Tuck Everlasting: themes of immortality and mortality

Tuck Everlasting

Of the three frequently recurring references found within Natalie Babbitt's engaging children's novella, Tuck Everlasting, -- which includes the wheel of life, the toad, and the music box -- the references to the wheel of life prove the most significant. The wheel of life is essentially a motif that the author uses throughout this work to underscore the cyclical nature of life itself. All life has a beginning and an ending. In many instances, the ending of one life merely is followed by the beginning of another, which is in itself an endless repeating cycle. By referring to this process as a wheel of life, the author is able to reinforce this notion to a childhood audience. Therefore, she begins the tale with a references to the wheel of life at its height -- in summer, when thinking are alive -- and actually ends the tale when the wheel of life is at its nadir -- by showing Winnie's grave. The constant references to this wheel of life that occur between the aforementioned pair, such as when Mr. Tuck explain to Winnie about this great life cycle and his family's exclusion from it, merely underscore the fact that this motif is the principle theme of the book, and that this novella ultimately strives to teach young people about life's enduring cycle.

The references to the toad within this book serve to corroborate the primary motif of the wheel of life. These references to this creature are demonstrative of the fact that all creatures go through life's cycle. This reason is why it is so important that the book begins with Winnie telling the toad about how bored she is and that she may very well run away to find excitement. Furthermore, there are additional references to the toad when Winnie comes to understand the cycle of life after extensively discussing the subject with Mr. Tuck. At this point toads are referenced to aid in Winnie's understanding of the life cycle, as the following quotation, in which Mr. Tuck is explaining life's cycle to Winnie indicates. "It's a wheel Winnie, Winnie. Everything's a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. The frog's part of it" (Babbitt). This quotation demonstrates that the author utilizes frogs and the toad to further reinforce the notion that they, like all God's creatures, are part of the cycle of life.

The music box and the music it plays are highly important in the tale of Tuck Everlasting because they symbolize the spirit and nature of Mrs. Tuck. As the matriarch of the Tuck family, Mrs. Tuck is a protector and has a motherly, maternal instinct as well. She is, after all, the one who vanquishes the Tuck family's foe, the man in the yellow suit. To that end, it is highly significant that the repeated references to elfin music and to the music box are ultimately references to her power and ameliorating nature as a matriarch. One of the first references to music (that more than likely came from Mrs. Tuck's music box, comes in the form as the assuring sounds that Winnie's grandmother hears when she runs the man with the yellow suit off her property. The most obvious reference to the author's penchant for using the music box to symbolize Mrs. Tuck is when she produces that box, and its soothing music, to calm Winnie after she is abducted by the Tuck family. This music is emblematic of Mrs. Tuck's calming, protective nature.