Journal #4

THE COLOR YELLOW, A SYMBOL FOR WEALTH, JUST LIKE A FLOWER, RICH IN BEAUTY, BUT NOW INTERPRETED AS RICH IN MONEY

The ‘Man in the Yellow Suit’ is a pivotal character from the novel Tuck Everlasting. His mysterious yet inconspicuous personality made him the antagonist of the novel. We never really get a name form ‘The Man in the Yellow Suit’, which gives us a great sense of mystery in the novel, something strange, something unique and enticing in a fearing kind of way. Over the course of the story, the name just becomes more unpleasant and dark and eerie, the author states, “His face was without expression , but there was something unpleasant behind it that Winnie sensed something unpleasant at once, something that made her instantly suspicious” (Babbitt, 2007, p.93). This man has a confusing personality. His appearance seems old, and sweet, charming in some way or another. I was always thinking what could this old man? The first time Winnie saw the man was described as so, “He was remarkably tall and narrow, this stranger standing there. His chin faded off into a thin, apologetic beard, but his suit was a jaunty yellow- A black hat dangled from one hand” (Babbitt, 2007, p.17). The Man in the Yellow Suit is a smart, strategic, business person. He acts so professional in times of crisis and can get anything he wants with his intellect and smarts. The man once said, “I have a great deal to say and very little time for saying it” (Babbitt, 2007, p. 94), giving him a sense of “almost friendly” (Babbitt, 2007, p.95). The Man is definitely one of the most ambitious character from the whole story. He was told that there existed a way to live forever, and he devoted his whole life to finding a way to use this story as his advantage, he says to the Tucks, “I decided to devote my life to finding out if it could be real, and if so, how and why” (Babbitt, 2007, p. 95) He wants to use this as an advantage to get rich, to make relevant people never reach an end, so he tells the Tucks, “You may as well join me in what I am going to do. You can show me where the spring is so you can advertise it” (Babbitt, 2007, p.98). The Man in the Yellow Suit has a commanding presence. Clearly he gets what he want, but the only thing standing in the way of his plans being accomplished are the Tucks, they don’t want The Man to sell the spring water, just for the sake of living, and when The Man does not get what he wants, he gets frustrated, as shown in this paragraph, “I’ve, and you refused it, I’ll take the child and I’ll be on my business. I can’t think why you are so upset. Did you really believe you could keep the water for yourselves? Your selfishness is quite extraordinary, and worse than that, you are stupid” (Babbitt, 2007, p.99-100). Lastly, in real life, The Man in the Yellow Suit remind me of Dominican politicians. Not only are they old and dedicate their whole life to the same thing, they also want to hoard money for themselves, no caring at all about the people’s needs and always getting frustrated when plan A does not work. In conclusion, The Man in the Yellow suit is a business man, here to find only one thing, the spring water, so he can be able to make a fortune out of people that want to be immortal.