Tuck Everlasting: Chapter One Summary & Analysis

The route of the road to Treegap was developed long ago by a herd of cows. The road meanders pleasantly over and around hills and meadows until it gets to the wood, at which point it makes a sharp turn to go around the wood. On the other side of the wood, the road loses its pleasantness as it leads into the village of Treegap. It becomes straight and the grasses on either side look sad. The first cottage it passes has an iron fence around a cropped lawn, and it looks imposing and cold. The narrator says that this cottage, the jailhouse, and the gallows are the only things in Treegap that matter to the story.

The narrator says the wood is strange. Both the first cottage and the wood make a person want to pass by without disturbing them, but for different reasons. The wood looks like it's sleeping and shouldn't be disturbed, and the Fosters, the family that own the imposing cottage, also own the wood. The narrator suggests that the idea of owning land is odd, as it's unclear whether a person owns just the top of the earth or whether ownership extends all the way to the earth's core. Even though the Fosters own the wood, none of them, even the 10-year-old child Winnie, goes there. Winnie's not even curious about it, which the narrator suggests is because her family owns it and things are only interesting when they're not your own.

While the wood itself may be just like any other wood, with trees, birds, leaves, and bugs, the narrator suggests that the cows that routed the road around the wood were very wise. Had the road led through the wood, the people would've gone through too. Then, the people would've noticed a giant ash tree and a spring coming from around its roots, though the spring is hidden under a pile of pebbles. The narrator says that this would be a disaster that would make the whole planet tremble.