Introduction
The title of the book by Natalie Babbitt, and the movie directed by Jay Russell fully coincide, as the novel is one of the non-numerous which should not be changed. The book first was published in 1975 as a book for children and it explains the notion of eternity and immortality and the motivations why it might not be as advantageous as it seems at first glance.
Plot
The plot of the book involves the description of the Tucks and Fosters Family. Ten-year-old Winnie Foster arrives from a well-bred, straight-tied family. She gets lost in the woods one day in an effort to run away her suffocated, affected, and disgusting lifestyle. In the woods she meets the Tucks; a mysterious family who lead lonely lives. The family of the Tucks, consists of Angus Tuck, Mae Tuck, and their two boys, Miles and Jesse. The Tucks have a hazardous secret: they are everlasting and not able to age. When Winnie get to know this fact he becomes terrified, the Tucks kidnap her and take her back to their residence. They try to explain that they gained their immortality accidentally after drinking from a small spring. It became obvious that they could not die when Jesse fell from a tree without a single scrape. They started suspecting that something was wrong after twenty years passed and they still stayed at the same age. Their neighbors started diverging from them. Winnie happened to be the first person since then to discover them, and get to know of the spring. Living with them, Winnie gets used to their trouble-free going lifestyle. She also starts feeling some romantic feelings to Jesse, and he tries to persuade Winnie to drink from the spring too. Angus warns her against it.
Having found out that Winnie had run into the woods, Miles uses this data to attain the Fosters’ property declare to this piece of the woods in substitute for Winnie’s return. Winnie is rejoined with her family and gets to know that the Tucks are in jail for killing and about the intends that they are to be executed, eventually disclosing their secret. Winnie herself decides not to drink water, and lives a quiet life, dying at the age of seventy eight.
Differences
It is necessary to mention, that the movie has lots of insignificant differences, but the significant detail are the following:
- Winnie is 15 or 16-years-old in the film; in the book, she is 10-years-old.
- The movie takes place in 1914, while the book in 1880.
- In the book, Winnie loved Jesse but his cares for her appeared to be as a friend since he was older. In the film, Winnie and Jesse are of the same age and seem to equally feel love for each other.
- In the movie, Mae is rescued from jail when Miles and Jesse stage an attack on Winnie to distract the sheriff. This never happens in the book.
- In the movie, the man in the yellow suit harasses Jesse, to contradict Jesse’s eternity. In the book, the man proposes that the Tucks execute deadly feats to confirm the spring’s powers to the people, but never actually assails any of them.
- In the film, it is Jesse who goes back to find Winnie’s tombstone, by the spring; in the book it is Angus and Mae who come back, discovering the gravestone in a cemetery.
Comparison of the themes, symbols and associations
On the whole, there are two kinds of music in Tuck Everlasting: low-key, countrified, approximately changeable channels for a small and premeditated orchestral accompaniment, which infrequently rises to great thematic increases; and fast, lively, ordinary countryside twirls featuring swindles, guitars, ethnic flutes, and all style of bubbling and exciting drumming. The only matter with this is that most of it resonances like it was written by Thomas Newman, such was the case of temp-track love that Ross faced on this project.
The country tracks, represented in cues such as ‘Tree gap’, ‘Tuck’s Place’, ‘Finding the Tucks’ and ‘Jailbreak’, are beautifully sparkling, and characterize a number of outstanding solo presentations – not least from regular Newman coworker George Doering on guitar, and Michael Fisher’s irregularly show-stopping drumming work. The latter is most obvious in one of the score’s few exploit cues, ‘Kidnapping’, where he unites some large-scale flourishing and banging with string expressions Chris Young would be pompous to call his own. ‘Winnie and the Tucks’ is also terrifically remarkable in its own right, but yet again extremely unoriginal – to the degree that its collision as a solo cue is diminished by its acquaintance.
The theme is the fundamental significance of the story, a general truth, an important proclamation the story is creating about society, human being nature, or the human stipulation. A book’s theme must be explained in worldwide terms, not in terms of the plot. The plot is the way the general theme is carried out in that meticulous book. Subjects can be related to the booklover’s own life or to other writing.
The themes described
- Immortality
- How living forever might not be good
- Family problem
- Growing up
- Life cycles
- Making choices
- Making decisions
- Keeping secrets
- Friendship
- Life cycles
The fear of death
This fear differs greatly among cultures. A number of these collections incorporate death into their global view and do not emerge to port a fear of death. But the fear of the death seems to be a recurring idea even in the middle of individuals in these clusters, since humans are intrinsically original and easily percept the simple notion of “what if my belief scheme is not right.”
The notion of death is not purely hard-coded, and kids learn about this by chance. It is very ordinary for children to be concerned when they learn about death, and mainly the knowledge that they too will die.
A healthy fear of death would be the fear of dying unprepared, as this is a fear we can do something about, a danger we can avert. If we have this realistic fear, this sense of danger, we are encouraged to prepare for a peaceful and successful death and are also inspired to make the most of our very precious human life instead of wasting it.
If we base our life on a realistic awareness of our mortality, we shall regard our spiritual development as far more important than the attainments of this world, and we shall view our time in this world principally as an opportunity to cultivate positive minds such as patience, love, compassion, and wisdom. Motivated by these virtuous minds we shall perform many positive actions, thereby creating the cause for future happiness. When the time of our death comes we shall be able to pass away without fear or regret, our mind empowered by the virtuous karma we have created.
References
Askenasy, J. J. M. “The Functions and Dysfunctions of Laughter.” Journal of General Psychology 114.4 (1987): 317-334.
Lynn, Ruth Nadelman. Fantasy Literature for Children and Young Adults: An Annotated Bibliography. New Providence, NJ: Bowker, 1995.
Sybouts, Ward. Planning in School Administration: A Handbook. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.