Tuck Everlasting

by

Natalie Babbitt

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Angus Tuck Character Analysis

Angus (sometimes referred to as simply Tuck) is Mae's husband and the father of Jesse and Miles. He's a sad and withdrawn man, which the narrator suggests is because he's unhappy with his life as an immortal. He dreams of being in heaven and when he later looks at the body of the man in the yellow suit, he feels envious. Winnie is afraid of him at first, but Angus is thrilled to have a real child in the house again. He takes her out onto the pond after supper and tries to impress upon her that it's absolutely necessary for everything to grow, change, and die, as that's the only way that the cycle of life and the cycles of nature can continue and support the world's inhabitants. In addition, he says that because he and his family can't die, they're no different than rocks or inanimate objects that don't change. A suspicious man, Angus is worried when someone steals the Tucks' horse, and he is also very concerned about getting Winnie back to her family. Everything that Angus does makes Winnie think that he's especially dear to her, including offering to sit with her until she falls asleep and allowing her to help them break Mae out of jail. Decades after the novel ends, Angus goes alone to the Treegap graveyard to see if he can find Winnie's grave. When he finds her headstone and learns that she was a wife and mother, he cries and salutes her.

Angus Tuck Quotes in Tuck Everlasting

The Tuck Everlasting quotes below are all either spoken by Angus Tuck or refer to Angus Tuck. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Purpose of Living Theme Icon
).
Chapter Ten Quotes

It sounded rather sad to Winnie, never to belong anywhere. "That's too bad," she said, glancing shyly at Mae. "Always moving around and never having any friends or anything."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Mae Tuck, Angus Tuck
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:

"Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short," she said calmly. "You got to take what comes. We just go along, like everybody else, one day at a time."

Related Characters: Mae Tuck (speaker), Winnie Foster, Angus Tuck
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twelve Quotes

"Life. Moving, growing, changing, never the same two minutes together. This water, you look out at it every morning, and it looks the same, but it ain't. All night long it's been moving, coming in through the stream back there to the west, slipping out through the stream down east here, always quiet, always new, moving on."

Related Characters: Angus Tuck (speaker), Winnie Foster
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:

Winnie blinked, and all at once her mind was drowned with understanding of what he was saying. For she--yes, even she--would go out of the world willy-nilly someday. Just go out, like the flame of a candle, and no use protesting. It was a certainty. She would try very hard not to think of it, but sometimes, as now, it would be forced upon her. She raged against it, helpless and insulted, and blurted at last, "I don't want to die."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Angus Tuck
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

"If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I'd do it in a minute. You can't have living without dying. So you can't call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road."

Related Characters: Angus Tuck (speaker), Winnie Foster
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Seventeen Quotes

"It'd be nice," she said, "if nothing ever had to die."

"Well now, I don't know," said Miles. "If you think on it, you come to see there'd be so many creatures, including people, we'd all be squeezed in right up next to each other before long."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Miles Tuck (speaker), Angus Tuck, The Man in the Yellow Suit
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty Quotes

And then Winnie said something she had never said before, but the words were words she had sometimes heard, and often longed to hear. They sounded strange on her own lips and made her sit up straighter. "Mr. Tuck," she said, "don't worry. Everything's going to be all right."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Mae Tuck, Angus Tuck, The Man in the Yellow Suit, The Constable
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Two Quotes

"I mean, what'll they say to you after, when they find out?"

"I don't know," said Winnie, "but it doesn't matter. Tell your father I want to help. I have to help. If it wasn't for me, there wouldn't have been any trouble in the first place."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Jesse Tuck (speaker), Mae Tuck, Angus Tuck, Winnie's Mother, Winnie's Father
Related Symbols: The Fence
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:
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Angus Tuck Quotes in Tuck Everlasting

The Tuck Everlasting quotes below are all either spoken by Angus Tuck or refer to Angus Tuck. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Purpose of Living Theme Icon
).
Chapter Ten Quotes

It sounded rather sad to Winnie, never to belong anywhere. "That's too bad," she said, glancing shyly at Mae. "Always moving around and never having any friends or anything."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Mae Tuck, Angus Tuck
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:

"Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short," she said calmly. "You got to take what comes. We just go along, like everybody else, one day at a time."

Related Characters: Mae Tuck (speaker), Winnie Foster, Angus Tuck
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twelve Quotes

"Life. Moving, growing, changing, never the same two minutes together. This water, you look out at it every morning, and it looks the same, but it ain't. All night long it's been moving, coming in through the stream back there to the west, slipping out through the stream down east here, always quiet, always new, moving on."

Related Characters: Angus Tuck (speaker), Winnie Foster
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:

Winnie blinked, and all at once her mind was drowned with understanding of what he was saying. For she--yes, even she--would go out of the world willy-nilly someday. Just go out, like the flame of a candle, and no use protesting. It was a certainty. She would try very hard not to think of it, but sometimes, as now, it would be forced upon her. She raged against it, helpless and insulted, and blurted at last, "I don't want to die."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Angus Tuck
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

"If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I'd do it in a minute. You can't have living without dying. So you can't call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road."

Related Characters: Angus Tuck (speaker), Winnie Foster
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Seventeen Quotes

"It'd be nice," she said, "if nothing ever had to die."

"Well now, I don't know," said Miles. "If you think on it, you come to see there'd be so many creatures, including people, we'd all be squeezed in right up next to each other before long."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Miles Tuck (speaker), Angus Tuck, The Man in the Yellow Suit
Related Symbols: The Boat and the Pond
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty Quotes

And then Winnie said something she had never said before, but the words were words she had sometimes heard, and often longed to hear. They sounded strange on her own lips and made her sit up straighter. "Mr. Tuck," she said, "don't worry. Everything's going to be all right."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Mae Tuck, Angus Tuck, The Man in the Yellow Suit, The Constable
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Twenty-Two Quotes

"I mean, what'll they say to you after, when they find out?"

"I don't know," said Winnie, "but it doesn't matter. Tell your father I want to help. I have to help. If it wasn't for me, there wouldn't have been any trouble in the first place."

Related Characters: Winnie Foster (speaker), Jesse Tuck (speaker), Mae Tuck, Angus Tuck, Winnie's Mother, Winnie's Father
Related Symbols: The Fence
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis: