Ten Eternal Truths About Tuck Everlasting

January 11, 2024

Literature

Nesha Ruther

Writer at Bond & Grace

In 1975, young readers were introduced to a poignant and heartwarming novel that wasn’t afraid to have tough conversations. Natalie Babbitt's classic Tuck Everlasting is not only an enchanting coming-of-age story, but a roadmap for young people first encountering the precious and fleeting nature of life. Much like the immortal Tuck family, Babbitt's young adult novel has proven to be eternal, nearly fifty years after it was originally published.

Here are ten eternal truths about Tuck Everlasting.

1. Natalie Babbitt didn’t set out to become an author. She actually began her career in children’s books as an illustrator, illustrating her husband Samuel Babbitt’s book The Forty-Ninth Magician.

Babbitt was inspired to write Tuck Everlasting when her then four-year-old daughter woke up from a nap crying because she was afraid of dying.

Natalie Babbitt was born in Dayton, Ohio, and the Tuck family’s welcoming, salt-of-the-earth attitude was inspired by the people of Babbitt’s home state. She says she has an “Ohio life-view.” Which she described as “It is first of all, uncomplicated. There is a feeling that certain things are right, and that is that. Also, there’s a sense of the land always being there.”

4. In the original book, the precocious protagonist Winnie Foster is only ten years old. However, in the classic Disney film, Winnie is a fifteen-year-old played by Alexis Bledel. Disney aged up Winnie to add the romantic storyline with Jesse Tuck.

5.Unlike many children’s book authors of the time, Babbitt did not feel as if her stories needed to have an explicit lesson. As a child, her favorite books were Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. "I loved them because they didn't have any lessons to teach," she says. "I don't think Tuck has [a lesson]. It presents dilemmas, and I think that's what life does... I think a lot of adults would like to think that things are simple for kids, but that's not so."

6. Tuck Everlasting became popular with young readers in schools, although not everyone loved it. Babbitt says she received letters from a few young readers who found the beginning of the story to be too slow, and two young boys even suggested adding a motorcycle race. Maybe that’s why the movie had Jesse return to Treegap on a motorcycle!

One of the things that made Tuck Everlasting’s story so unique, is that immortality is not found in a precious object and does not prompt some grand, perilous adventure, but is discovered in an ordinary forest spring by ordinary people.

Of all the Tucks, Babbitt herself seems to agree most closely with the father Angus who believes their immortality is a curse. She says, “I think that living forever would be a terrible thing. It would be boring, sad, and lonely.”

9.Since its original publication, Tuck Everlasting has been adapted into two films and even a Broadway musical!