In Natalie Babbit's Tuck Everlasting, weather plays a huge symbolic role. The weather in the novel symbolizes the life-forces of those who inhabit each area. When Winnie is stuck at home, yearning for something different from the monotony of her plain life, the sun is beating down on her back, the weather symbolizes discomfort, and a long for change. Sun often symbolizes exhaustion, and Winnie is very much exhausted of her life behind the fence.
When Winnie meets the Tucks, she enters a world with a climate much like that of the lives of the family. Constant, vibrant, warm, and full of life. The sun is warm, but not too warm, the weather stays in a constant state of equlibrium, never becoming unpleasant, much like the Tuck's, never growing old.
Finally, on the last evening the weather is dark, rainy, and gloomy, which symbolizes the bleakness of the situation. The Tuck's secret may be discovered, but at the same time, the rain is washing away the whole situation, a renewing of Winnie's spirit for life, a time-limited life, as we see in the later part of the book.
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