Tuck Everlasting Life, Consciousness, and Existence Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"But you see, Winnie Foster, when I told you before I'm a hundred and four years old, I was telling the truth. But I'm really only seventeen. And, so far as I know, I'll stay seventeen till the end of the world." (7.27)

For Jesse, eternal life means being "seventeen till the end of the world." Do you think that's really how things will go down? Or will Jesse eventually mature and feel more his real age—at this point, 104?

Quote #5

Into it all came Winnie, eyes wide, and very much amazed. It was a whole new idea to her that people could live in such disarray, but at the same time she was charmed. It was… comfortable. Climbing behind Mae up the stairs to see the loft, she thought to herself: "Maybe it's because they think they have forever to clean it up." And this was followed by another thought, far more revolutionary: "Maybe they just don't care!" (10.7)

Sure, the whole immortality thing is cool. But not having to clean up? Now that's what we're talking about. Why do you think the Tucks are so messy?

Quote #6

"Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short. We just go along, like everybody else, one day at a time. Funny—we don't feel no different. Leastways, I don't. Sometimes I forget about what's happened to us, forget it altogether." (10.12)

Mae seems to think that she's not that different from any ol' human. What do you think? Does being immortal make the Tucks inherently different?