Discussion Topic
"Tuck Everlasting" Conflicts and Climax
Summary:
In Tuck Everlasting, the main conflicts involve internal and external struggles. Internally, Winnie battles with whether to drink the magic spring water for immortality, weighing the Tucks' warnings against her desire for freedom. Externally, the Tucks face the man in the yellow suit, who seeks to exploit the spring's secret. The novel's climax occurs when Winnie chooses mortality over immortality, signifying her acceptance of life's natural cycle, and she symbolically sacrifices the water to save a toad.
In Tuck Everlasting, what is the major conflict between characters in chapters 12-16?
There are actually two large conflics going on simultaneously in Chapters 12 - 16. The primary conflict is an internal one that is central to the book, concerning what Winnie should do about her newfound knowledge about the magic spring. The secondary conflict is an external one, having to do with the actions of the man in the yellow suit who will go to any lengths to gain possession of the land housing the magic spring.
In Chapters 12 and 14, the Tucks talk to Winnie, trying to get her to see their point of view on the magic spring. In Chapter 12, Pa Tuck himself speaks to Winnie in a passionate manner, explaining just why it would be dangerous for word of the spring's magic properties to get around to the general public. Pa Tuck believes that the idea of living forever sounds very appealing at first, but that once...
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it is obtained, it is not at all the wonderful gift it appeared to be at first glance. He describes the despair of being left out of the natural stream of life, and says that by the time people who take advantage of the water's magic powers realize the situation they are in, it will be too late to go back and make things right. Pa Tuck sees the spring as a dangerous thing, and wants to impress upon Winnie the importance of keeping it secret.
In Chapter 14, Jesse presents another side of the dilemma to Winnie. He agrees with his father that the spring should be kept secret, but adds that as long as they all know about its magic powers, they might as well take advantage of it. Jesse wants Winnie to wait until she is the same age as he is - seventeen - and then drink some of the water so that she will be stuck at that age forever. At that time they could perhaps get married, and enjoy eternal life on earth together. Winnie does not know what she should do about her knowledge about the magic spring. Her conflict is internal; only she herself can decide what she is going to do.
The second important conflict occurring simultaneously to all this concerns the actions of the man in the yellow suit. He knows that Winnie has been kidnapped by the Tucks, and goes to Winnie's family, offering to secure her release if they will sell him their land, the land with the magic spring. This conflict is external, as the Fosters are being blackmailed into selling their land by the conniving and opportunistic man in the yellow suit.
What are two conflicts from the book "Tuck Everlasting?"
One conflict is man vs. self. This conflict is Winnie's conflict. Should she accept the offer of immortality or not? Only she can determine that for herself, and she struggles with it quite a bit. The reason that she wants to take the immortality is because she wants the freedom that comes with it. To go off with the Tucks, she would not be under the rules and regulations of society. She reveals this desire early on, when talking with the toad:
"It'd be better if I could be like you, out in the open and making up my own mind."
However, what she comes to understand is that too much freedom is dangerous. Without limits, there is danger. Also, without a limit to life, joy loses is power. Winnie comes to understand that love and joy are so intense because of the mortality of humans. We have a short time on this earth, and must cherish our happiness. Take away time, and you take away happiness. Jesse's parents make this clear to her, and she bases her choice on their advice.
Another conflict is man vs. man. The greed of the stranger in the yellow suit threatens the Tucks and Winnie. He wants so much to have immortality that he is willing to reveal the Tucks to society. They would be victims of any number of strangers seeking to have and to understand what has happened to the Tucks. This is why Mae is forced to murder the man, ending the conflict with him.
What is the climax of Tuck Everlasting?
While the climax of the novel could be seen as Winnie sacrificing herself for Mae in the prison, I would suggest another moment to serve as the climax of the novel. The climax of Tuck Everlasting is where Winnie's emotional construction of reality is fundamentally tested. Once Tuck gives her the bottle of water to make her immortal upon her turning seventeen, the choice that forms the climax of the novel becomes evident. Winnie's choice of rejecting immortality for human life is the climax of the novel. It is climactic because it involves Winnie having to choose to be immortal or to embrace living a life where change, growth, and death result.
This choice forms the climax of the novel in a couple of ways. The first is that it brings forth Winnie's condition of being positioned between equally desirable, but ultimately incompatible courses of action. On one hand, Winnie has come to understand that being human involves change and growth. Her experiences with the Tucks have revealed to her that human consciousness is formed as a part of life, "always growing and changing, and always moving on." At the same time, Winnie also must reconcile with the "tugging and insistent" bonds that have formed between she and the Tucks. She has also developed feelings for Jesse that are reciprocated. The choice that Winnie must face is to live with Jesse in immortality in which they can see the world and experience life with one another. The other side of this coin would be for her to simply live life and experience it with the vitality and limitations that it presents. A choice of this magnitude is intensely agonizing. The fact that it is not simple and fraught with profound implications on both sides is why it represents the climax of the novel.
One of the ideas to emerge out of Tuck Everlasting is that individuals must strive to live life to its fullest. The idea of not being afraid of death as much as "the unlived life" is an essential element to the narrative. It is for this reason that the climax of Winnie pouring the water from the eternal spring on the toad is so significant. Winnie recognizes the need for life, in particular hers, to always change. Part of this is in her own maturation in sacrificing for something else. The same tenets of self- sacrifice that saved the Tucks is what saves the toad when she says, "There! You're safe. Forever."
With this action, the climax presents itself because it Winnie has made a choice. She has chosen life. Winnie embodies what it means to be a human being, a condition filled with intensity, happiness, sadness, and perseverance. These qualities are what defines her sense of character and her legacy, a name that lives on even after she dies. In this light, her choice to choose life represents the climax because she has found a way to garner immortality as a result of her choice. When Angus remarks that "dying's part of the wheel," it makes Winnie's choice all the more climactic.