In the space between consciousness and sleep last night, it randomly occurred to me how similar Twilight and Tuck Everlasting are. I don’t make it a habit to think about Twilight, but I was just remembering Tuck Everlasting from elementary school days, and thought, “That sounds like Twilight!”
For those of you who have never read it or never heard of it, Tuck Everlasting is a story about a well-off girl, Winnie, who is bored with her life. She meets a family who have a secret: they are immortal. This is because they drank water from a mysterious spring (possibly the fountain of youth?) years ago, and haven’t aged a year since. They are unable to die from injuries, either. Winnie ends up falling in love with one of the children, Jesse. He wants her to drink the water when she comes of age so they can be together forever.
- Jesse’s body is 17. So is Edward’s. They both seem “perfect.”
- Jesse is 104 years old, really. If I remember correctly, Edward is about that age too. or 120 or something.
- Tuck Everlasting takes place in a little town called Treegap. (Similar to Forks, actually.)
- Winnie is an only child, whose parents are both overprotective. Same with Bella.
- Winnie falls in love with Jesse at first sight. (Or, as the book puts it, loses her heart at once.) Bella pretty much does the same thing with Edward.
- Jesse’s whole family is immortal (even the horse). Edward has a “family” of immortals.
- The Tucks move around every once in a while, so people won’t get suspicious that they stay the same age. Same as the Cullens!
- While Jesse wants Winnie to become immortal when she turns 17 so they can be together forever, some of his family doesn’t want her to, saying immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Same with the Cullens. (Starting to get spooky?)
Anyway, of course there are some differences, such as the fact that the Tucks aren’t vampires, or that Tuck Everlasting takes place in the late 1880’s, or that Jesse is an actual real believable character, or that Tuck Everlasting has a plot in addition to the love story. The biggest difference, though, is the ending.
Jesse takes a bottle and puts some of the immortal water in it. He gives it to Winnie and tells her to drink it when she turns 17, then come find him. Then he and his family run from the law. Winnie decides not to drink it, though, and gives the water to a toad (??). The Tucks only find out because the mom and dad go back to Treegap years later, and see her headstone in the cemetary.
So, unlike Bella, Winnie chooses a normal, mortal life.
Other than that though, the stories are ridiculously similar. Tuck Everlasting was written in 1975, which makes me think SMeyer might have gotten a few of her “original” ideas from Natalie Babbitt.
Just a thought.
You give her too much credit. She probably took all of the ideas from bad Interview With a Vampire fanfiction, created her own Susie Q character, and went to town fantasizing about dead people.
Turns out that I am not the only Anti-Twilighter out there… But the way girls my age rant on about it (in other words, much of my population), you’d think it was a book about LOVE (by the way, if you want love, I recommend “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” or “Wuthering Heights” or even Shakespeare, for crying out loud). The definition of “love” is: a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone; too true in Twilight. But love is not love without the ups and downs (do NOT count E.C. running away in N.M. a “down”, I am talking about something a lot deeper than that), the friendships (yes, love normally starts with the FRIENDS roots), and to sum it all up, Twilight sucks. It is the worst book I have ever read- the language, the plot (or, in this case, lack of), the character development (see plot), the love (oh yes, once again, nonexistent), the flow of the story, etc. Even Twihards can’t deny it- it is appallingly written.
There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING original about Twilight- forbidden love (biggest cliche these days), vampire-human love (another cliche), “you’re my brand of heroin”?! Biggest cliche in the world! Seriously. Stephenie Meyer should go and die in a hole.
actually, a lot of the “similarities” you have drawn are inaccurate. it is possible that the overall plots regarding the relationships between the two main characters are somewhat similar in that they are both love stories involving immortality. also, the male characters are both 17 and their families move a lot. however, bella’s parents are not overprotective. in fact, they are very much the opposite of that. bella certainly did not fall in love with edward at first site. again, it was quite the opposite. you point out that jesse wants winnie to become immortal. edward did not want bella to become a vampire at all. in fact, he strongly opposed the idea. those are the three main points that are flawed in your disection.
That was a pretty good comparison! I never thought to put the two side by side, and I’ve read both books pretty closely (for english class). Glad to know as well that I’m not the only one who seems to strongly dislike Twilight and Stephanie Meyer’s work.
Except S. Meyer has no concept of things like plot and characters… so, suggesting she “borrowed” a few things is probably giving her too much credit. Edward was born from her own wet dream, remember? Ugh.
I think both are indicative of first loves and maybe what should of have happened rather than what did because first loves never die, they live forever. Many, not all, but many stories/books, are written as a parallel as what should have taken place in real life. Maybe Stephenie Meyer subconsciously has a first love or something, that’s why she had that dream. Who knows? Lol. But it is food for thought.
I was just comparing these things and wondered if anyone else saw the copy. Anyways, anyone who could possibly think that Twilight is better than Tuck Everlasting should get a reality check.
Dude. That’s really interesting. It is basically the same story. But of course, Tuck Everlasting was actually well written, has a non-cliche ending, and even teaches something.