This quotation comes at the end of the chapter where the reader is introduced to Mae and Angus Tuck, very ordinary-seeming couple who wake up and discuss the day ahead. Lastly, this quotation is an example of the poetic writing that characterizes Natalie Babbitt's novel - phrases like "the weary old earth" and "tremb like a beetle on a pin" are colorful and evoke an emotional response in the reader.įor Mae Tuck, and her husband, and Miles and Jesse, too, had all looked exactly the same for eighty-seven years. The suggestions of something hidden also evoke curiosity in the mind of the reader. With its use of words such as "disaster" and "trembling," this quote suggests that this spring contains a very terrible secret, so severe that it could cause life as we know it to change forever. 8Įarly in the novel, the narrator makes a reference to the hidden spring that has granted the Tucks immortality, identifying this as the reason why the road seems to travel around the forest in Treegap. And that would have been a disaster so immense that this weary old earth, owned or not to its fiery core, would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin. The people would have noticed the giant ash tree at the center of the wood, and then, in time, they’d have noticed the little spring bubbling up among its roots in spite of the pebbles piled there to conceal it. Like Babbitt's daughter, Winnie will eventually come to see the significance of her own mortality, and will make the best of her life. The Tucks long for mortality, which Babbitt’s daughter and all other human beings already possess. This quote also suggests the reason why Babbitt wrote this book: to convince her daughter that living forever actually wouldn’t be that great after all. The quotation above suggests that this is because she has always known that she has the option of visiting it, and so it has never seemed like a priority to do so. However, she has never been particularly interested in this area until recently. Winnie looks out at the forest, which her family owns, from the gated yard. Nothing ever seems interesting when it belongs to you-only when it doesn’t.
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