Thursday, December 16, 2010

Tuck Everlasting


Winnie Foster a young girl about the age of ten, comes from a strict well-off family. For her entire life, her family has kept her locked away from the rest of the world by an iron fence that surrounds their house. One day, Winnie decides to venture out past the fence and into her family's woods. There she finds a boy drinking from a fountain named Jesse Tuck. Through Jesse, Winnie finds out that him and his family are immortal because they drank water from the spring over one hundred years ago. The Tuck family decides to take Winnie away to explain their secret immortality and to explain why their secret must be kept. While this is happening, a man in a yellow suit is watching them. This man came to town to try to find the magical well that his grandmother told him about and sell the water from it. He sees the Tucks taking Winnie as a kidnapping and uses this information to get Winnie's family to sell him their woods.
While all of this is going on, the Tucks introduce Winnie to their strange way of life outside of society. The more time she spends with the Tucks, the more she starts to love them like the family that she never really had. Unlike her family, the Tucks aren't strict and live in a modest house far away from town. The Tucks show Winnie that their secret of immortality must be kept, because if everyone else knew about it, they would abuse it. Plus if other people knew about it, it would throw off the balance of nature (the cycle of life and death). After a short while, the man in the yellow suit shows up after following them to their house. He tells them that he knows their secret and plans to expose them to the rest of the world. Filled with outrage, Mae Tuck (the mother) hits the man in the yellow suit over the head with a shot gun. The wound eventually kills him. Through all of this, a sheriff has been watching because he followed the man in the yellow suit. The sheriff takes Mae into custody and she is sentenced to be hanged. This is a problem because since she can't die the Tucks' secret will be exposed. I don't want to ruin the rest of the story so you'll have to read it if you want to know how it ends.

The story explains why immortality may not be as great as it seems, and why the natural flow of life is important to maintain and keep in balance.

1. If it was possible, would you take the chance to live forever?
2. Do you think it would be a bad thing to be immortal?

13 comments:

Rachael B MOds 5-6 said...

If I had the chance to live forever, I would stronly consider it but then back out. I don't think that I would mentally or emotionally be able to handle watching every single person I have ever come to love or know either die or move away. There eventually would come a time where there would be no one that I know alive, and I don't think I'd be comfortable knowing that one day I'd have to go out and replace all of the loving relationships which I had once created. I don't think it would be a bad thing to be immortal, but it would certainly take a very strong and determined heart to get through all of the tradgedy and loss that our world has coming to it.

Matt P. 13-14 said...

I would not want to live forever because eventually everyone I cared about would pass on and I would be left alone. It would be too difficult for me to deal with so much loss, and I would eventually regret making the decision to be immortal. I think it would be great for a time, but eventually I would regret it and wish I wasn't immortal.

Natalie S Mods 5-6 said...

I would not take the chance to live forever. I think living forever is an omen in diguise. If you live forever, you will see everyone you care about die and see how the world is changing. The world's change is usually not for the best as people and society become more corrupt. I think that living immortally would bring only sadness and sorrow.

Joe K. 11-12 said...

I would not take the chance to live forever. I feel like if I were to live forever I would never get the experience of life as it is supposed to be lived. By living forever and knowing that I could not die would take away from the pressure to perform in life. It literally defeats the meaning of "live every day like its your last."

Brad S 11-12 said...

1. If i had the chance to live forever, i would shut it down. If i lived forever, i would see my childhood memories destroyed to make room for new memories for other children. I would also stand there and watch all of the people that i loved die. It is hard enough seeing family and friends die, but having to see each and every one of their deaths? Faced with that choice, people would probably become isolated, never making contact to anyone, for the fear of their deaths would forever haunt them.
2. Yes, i do think that it would be bad to live forever. Looking at it from a "tree huger" point of view now, our Earth would not have the room to support all of the new life that would be given, along with the others it would currently support forever. Our resources would die out, and so would we.
Life is precious, you only get it once, if that's what your religion tells you, so live it to the fullest, and don't have any regrets.

Kaitlyn S. 13-14 said...

As everyone has said before me, I would not want to live forever. I would not mind an enlonged life but going on forever would become depressing. For me, it's already a little sad on how much things have changed since childhood. Landscapes aren't the same, building move and are torn down and society changes in style. Living forever would have you end up being alone most likely.

I had been thinking what Joe was. If I knew I had all the time in the world, I would procrastinate even more and be going through the motions of things. The wonder of everyday occurences would be diminished. Sunsets would mean nothing because you would have seen hundreds and they would lose their appeal.

I think it would be a bad thing to live forever. All things are meant to die; that's how life is. Everything is broken down and returned in the end. I think that living forever would be very unnatural and goes against everything. Even if it takes a thousand years, all things are returned to the Earth in the end. The Earth itself is not going to last forever either.

What would you even call it living forever? It seems hard to call it life because there is no death.

allie s 11-12 said...

i would never want to live forever. i couldn't watch all my friends and families die, all the time.It would be like groundhogs day. Every so many years i would have to make a new family and watch them die and so on and so on. In my opinion it is a bad thing to be immortal, because a part of a being a human is death. So if you could never die, then i guess you aren't fully a human, and i dont want that.

Leah A 5-6 said...

I would not want to live forever. Having a limited time lets you appreciate life more and live the way you want to. I do believe it would also be a bad thing to be immortal. Life is for living, and we are given only a small amount of time to live life to the fullest. If you were immortal, you wouldn’t go out and enjoy life as much.

Betsy C 1314 said...

1 If i were given the opportunity to live forever, i think that i would. It would obviously be sad when people around me would die, but the chance to do anything that i wanted for as long as i wanted is very appealing.

Kali D. 13-14 said...

1. I wouldnt want to live forever because eventually i would lose my friends and family and would be alone. Also i dont think i could deal with watching everything change around me. I think it would be too hard to deal with.

Kara K. 5/6 said...

1) If it was possible, I would not take the chance to live forever. the world would get boring after awhile because you would have aleady did everything. Also, if the ones you love are not living forever with you, then once they are gone, you are going to be lonely. I would not want to be lonely in this large world of ours.
2)I feel that if everyone could be immortal then it would be a bad thing. There would be to many people on earth, which would ruin our environment. The world would be way to over populated and soon you would not be able to move after awhile due to so many people.

Allie H 11-12 said...

Regarding question # 1, I would not take the chance to live forever. I honestly believe it would be a very sad and lonely life to live. Although you can make more friends as your other friends begin to pass away, you will always live with the memory of your other loved ones who have past. Me personally, I would not want to live with those memories because I would constantly feel alone and mournful.

tyler k 13-14 said...

Answering the first question, I would not try to live forever if given the chance. It would be impossible to enjoy life because there would be no rush to live your dreams. Without knowing of a definite end, life would be meaningless and torturous.