Movie

I have posted the trailer for the movie once more because I decided to actually watch the movie. The movie stars Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jessica Tandy. The movie overall did a good job of expressing the main themes and plot of the story. It got out the message that Fannie Flagg had intended when she wrote the story. It was well casted and they did a great job.

         There were many, many differences though that I found to be interesting. First of all, the way the book is written makes it hard to convert into a movie. It has a bunch of little episodes of story from all different time periods that you have to connect to each other to understand the story. Obviously that would have been a very confusing movie. They ended up putting most of it in chronological order.

         One of the major differences was that they left out alot of the black slaves stories and even some of the characters. I think that they did this because they wanted to make the story revolve mostly around Ruth and Idgie and going into detail about other smaller characters would have taken away from the main plot line. By doing so, they had to change the way that Buddy died and introduced Ruth much earlier into the movie. Ruth comes into Idgie’s life when she is a teenager and in the movie Ruth knows Idgie when she was just a little kid. For the movie they needed to be able to build up the relationship between Ruth and Idgie quickly and if they had waited to bring her into the plot it would have taken too long to fully grasp their relationship.

         Also there are many times in the book when Mrs.Threadgoode is telling the story and does not know the full details of what had happened which made the book much more mysterious. For example, when Idgie went on trial for killing Frank Bennett, the reader did not find out who actually killed him until way after the trial. The reader got a chance to guess who killed Mr.Bennet. In the movie, everything is chronological so you get to see that Sipsey killed Frank leaving no mystery. Since it was a movie, the only way to show that Frank had been murdered was to show the scene before the trial or else it could have been confusing.

         In the book during the trial, Ruth had already died so she was unable to testify for Idgie. In the movie Ruth was alive. I found this to be peculiar because it doesn’t make sense that Ruth was able to testify for Idgie and Idgie still be in trouble. Ruth was her alibi in the movie which helped her get out of the trouble but in the book that is the reason the trail gets even worse for Idgie.

         Now to discuss Evelyn. In the movie Evelyn attends all of these classes to help her marriage which she doesn’t do in the book. I think she does this to emphasize how bad her marriage really is. Also it is hard to understand how depressed Evelyn really is in the movie. In the book she explains how she is practically suicidal. The movie does not do the best job of explaining this.

One of the biggest differences between the book and the movie is that Mrs. Threadgoode never dies and they imply that Mrs. Threadgoode is Idgie. They never go into Mrs.Threadgoode’s life or ever show her in any of the flashback. In the book they are clearly two separate people. I can’t quite figure out why they would do this. In the book there are so many different characters each with their own stories and backgrounds. The screenwriter might have thought it would be easier to cut her out and just make Mrs. Threadgoode be Idgie.  Evelyn looks up to both characters, Idgie and Mrs. Threadgood.  By making them the same person it ties the story together a little better and more simply.

Dynamic Character: Updated Character Study of Eveyln Couch

         After finishing the book I was amazed at how Evelyn Couch transformed into a completely different woman. She went from being suicidal to a woman with self-worth and a passion for life.

Evelyn had her breaking point when a man at the grocery store had called her a fat old bitch. She was so upset by it and could not understand how people could be so terrible. And for the first time in her life she became extremely angry. All of her rage motivated her to want to change and do something with her life. On page 237 Evelyn's life took a sharp turn in the other direction. She was ready to put her life back together. Of course with the help of Mrs. Threadgoode she was able to realize that she could work at Mary Kay’s and sell make up.

         She also decided that it was time for her to serious about getting healthy and losing weight. She sent herself out to a ranch for a few months where she really found herself. She was popular among the women. Whenever a new person came to the ranch everyone would tell them that they must meet Eyelyn because she was such a sweet southern women. She made so many friends that would stay with her for the rest of her life. They all vowed to meet once a year after they left the ranch. Evelyn ended up losing 45 pounds by the time she left.

         Now Evelyn had a job and felt good about herself. Her love life with her husband even began to get a little better. They were working things out and getting along well. Evelyn was now a strong, healthy, confident women who was no longer in fear of her own death but ready to enjoy the rest of her life the best she could.

Rhetorical Devices

"Although it was late, Evelyn decided to drive by the old house one more time. It was just getting dark, and as she came down the street, her lights hit the windows in such a way that it looked to her like there were people inside, moving around...and all of a sudden, she could have sworn that she heard Essie Rue pounding away at the old piano in the parlor...Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight, come out tonight..."

"Evelyn stopped the car and sat there, sobbing like her heart would break, wondering why people had to get old and die." (p. 384)

Flagg effectively expresses the pain that Evelyn feels when she visits Whistle Stop through imagery and flashback. Earlier in the paragraph Flagg expresses how the house is torn up and ragged but you could still feel the love that the Threadgoode family had given to the house. Evelyn has a small flashback to what the house must have looked like when the whole family was there. The entire story is a flashback so this section represents the layout of the entire novel. Flagg does a great job capturing the past and expressing the sorrowness that Eveyln feels.

The Trial

         We knew this whole time that Frank Bennet, Ruth’s husband, had been killed. No one knew who did it, not even Mrs. Threadgoode who was 82 years old. Idgie is the prime suspect along with Big George, her black friend. Idgie clams that she was at Ruth’s mother’s house with Ruth that night. The trial occurred so long after the murder that both Ruth and her mother had died and Idgie did not have an alibi. So, who killed Frank Bennet?
It could have been Idgie but in my opinion I don’t think Idgie would have done it. I believe she was staying over with her mother that night. I think she was telling the complete and honest truth.
Ruth could have killed him. She had many reasons to kill him. Frank beat her and cheated on her. He was over all a terrible person that sweet Ruth did not need in her life. If he had actually come down and tried to steal their kid I think Ruth might have killed him. But I don’t think Ruth did it because she was supposed to be with Idgie that night at her mother’s house. Ruth is also a very good Christian and breaking a commandment with god would send her straight to hell.
         Another person who could have killed him was Smokey Robinson. He was a hobo who had always been around the cafe. Idgie and Ruth would take such good care of him. He would work and help them out to repay them for their kindness. Smokey was also in love with Ruth, even though she did not know it, and he would do anything for her. If Frank had come to the house looking for her with a gun, I believe Smokey would have killed him right then and there.
          There is also Big George, I don’t think he did it either because he is the most obvious suspect and I don’t believe the story is that simple. I have no doubt he could and would have killed Frank but I believe what he said in court, that he was at home with his family.
         At this point I have no idea who was responsible for the murder of Frank Bennett but I am glad that terrible man was killed before he could hurt Ruth or any of the other people from Whistle Stop.

Images

The Whistle Stop Cafe

                    

The Cafe that Idgie and Ruth ran was much more than just a place to grab a bite to eat. It was what was holding the small town together. When the place went under, the town seems to fall apart. It was located just a few feet from the railroad and whenever travelers came through the town, they would always stop at the Whistle Stop Café for the best barbecue in the south.  Many hobos and people who could not afford the food would stop in and Ruth and Idgie would never turn down a single hungry person. It brought a sense of community and family feel to the town. So many different events were held at the little cafe. It was the place to hangout and relax. 

Junk Food

         Junk food was what brought Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode together. Their passion for food and treats helped start an ever-lasting friendship. For Evelyn, junk food was the only thing that made her happy. She knew it was bad for her and it didn’t help her as she wanted to lose weight but it was the only thing that made her happy. Every time she was down to the nursing home to talk to Mrs. Threadgood she would bring her some sort of junk food, like Tacobell, honeybuns, Twinkies, or candy bars. Mrs. Theadgoode told Evelyn not to go on any other those silly diets and to enjoy what makes her happy. She also told her not to worry about being a little over weight and to forget about what society tells us, no one needs to be model skinny and that she is beautiful the way she is. Food appears a lot throughout the novel. 

Railroad

         The train that passes through Whistle Stop represents life. It brings birth and death, and it keeps the town alive. The train brings Ruth to Whistle Stop where she met the love of her life. It brings in customers to the cafe, so it could stay in business. The train brings new people in everyday and without it, the town would be nothing.         

         Railroad Bill is a person who would ride the trains and dump food off whenever he would pass by slums near the small towns. Hobos would ride the rails to come to the Cafe where Idgie and Ruth would take care of them. They would give them shelter and food in return for a little work. The train led them to the cafe so they could survive. The trains kept the people and the town thriving. The train also caused death. The train killed Idgie's brother, Buddy, when she was a little girl. It caused the whole family much pain. The train cut off Ruth's sons arm, nearly killing him. When Ruth left to go marry her husband, the train took her away from Idgie causing her even more pain. The train is like the circle of life, birth and death, always coming and going. 

Beehive and Honey

Right before Ruth left to go back to Valdosta to marry her husband, Idgie took her to a beehive. Without any protective clothing Idgie went up to the beehive and carefully got a jar full of honey for Ruth. Thousands of bees swarmed Idgie but she never got stung and successfully brought the honey to Ruth. Ruth called her a bee charmer. Honey came up many times throughout the novel and was a symbol of Ruth and Idgie’s love for one another. When Evelyn visits Ruth’s grave she sees that there is a fresh jar of honey and a note that says that she will always love her. The honey represents all those years of love and sweet life. It showed how brave Idgie was and how strong her love was for Ruth. 

Depression

         

From the beginning, Evelyn was depressed. She even mentioned suicide a few time. She hates how bitter everyone is and how times have changed so much and all she wants to do is go back in time and be with Idgie and Ruth. She is enjoying life through the characters Mrs. Threadgoode tells her about.

            There was a part where Mrs.Threadgoode was talking to Evelyn about being depressed when she said "I just don't believe people are happy anymore, not like they used to be. You never see a happy face, at least I don't... Look at all these people pulling such dried-up, sour little faces, even the youngsters." This quote stood out to me. Could she really believe that no one today is as happy as they were in the 1930's? I feel like materialism and technology have gotten the best of us. We think that the only things that will make us happy are a brand new computer or iphone and to look like a movie star. We kill ourselves to get what we want and to make us fit in with society instead of doing what actually makes us happy. I wish I could go back and see what its like not having text messages and media. People would be forced to have better communication skills and interact with each other more. Most people who are depressed feel alone, and if there were people who knew how to communicate in other ways than texting, maybe they wouldn’t feel quite so alone. Technology has also caused many teens to become depressed through cyber bullying and have actually lead to suicide. Maybe Mrs. Threadgoode is right; no one is as happy as they used to be because everyone’s morals have changed. It is no longer about family and relationships but money and beauty.

             I think Evelyn is depressed because her husband is only interested in his television and she is too worried about looking good and having materialistic things.

Author

       Frannie Flagg is the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. She was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama and that's where she grew up.  Her parents passed away when she was young. She was given the name of Patricia Neal but created the stage name Frannie Flagg because there was already an oscar winning actress with the same name. She started acting as a child. Her acting career took her to college at the University of Alabama. She did not graduate but continued with her studies in theater in Pittsburg. She stared in many television shows, movies, and broadway shows such as The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The New-Original Wonder Woman and the Love Boat.  She played Nurse Wilkins in the movie version of the show Grease. 
     She wrote many scrpits for plays and shows but never really had a passion for writting until she did a writting workshop led by Eudora Welty.  She struggled because she was Dyslexic but ended up winning a contest and decided to publish her book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. She has written a few other books and continues to write about what she knows best.
Frannie Flagg lives with her girlfriend in New York city. She is a funny, good humored woman who belives strongly in equl rights.
     Knowing a bit about the writer, I can see where she got her ideas for her characters. Growing up in Alabama, she knows about life in small towns and about society in those times. Flags parents died when she was young similar to Niny's character. Niny grows up with another family because her parents had passed away. Flag is also a lesbian, just like Idgie and Ruth. I think that Idgie was inspired by Flagg herself and her the life she led. She writes about what she knows, such as southern life in Alabama where she grew up and what she lived through. A big beliver in civil rights, she has written a story about seperation and segregation of blacks and whites. She trys to get her point across in the book that racism is not good. Idgie is just like her and Idgie would never turn away someone of color from her cafe.

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epG1GuOGYws

       After reading any book it is always fun to see the movie and compare it to the book. The books are always better because they give so much more detail and more in depth character study. When you read a book you feel like you really get to know the characters and they can develop over time. With movies you only get to know them for a few hours.
       I recently discovered that this book had been made into a movie. I have not seen the full movie yet but I just watched the trailer for it. It is only a glimpse of the movie but I can already tell so much about it. I think that the characters look like they were casted well. Evelyn looks perfect for the role. She is exactly as i had imagined her to be, a little bit over weight and kind of depressed looking.  Niny looks a lot older than I had expected. I know that she was supposed to be in a nursing home but she looks so frail, which is not how she was described in the book. She is much more energetic and loud and full of life. Idgie is a little more girly looking than I had thought but she dresses the part. She is very tom- boyish and tough just like the book describes her. Ruth is a pretty southern lady like I pictured. Overall it looks like they cast the characters well even though they don't look exactly as I pictured when reading the story. I am interested in seeing the movie to see if they cut out any scenes of what they had to add when they wrote the screen play. From the trailer it seems like they stuck to the plot of the book.

Character Study

 Evelyn Couch is a 48 year old women who has lived her life following all the rules. Her two children moved away, living their young lives. Evelyn felt that she and her husband had never been more disconnected, she knows that he has cheated on her because she can not sexually satisfy him. She wasn't even sure if she still loved her husband. However, she did not want to get a divorce because she wouldn't know what to do with herself. She eats to make herself feel better. She always has a candy bar in hand or Taco Bell. She is rather depressed and even talks about committing suicide at the begining of the book but she knows that she can not go through with it. "Lately to get her mind off that cold gun and pulling the trigger, she would close her eyes and force herself to hear Mrs. Threadgoode's voice and if she breathed deep and concentratred she would soon see herself in Whistle stop" (p.133) Evelyn has grown so attached to this story, it is what gets her out of bed in the morning. It is almost an alternative to her life. One day a week she gets to engulf herself in this fascinating story that happened over fifty years ago.  Evelyn has always lived her life by the book.  Evelyn does not like change and these times have changed.  She does not like what society has become. She does not like all the vulgar language, the new television shows, and casual sex. When she was in high school, she was the classic good girl cheerleader and never smoked or drank. She was a southern lady who was always proper. She seems to be stuck in the past of her glory days. She is very depressed with everything going on in her life. When she goes to the nursing home she meets Niny who helps her come back to life. She helps Evelyn bring back her confidence. When Evelyn complains about how she needs to lose weight, Niny reminds her that she only gets to live once and a couple of candy bars won't kill her. She also told her that when she was depressed she would just walk. Walking was her therapy.  It saved her money by not having to go see a therapist. Niny gave Evelyn something to look forward to each week.

Niny Threadgoode is an older women living in a nursing home. She loves to talk and is very energetic. Niny acts as Evelyn's mentor throughout the story and slowly brings her back to life. She tells Evyln the story of the Whistle Stop Cafe with Idgie and Ruth. The theme does not revolve around her but she helps Evelyn learn the meaning of life. She encourages her to get off the couch and do something with her life because it's too short. She is such a young soul in an old person's body. "Pull your self together and open your heart to the lord" (p. 67) We can see from the beginning Evelyn has opened up to Niny who is giving advise to help Evelyn through this rough patch of her life.

Idgie Threadgode grew up in the 1920's.  Idgie had always been a stubborn little girl, she liked to play with the boys and hated wearing dresses.  When she found something she loved she could never let it go. She was very passionate about what she loved. When her big brother who she cared for so deeply got killed, she ran away from home. She had the hardest time with it. Then she met Ruth whom she loved so deeply. She is a tomboy who doesn't care what others think and always fights for what she believes in. This sometimes gets her into trouble. She treats everyone as a human being no matter their disability or color. She has a son who had lost an arm. She taught him to be tough and never to pity himself. She told him he could do anything anyone else could if he set his mind to it. That is how Idgie lived. She did not follow all of society's rules. She falls in love with a beautiful woman named Ruth. She is indeed a lesbian. People around her did not always accept her but the people who loved her did and that was all that mattered to Idgie. She also let colored people eat her food from the cafe. People in the town got upset with this. They warned her that she shouldn't be serving colored people, when it was a white only cafe. If it was up to her, she would have made her cafe open to everyone. She also had a soft spot for the poor. People would come from all over traveling and some times they were not able to pay. Idgie always would let them eat even if they could not afford it. She always offered southern hospitality.

Theme From American Literature

                   In American literature the most common theme is racism. In the twentieth century, it was a major issue and topic that everyone in America had to deal with. Many authors focus on the problems and issues caused by racism. Some of them have seen this through personal experience or hearing about it. When writing a story set in the 1920's and 30's in Alabama, racism has to be a major issue discussed. 
                So far in the novel, racism has been a reoccurring theme. The sub plot takes place in the 1920's and 1930's in the south near Birmingham, Alabama. Even in the small town of Whistle Stop, colored people and white people lived and ate separately. Idgie of course, rebellious as always, allows colored people to eat at her cafe if they come and pick it up from the back. It was frowned upon for her to do this in those days. Colored people are there throughout the novel. Colored people cook the food for the Whistle Stop Cafe and they take care of the people at the nursing home. When Ardis goes to Birmingham we see the Harlem of Birmingham where the colored people go to hang out. There were a few mentions of the Ku Klux Klan who had come over from Georgia. The KKK was still pretty big in the 1930's. They were upset that the cafe was selling food to black and white people. One of the people in the KKK happened to be Frank Bennet, Ruth's husband. Back at the nursing home Mrs. Threadgoode said something interesting to Evelyn about how most of the old people who lived in the home resented black people. It happened to be that most of the workers were black and took care of them. The old people in that nursing home in the 1980's were the ones living back during the depression and when there was still a lot of racism. Especially since the nursing home was located in Birmingham Alabama, these people only knew to be racists.                            

           Flagg brings up the great depression and how hard it affected the deep south. We first notice it with Railroad Bill, who throws food off the train for the poor people living along the tracks. They are all starving and thanks to Railroad Bill they can collect a little bit of food to survive. "Birmingham, the town during the Depression had been named by FDR "the hardest hit city in the U.S."(p.227)           
          She puts in another historical reference when she writes about the war and how Ruth and Idgies victory gardens are looking the best. During both world wars, people would make gardens so that more food could be used for the military and allies.

Beginning

      As the book begins I noticed that it is not written in one time period. Every chapter is a different date. It goes back and forth from the present day to the past. The story has two plots, a story within a story. When reading this story you really have to pay attention to the dates in front of each chapter to make sure the story fits together. This style of writing makes things more interesting and gives the story a more complex plot line that keeps the reader engaged. One of the plots is focused on Eveyln and the other is about Mrs. Threadgoode's crazy life in 1929.
      Mixed in with each chapter is "The Weems Weekly" which is a weekly little article from 1929 that talks about what is going on in the small town. It talks about the Whistle Stop Cafe and the people in the town. It gives the reader more insight into Mrs. Threadgoode's stories from the past.
       From the begining, we can see that Mrs. Threadgoode is a young soul stuck in an old person's body. She loves talking to people especially Evelyn who is just trying to support her husband by coming there to visit his sick mother. Mrs. Threadgoode is very outgoing and speaks her mind. She doesn't seem to care if the listener is interested; she just speaks her mind. The beginning of the novel hooks the reader and makes them want to keep reading to get to know the characters and their stories.