Sauharda Bajracharya
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt starts from Treegap village, where the Fosters live and their premises where Winnie Foster often spends her time idly sometimes talking to a toad. The fountain or the Spring water is an important setting where the major events of the story unfolds. The next important setting is the pond where Angus Tuck tries to explain a very deep topic about life, death and nature. The prison cell is also an important setting where Mae Tuck is kept after she is arrested.
Winifred Foster nicknamed “Winnie” is a 10-year-old girl who leaves her house and gets abducted by the Tuck Family, well only for a day! The Tuck Family consists of four members; Mae Tuck (the mother of the family), Angus Tuck (the father and the head of the family), Miles Tuck (A 22 year old professional carpenter and blacksmith), Jesse Tuck (a 104-year-old boy who drank the spring water at the age of 17). The story starts when bored Winnie goes into her private wood for the first time and in thirst tries to drink the spring water under a giant oak tree. There she meets a handsome boy Jesse who she gets infatuated with. This is where the story takes shape; as she tries to drink the water which makes any being indestructible and immortal Jesse had to stop her. She then gets abducted by the Tucks. Later the Tucks tell Winnie about the power and effect of the spring water which they had accidentally discovered, long time back. The spring water makes any living being immortal and the Tucks also tell Winnie what will happen if the water goes into wrong hands. All of this is heard by a man in a yellow suit; an antagonist, who just so happens to visit Winnie’s home a day before her abduction to ask about the land. The man in a yellow suit follows the Tucks to their place, steals their horse and gallops to the Foster’s home. The man in a yellow suit cunningly makes a deal with the Fosters that he will tell them where Winnie is only if they legally give him the wood. As the man in the yellow suit goes back to the Tucks house along with a constable, he takes a lead before the constable and talks to the Tucks about his plan to sell the spring water. He disrespects them and tries to forcefully take Winnie Foster by her hand who felt safe and happy being with the Tucks. Mae couldn’t bear this; she gets the shotgun hanging on the wall and hits the man in a yellow suit with the stock of the shotgun right at the back of his head and he dies with his face wide open-surprised! As the constable later arrives at the scene, he sees the man in a yellow suit lying unconscious on the floor bleeding and arrests Mae Tuck. She is then sent to prison where she would be hanged the next day. The Tucks worry about Mae because if she gets hanged to death then the police will find out that she is immortal and their long-kept secret will be revealed. Later that night Jessie goes to Winnie’s place secretly and gives her the spring water in a bottle. He tells her to drink the water after she turns 17 so that they both can live forever as a 17 year old and live happily ever after. Winnie is happy to think of this idea. Furthermore, she convinces Jesse that she will take Mae’s place in the prison so that the Tucks get a chance to run away from Treegap village, hence the secret about the spring water will never be revealed. On the night of their escape plan, Miles breaks the Prison cell window and Winnie takes the place of Mae and Mae runs away with her family. The next morning, the constable is shocked to see a child instead of Mae. He was disgusted and they couldn’t arrest Winnie for being a minor. This, however, tarnishes the Fosters’ reputation. After several days, things in Treegap village seem to be going normal. One day, as Winnie sits on the ground she sees a toad was about to get attacked by a dog. In a jiffy, Winnie rescues the toad, goes inside her room and she gets the spring water and pours all the water in a bottle on a toad, thus making that toad immortal. She did this probably because she understood what Angus Tuck had tried to explain to her when she was abducted. He had explained to her that dying is part of nature and without death life is useless because you stop being part of nature. After almost 68 years, Angus and Mae return to Treegap village which had changed a lot. After a bit of inquiry and moving around in Treegap, Angus finds a gravestone and engraved in it was, “In Loving Memory Winifred Foster Jackson Dear Wife Dear Mother 1870–1948.” Angus cries but admires Winnie’s decision to choose mortality over immortality.
I like the part when Jesse proposes to Winnie and tells her to wait until she turns 17 and then drink the spring water so that they can remain happily ever after as two immortals who would never age beyond 17.
I would recommend this book to others because this book has wonderful themes like immortality, life and death, morality, justice and courage. Overall, this book is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I like the plot twist when Mae kills the man in the yellow suit. The infatuation of Winnie towards Jesse also makes the story interesting.
(Sauharda Bajracharya (13) is, a seventh grader at Deerwalk Sifal School, Kathmandu)