Sunday, February 16, 2014

Why can't the Tucks stay together as a family in Tuck Everlasting?

The Tuck family can’t stay together because they never age or die and they do not want to make people suspicious by hanging around one place for too long.

The Tuck family stays on the move. Mae and Angus Tuck will set up a household for few decades and then move on. Since they are immortal, if someone were to see them too often they might wonder why they never age.



"We been in this house about as long as we dare, going on twenty years. … Then, too, it's off by itself, plenty of fish in the pond, not too far from the towns around. When we need things, we go sometimes to one, sometimes the next, so people don't come to notice us much" (Ch. 10).



Another reason the Tuck family can’t stay together is that even though they can’t have families of their own, Miles and Jesse like to travel and see the world. They can see a lot over the years, since time moves on without them.



"Tuck and me, we got each other," she said, "and that's a lot. The boys, now, they go their separate ways. … But they come home whenever the spirit moves, and every ten years, first week of August, they meet at the spring and come home together so's we can be a family again for a little while (Ch. 10)."



Mae comments that Miles and Jesse do not always get along. That is another reason why it is best that they do not all stay in one place. I guess when you live forever, you might get pretty sick of each other.


Miles had a family once, but his wife and children left him when it became clear that he was immortal. His wife thought that he was bewitched and was afraid to be around him. As a result, Miles lost his family. It was not possible for Miles or Jesse to have families unless they got their wives to drink from the immortal spring.

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