed to know more than the characters themselves know. Even though Winnie has to wonder at first whether the Tucks are telling the truth, the reader already has seen evidence from their thoughts and conversations that reveal the truth of their story.


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Tuck Everlasting continued VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT Explain to students that many English words come from Old English and other languages, such as Latin and French. When students look up words in a dictionary, they can find their origins in brackets after the entry words themselves. Many words have multiple origins. Explain also that some words are made up of parts, one of which is called a prefix, or a part added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. Prefixes are also defined in dictionaries. Prologue–Chapter 7

Chapter 19–Epilogue

frantic, p. 14 jaunty, p. 17

exultant, p. 125 unwittingly, p. 128 revulsion, p. 132

Chapters 8–18

vanity, p. 46 indomitable, p. 50 ancient, p. 51

Introducing the Novel BUILDING ON PRIOR KNOWLEDGE How Long Is Forever?

Tuck Everlasting is about making choices that will have long-lasting consequences. Make a list of things that you think will last forever, and discuss whether or not each of these has a beginning or an ending. Compare responses, and write them on the board. Divide items into categories such as things, ideas, and institutions. Then, discuss why some things are included while others are not. MAKING PERSONAL CONNECTIONS Decisions, Decisions

The decisions the characters in Tuck Everlasting face are sometimes matters of life and death. Think about the last time you had to make a very difficult decision, and try to identify the things you did to try to make up your mind. Draw a cluster diagram or chart of the different resources you used, such as people you asked for advice, videos you watched, or articles you read for ideas. As you read Tuck Everlasting, compare the way you made your decision with the way Winnie decides. Are they similar? Does Winnie try anything that you might use in the future? PREDICTING Tomorrow the Stars

Make a chart with three columns, labeled “ten years,” “one hundred years,” and “one thousand years,” and have members of your class list ways in which they think life will be different in the future. You might discuss possible changes in categories such as medicine, transportation, governments, national boundaries, food, and housing. For each future period, take a vote on whether your classmates would rather live in that time or in their own.


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