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Winnie's Emotional Journey in Tuck Everlasting

Summary:

In Tuck Everlasting, Winnie Foster's emotional journey evolves significantly. Initially indifferent and curious, she becomes frightened when the Tucks kidnap her but soon grows fond of them, seeing them as friends and experiencing a grand adventure. Her feelings deepen in subsequent chapters as she grapples with conflicting loyalties but eventually embraces the Tucks as a surrogate family. By the end, Winnie feels a strong bond with them, willing to risk her safety to protect their secret and help Mae escape jail.

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How did Winnie's feelings about the Tucks change from their first encounter to chapter 8 in Tuck Everlasting?

When Winnie first meets Jesse Tuck, she is mildly curious.  She is a little bit frightened when they kidnap her though.  By the time Winnie gets to know the Tucks, she considers them good friends.

Winnie had been thinking that her life was boring and she wanted an adventure.  She definitely got one.   Winnie saw Jesse drink from the spring, and he could not convince her not to drink too.  Not sure what to do, the Tucks decided to take her home so they could explain properly that she could not drink from the spring because it would make her immortal, as it had done to them many years before.

Winnie was surprised that while being kidnapped she was “just as alarmed” as the kidnappers.

She had always pictured a troupe of burly men with long black moustaches who would tumble her into a blanket and bear her off like a sack of potatoes while she pleaded for mercy. But, instead, it was they, Mae Tuck and Miles and Jesse, who were pleading. (Ch. 6) 

When Winnie made it to the Tucks’ house, she was enamored of the comfortable and somewhat haphazard way in which they lived.  The Tucks were simple people, and very sweet.  Winnie liked Jesse, who was just a few years older than her.  Mae was very motherly, and Angus was a nice man.  The family was completely normal except for the fact that they were immortal. 

Winnie came to not only feel comfortable at the Tuck house, but also accept them as friends.  She liked the Tucks, and forgot ever having felt kidnapped.  She felt like she has gone on her grand adventure. 

Why, she, too, might live forever in this remarkable world she was only just discovering! The story of the spring—it might be true! So that, when she was not rolling along on the back of the fat old horse—by choice, this time—she ran shouting down the road, her arms flung out, making more noise than anybody. (Ch. 8)

Winnie enjoyed her time at the Tucks' house, and left under sad circumstances when Mae killed the man in the yellow hat and got arrested.  Winnie went back home, but she was not the same.  She had seen a whole new world.  The Tucks were also her friends, and she agreed to help break Mae out of jail so no one would find out she was immortal.

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In Tuck Everlasting, how have Winnie's feelings changed from chapters 12-18?

In the beginning of this section, Winnie's emotions are uncertain and doubtful.  She is upset over being kidnapped, and even though she somewhat likes the Tucks, she has difficulty reconciling their kidnapper status.  She thinks their mannerisms are amusing at first, but then longs for the comfort of her own home and customs.  When she goes on the pond with Tuck, she can't quite understand everything he wants to explain to her about their secret.  She feels torn in her loyalties and strained to figure it all out.  Later that night, when each Tuck visits her in turn, she begins to care for them.  She realizes that she loves them, and that she will keep their secret.  The more time she spends with the Tucks, though she still misses her home, she wishes she could stay with them.  By the time the man in the yellow suit arrives to arrest them, she has made up her mind that she will do what she can to keep their secret and protect them.  She loves them all deeply by that point.

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How does Winnie feel in chapter 21 of Tuck Everlasting after leaving the Tucks?

Chapter 21 is a chapter that gives readers a nice change of pace. Most of the chapters prior to this point have a lot happening: Winnie is doing something or is being taken somewhere. The man in the yellow suit is taking action, or the members of the Tuck family are actively doing something. Chapter 21 is a chapter that has Winnie doing nothing. She's sitting in a rocking chair for most of the chapter doing nothing more than thinking.

She thinks about the Tucks. She thinks about the fate of the man in the yellow suit. She thinks about her family. Winnie is reflecting on a lot of different things in this chapter, and she isn't quite sure what to think of anything and everything. Part of her confusion is tied to the fact that Winnie realizes that she is "tied" to both her family and the Tuck family. This closeness to the Tucks is why Winnie isn't extremely relieved to be at home with her family. She isn't excited to be at home, nor does she even think about saying anything negative about the Tucks. Winnie feels that she belongs to them as much as they belong to her, and that is why the chapter ends with Winnie making a decision to figure out a way to help Mae Tuck escape being hanged.

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How does Winnie feel during the day in Chapter 23 of Tuck Everlasting?

Winnie is feeling a sense of anticipation in Chapter 23, because this is the night she is going to help break Mae Tuck out of jail.  The weather is oppressively hot, but at the same time feels like there is going to be a storm.  Everyone goes to bed early.

Winnie also feels oppressed because she feels guilty about what she is about to do, which is again something forbidden.

There were three hours to wait before midnight and nothing whatever to do. Winnie wandered restlessly about her room, sat in her rocker, lay on her bed, counted the ticks of the hall clock. Beneath her excitement, she was thick with guilt. (Ch. 23) 

She also feels a “strong sense of rightness” about what she is going to do.  She knows that it is illegal and probably wrong on some level to break someone out of jail.  However, this is not an ordinary situation and Mae Tuck is not an ordinary person.  If Mae stays in jail, she will be hanged.  If Mae is hanged, she will not be able to die, and people will find out the Tucks are immortal.  Then they will learn about the spring. 

Winnie feels a sense of anticipation and suspense as she waits while everyone else is asleep. 

Thinking of Tuck and Mae, of Miles and Jesse, her heart softened. They needed her. To take care of them. For in the funny sort of way that had struck her at the first, they were helpless. Or too trusting. Well, something like that. Anyway, they needed her. She would not disappoint them. (Ch. 23) 

Winnie also ponders whether or not she should drink the water Jesse gave her when she turned seventeen.  It is a big decision, and she falls asleep.  When she wakes, it is five minutes to midnight and time to go get Mae out of jail.

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In Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, how do Winnie's emotions change in the initial chapters?

In Natalie Babbitt's young reader's novel Tuck Everlasting, Winnie Foster certainly does experience a wide range of emotions within the first five chapters.

As described in the first chapter, Winnie's first emotion is indifference, especially towards the wood on her family's property. As the narrator describes, though she "looked at" the wood, "she had never been curious about it." As the narrator continues to describe, Winnie didn't find the things that woods contain interesting, such as squirrels, birds, leaves, and insects. Yet, as the novel progresses, the more she learns about life and things around her, the more she becomes emotionally involved in her surroundings.

By the third chapter, we learn that Winnie is feeling angry, angry enough to throw pebbles at a toad. She is angry because she feels the grownups around her keep her on too tight of a leash, always watching out for her, warning her of things, like she'll get her boots and stockings dirty or get heatstroke being out on a day that's too hot. She wants so much to be alone and to make her own decisions that she feels tempted to run away from home.

However, by the beginning of the fifth chapter, she awakens the next morning and realizes she really has nowhere to run away to; plus, she is really too afraid to run off on her own. As the novel progresses, Winnie gains newfound independence and courage.

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