Grade 6 Summer Reading Assignment
Tuck Everlasting
by
Natalie Babbitt

Short Answer Questions:

1. Why is the toad important to the story?

2. Why is Tuck so sad about his life? Why is his immortality like a curse?

3. Why does Jesse perceive his immortality completely different from the rest of his family?

4. Do you think that it is important to know about the cows and the cat? Explain.

5. Winnie decides not to drink the spring water. Why does she make this decision? What has influenced her?

6. What is Mae's reaction when she finds out Winnie has died? Do you think a different reaction would have been better?

7. What, exactly, did the stranger represent in the story?

8. What did the Tucks represent in the story?

9. If you were given a chance at eternal life, would you take it? If you would, what would be the best age to do so? Twelve? Seventeen? Twenty-four? Remember that once you've drunk from the fountain you'll stop aging; you'll be twelve, seventeen, or twenty-four forever.

10.  Is the stranger an entirely evil man?   Are his motives entirely bad?

11. Were the Tucks right to want to keep the secret of immortality from the world? Would other, better educated and more resourceful people  have been able to deal with eternal life more successfully?   In their position, would you have gone public with the discovery?

12. Winnie lies about the Tucks kidnapping her and then she herself breaks the law when she helps Mae Tuck escape from prison. Is she wrong to do these things? Is it ever morally correct to break the law?

13. Babbitt doesn't show us Winnie's decision to remain mortal; we only find out about it in the epilogue, some seven decades later. Why did Babbitt choose to tell us of Winnie's decision in this way?

14. At the end of the book Babbitt has the ash tree that marked the fountain destroyed by lightning and then the entire area bulldozed, presumably destroying the fountain. Why does this occur?
Do you think it was pure chance?


Essay Questions
Choose Two

1. Throughout Tuck Everlasting are references to the "wheel of life," a concept used since ancient times to explain everything from the change of the seasons to the change of human fortunes.

Research the various ways in which the concept has been used in the past and compare them to Babbitt's usage, compared with examples from the novel.

2. Throughout the novel Babbitt sets up a contrast between the restricted world of Winnie's fenced-in home and the freedom of the outside world. Part of Winnie's moral dilemma involves her need to choose between these two. Discuss this contrast and the way in which Winnie deals with it. Does she opt entirely for one or the other? Does she, in the end, make a compromise?

3. Although the Tucks' lifestyle seems very simple, Babbitt carefully balances its positive and negative aspects. There is much about the way the Tucks live that Winnie finds attractive, but there is also much that seems appalling or boring. Discuss the Tucks' lifestyle, highlighting its positive and negative aspects.

4. Could Winnie ultimately have been happy with Jesse? Should she have waited until she was old enough and then drunk the water of eternal life?

Using examples from the novel, give reasons for your opinion. What would their life together have been like? Does it seem likely that they would have stayed with Mae and Angus Tuck, or do you think they would have gone a different direction?


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