If You Could Live Forever, Would You?

“Age has its despairs, yet without its dimension, our lives lose their shape: A timeless life, without growth or change, would be drearier that the day is long” James Mustich

Tuck Everlasting

Hey 1000 Bookies!!!  After spending the most recent blog posts on books based in Great Britain, we arrive at our next destination of TreeGap, which I assume is located in the mid-western United States.  Our latest stop along the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is taking us to the 1880s and the novella, Tuck Everlasting.  This book, written by Natalie Babbitt, is a popular young adult book.  Written in 1975, Tuck Everlasting continues to be a favorite of school kids to this day.  The book is a quick read at 137 pages.  I sorely wish I had read this book when I was a teen or pre-teen.  The message that Tuck Everlasting contains about the understanding and the importance of death in our lives is a point of view most young people need to consider.

The story revolves around an 11year old girl named Winnie Foster.  She lives what she thinks is a sheltered life on her property in TreeGap.  She contemplates running away from her family.  On a day that Winnie least expects it, adventure finds her.  First the Man in the Yellow Suit shows up asking questions of her.  Then she hears music in the woods, which leads to Winnie exploring the them.  She ventures into the woods that her family owns and comes across an older boy sitting by a tree drinking from a spring.  There and then she meets Jesse Tuck.  She feels an instant attraction to Jesse.  When she asks his age, Jesse tell her that he is 104 years old, which she thinks is a joke.  Jesse is drinking from a natural spring however stops Winnie from drinking. 

As Jesse stops Winnie from drinking, his mother and brother (Mae and Miles) join them.  Jesse shares that Winnie saw him drinking and they panic.  Winnie must go with the Tucks so they can convince her not to drink from the spring.  They explain that their family drank of a special spring on the Foster property about 80 years before.  A first they did not realize anything happened, however they each had an accident that should have killed or maimed each but nothing happened.  Then over the years they (and others) noticed that they stopped aging.  This has led to a tortured life for them.  There oldest son, Miles, married and had two children but by 45 still looked 22 and his wife believed that he was a demon and witchcraft was involved.  She left him taking his 2 children. The family kept moving and split up to avoid suspicion. Jesse is the only one who enjoys looking and being 17 forever.

The Man in the Yellow Suit see the Tucks “kidnap” Winnie. He knows about the Tucks and the pring and want to own the land.  He wants to exploit the situation for his own greed.  He first blackmails the Fosters to sell him their land for his knowledge of where Winnie was been taken. Then he tries to blackmail the Tucks into working for him promoting the spring.  In order to protect Winnie from the bad man, Mae attacks him and eventually kills the Man in the Yellow Suit.  We find out he is somehow connected to the Tuck Family.

Most of the Tucks view becoming immortal as a curse.  When I was young, my family lost my one uncle and my grandfather within two years of each other.  I was 7 by this time and their deaths weighed heavily one me and I carried that sadness for years.  I did not have an understanding nor appreciation of death.  Looking back, this book may have helped me understand that death makes life worth living.  Knowing that our days are numbered, that each of us is born with a certain number of days and that gives us meaning.  How we spend those number of days, how much life we squeeze out of those days is what life is all about. 

My only problem with Tuck Everlasting was the ending, which is beautiful.  During the telling of the story, Jesse asks Winnie to drink the spring when she turns 17 so they could get married and spend eternity with him. That thought was such a romantic moment to me, I kept hoping that would be the case.  You will need to read the story to see if Winnie give it up everything to be with Jesse?  I do not know what I would do. 

Please consider giving this novella to a special child in your life and watch the movie with them.  I think you would both enjoy the discussion of your own individual choices.

Keep Reading My Friend!!