Tuck Everlasting Essay

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In Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt presents the themes of greed, death, and fate by using poetic diction. First, she compares greed to a puppet because she shows how controlling greed can be in a person’s life. Next, Babbitt explores the idea of death and why it’s necessary to live a full life. Finally, Babbitt discusses fate and how being immortal can affect it.
First, Babbitt discusses greed and compares it to a puppet because of the control it can have on a person’s life. Everyone in the book is obsessed with owning a lot of land. The Man in the Yellow Suit seems to be the greediest character. He’s willing to play the devil’s advocate between the Tucks and the Fosters to gain more land. Greed is a very strong emotion and can often take control of someone. “His tall body moved continuously...And it moved in angles, rather jerkily. But at the same time he had a kind of grace, like a well-handled marionette” (Babbitt 14). Here, the way the Man in the Yellow Suit acts is compared to a puppet, because it is as if his greed has taken control of him and his actions. …show more content…

The Tucks are immortal because they drank from the magical pond. When Winnie Foster meets Jesse Tuck, who is actually 104 years old even though he looks 17, he explains the cons of living forever. “It’s a wheel Winnie. Everything’s a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping...That’s the way it’s supposed to be...If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I’d do it in a minute.You can’t have living without dying.” (Babbitt 48, 49) Here, Tuck contradicts the luxuries that immortality would seem to bring by discussing the circle of life. Tuck compares the cycle of life and death to a working wheel. It’s impossible to have one without the other, because that disturbs the natural

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