Figurative Language in Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting
For each expression, discuss
and identify the form of figurative language used: personification, metaphor or
simile. What images are evoked in your
mind? Do the words appeal to your
senses, your prior knowledge, or your personal experiences? What do they compel you to think about or recall? What is the literal meaning being
conveyed? The numbers in the
parenthesis correlate with the book’s pages.
1. The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. (3)
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2. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after. (3)
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3. The wood was at the center, the hub of the wheel. (4)
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4. The house was so proud of itself that you wanted to make a lot of noise as you passed, and maybe even throw a rock or two. (6)
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5. …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. (8)
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6. Then, last of all, she pulled down over her ears a blue straw hat with a drooping, exhausted brim. (11)
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7. "…I want some. I'm about dry as dust." (29)
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8. She had always pictured a troupe of burly men with long black moustaches who would tumble her into a blanket and bear her off like a sack of potatoes while she pleaded for mercy. (31)
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9. Jesse sang funny old songs in a loud voice and swung like a monkey from the branches of trees, showing off shamelessly for Winnie, calling to her, "Hey, Winnie Foster, watch me!" and "Look what I can do!" (44)
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10. The sweet earth opened out its wide four corners to her like the petals of a flower ready to be picked, and it shimmered with light and possibility till she was dizzy with it. (45)
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11. He looked solid like an oar, whereas Jesse-well, she decided, Jesse was like water: thin and quick. (84)
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12. Two days before, they would have insisted that she stay indoors, but now, this morning, they were careful with her, a little gingerly, as if she were an egg. (111)
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13. …and they ran together, lightly, down the road, past other sleeping cottages, into the
dim and empty center of the village. The big glass windows here were lidded eyes that didn't care-that barely gave them back reflections. (122)
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14. A dragonfly, a brilliant blue jewel, darted up and paused over the lily pads, then
swung up and away. (85)
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Choose one of the previous or following expressions from Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. Using your knowledge of figurative language, construct a poem based upon the main idea or the thought that appeals to the readers' senses.
q All wheels must have a hub. A Ferris wheel has one, as the sun is the hub of the wheeling calendar. Fixed points they are, and best left undisturbed, for without them, nothing holds together. (4)
q "Know what that is, all around us….Life. Moving, growing, changing, never the same two minutes together..." (61)
q "…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…" (61)
q " Everything's a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping." (62)
q "…dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing. (63)
q "…All the little ones little forever, all the old ones old forever. Can you picture what that means? Forever?" (64)
q "You can't have living without dying." (64)
q "…People got to do something useful if they're going to take up space in the world." (87)
q "The pond's got answers…Let's go out on the water." (59)
q "…it was the thought of seeing Jesse again that kept Winnie's stomach fluttering. (89)
