Who is the first character Winnie Foster meets from the Tuck family?
Jesse Tuck
What is the Tuck family’s secret, and how did they get it?
They are immortal due to drinking from a spring.
What animal of the Tucks' drank the water?
The horse
Why does Tuck shoot himself?
He wants to die and he wanted to confirm that he is immortal.
What effect does the music from the music box have on Winnie when she is first kidnapped?
It calms her down because she is reminded of her grandmother
What is the main reason Winnie runs away from home at the beginning of the story?
She feels trapped and wants freedom.
Who knows where Winnie is after she is kidnapped?
The Man in the Yellow Suit
What does Mae always carry around with her?
A music box
How does Jesse feel about being immortal?
He likes living an immortal life and he is carefree.
He wants the wood in exchange for giving them information on the whereabouts of Winnie.
Who is the youngest member of the Tuck family?
Jesse Tuck
What is the good dream that Tuck has at the beginning of the story?
He was dreaming about being in Heaven.
Why did Miles' wife leave him?
She thought that he sold his soul to the Devil and she left him because she was scared.
How does Mae feel about being immortal?
She is indifferent at this point about being immortal. She tries to not think about it too much.
Why doesn't Tuck want people to discover that the spring grants immortal life?
He doesn't want people to be greedy and disrupt the natural cycle of life. He says that people should be born, live, and die to have a natural cycle of life (the wheel).
What time of year does the story take place?
Late summer and August
What does the spring in the woods represent in the story?
The spring represents immortality and the consequences of living forever.
What does Winnie think about dying?
She doesn't want to die
How does Miles feel about being immortal?
He feels burdened and sad about being immortal. He has to watch the people he loved die. He thinks that being immortal prevents him from having a normal life.
What are some ways that the Tucks and the Fosters are different?
The Tucks don't have a lot of money, they live in a dirty and filthy home, they don't care about appearances, they live forever.
What does the story suggest about the idea of living forever?
That living forever can be a curse, as it leads to loss, loneliness, and a lack of change.
Where does Mae go every 10 years?
She goes to the edge of Treegap to meet Miles and Jesse
What does Jesse ask Winnie in a few years?
He tells her to wait until she is 17 years old and drink the water so that they can be together.
How does Tuck feel about being immortal?
He is sad that he can't live a normal life. He thinks that being immortal disrupts the flow of the cycle of life.
According to Tuck, why does Tuck keep bringing up a "wheel" to Winnie on the rowboat?
He compares life to a wheel because things need to keep turning and that life is a cycle that should not be broken.