Tuck_Everlasting

In the novel Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, the main character Winnie Foster is a 10-year-old girl that is kidnapped in the first week of August because she finds out the huge secret of the Tuck family that they can live forever. This novel reveals the story about Winnie’s deep development of her change in thought. In the beginning of August, Winnie goes through a process of change which is because of the experience of meeting the Tucks. She becomes more responsible, independent. Also, she widens her world perception. First of all, Winnie becomes a more responsible person through the experience. Winnie is protected by her family before she is kidnapped by the Tucks. She does not have any burden. She does not need to think about the others or the world which is totally different from the Tucks. However, after she meets the Tucks and is kidnapped, she changes. Jesse Tuck wants Winnie also becomes everlasting and they can even marry, so he gives Winnie the water that she can drink when she is also 17 like Jesse, but she does not choose to drink the water. She “pulled out the cork from the mouth of the bottle, and kneeling, she poured the precious water, very slowly and carefully over the toad” (132). She gives the water to the toad on the road but not herself. Also, she dies because she does not drink the water. When the Tucks returns to the Treegap many years later, they sees Winnie’s grave stone which says, “In loving memory Winifred Forster Jackson, Dear Wife, Dear Mother” (138). All these quotations show that Winnie makes a responsible decision that she chooses to protect the cycle of life, the Tucks, also herself. Winnie has a chance to drink the water but she does not because she realizes that she wants to grow and change just like everyone else. She understands the importance of being “alive” and to follow the cycle of the nature. Clearly, Winnie shows her change of being more responsible to herself and the others. Second, by leaving her “dear” family, Winnie becomes more independent. Under Winnie’s prefect shelter, she does not need to make her own decision because her family will decide everything for her. Her family is too reliable that Winnie is always depends on her family even she does not relies that. However, when Jesse comes and tell her that they will rescue their mother Mae Tuck, Winnie says, “I can help! When your mother climbs out the window, I’ll climb in and take her place.” (114). This is probably the first big decision that is made by Winnie herself. She becomes more independent that she knows what she is doing and what she needs to do; she can decide.