Green tomatoes (novel)

Green Tomatoes is a 1987 novel by the American author Fannie Flagg . The original title is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café . The book was also made into a film under the title Green Tomatoes (original: Fried Green Tomatoes).

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Flagg's novel, which interweaves the past and the present, tells of the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an older woman who lives in a nursing home.

Every week Evelyn visits her friend Ninny, who shares her memories of her youth in Whistle Stop, Alabama , where her sister-in-law Idgie and her friend Ruth ran a coffee shop.

These stories, along with her friendship with Ninny, show Evelyn how she can begin a new, fuller life.

Narrative

In the book the author switches between different narrators and timelines. The chapter headings with dates and places help the reader to orientate himself. Articles from the fictional newspaper The Weems Weekly are mounted in the course of the narrative . The author lives in Whistle Stop and also provides insights into everyday life in the small town.

Timelines

The story jumps between two main timelines: The first is in the mid-1980s. During this time, Evelyn Couch and her husband visited the nursing home where her mother-in-law lived several times a year. During a visit she meets another resident of the home: Ninny Threadgoode, who tells Evelyn about life in Whistle Stop. The stories Mrs. Threadgoode tells are set in the period from 1920 to 1969: this is the second period.

As the novel progresses, Ninny and Evelyn develop a lasting friendship. Evelyn also learns from the characters she encounters in Ninny's stories.

Events in Whistle Stop

Ninny is accepted into the Threadgoode family as a little girl. She later marries Cleo, one of the sons.

His brother Buddy and his youngest sister Idgie are inseparable. Idgie is a very boyish girl and learns to use her charm just like Buddy. When he is killed by a train in an accident, Idgie closes herself in grief and runs away from home. The only one who knows where she is is Big George, an African American worker in the family. Nothing can make the injured girl come back home or act like a lady until a few summers later the much admired young Ruth Jamison comes to Alabama to live with the Threadgoode family while teaching at a Bible school .

Idgie seems to be falling in love with Ruth, or at least very close to her emotionally. But when she returns to Georgia after some time to marry a man to whom she was promised, Idgie runs away from home again.

Ruth is mistreated by her husband Frank Bennett. Shortly after Ruth's mother died of an illness, Idgie received a message from her that she wanted to go back to her. So Idgie, Big George and some friends bring Ruth back to Alabama. Intimidated by Big George, Frank can't stop them. Soon after, Ruth gives birth to her son Buddy Jr. Idgie's father gives them money to start a business so they can take care of themselves and the child. They use the money to buy a cafe in Whistle Stop. Sipsey, Big George's mother, and his wife Onzell work in the kitchen there.

Idgie and Ruth move together Ruth's son Buddy Jr. big. The cafe is during the Great Depression in the United States among the hobos quickly known because there all customers are served in a friendly. One of those hobos is Smokey Lonesome, which over time almost becomes part of the family and stays there for a long time. Idgie and Ruth also serve the black customers from the back door of the café, although this is not welcomed at the time because of the racism. There is a confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan . At the same time, a Georgia police officer comes into the cafe to look for Ruth's missing husband, who was last seen on the way to Whistle Stop. He doesn't find any traces, but comes back several times because he likes the barbecue so much.

The café has been doing well for many years. But when Ruth died of cancer in 1947, the café was given up.

Several years later, Idgie and Big George are arrested for the murder of Frank Bennett after Frank's car is found in a lake near Whistle Stop. The charge is dismissed when the pastor exonerates her with perjury. Bennett's body is never found, but at the end of the novel it is learned that Sipsey killed him with a frying pan when he came to the cafe to kidnap Ruth's baby. Idgie knows Sipsey wouldn't stand a chance in a white court. So Big George prepares a barbecue with Frank's body , which is also served to the Georgia policeman.

Evelyn's life

Through the stories of Mrs. Threadgoode, Evelyn begins to question the meaning of her life. She comes to realize that what other people think of her doesn't really matter. In stressful situations she thinks of the brave and courageous Idgie. Thereupon she develops an alter ego that she calls Towanda and that personifies her fantasies of violence against the male-dominated society. But Evelyn gets a guilty conscience because she feels too good about her violent fantasies. After telling Ninny about it, she advises Evelyn to take hormones during the menopause, which will make her happier and more balanced. She takes a job at Mary Kay Cosmetics and takes on a more dominant role in her relationship with her husband.

She gets a new, more positive outlook on life, so she goes to a beauty farm to lose weight. While she is there, she receives a letter stating that Ninny has died and left her with a box full of pictures from her life. The end of the novel reveals that some of the people who lived in Whistle Stop are still alive.

Central themes of the novel

• Homosexuality and society hinted at by the relationship between Idgie and Ruth
• The position of women in marriage and society is shown in various facets:
  • Domestic violence in Ruth and Frank's marriage
  • Defenselessness of women against sexual violence in Frank's rape victims
  • Stabilizing role of women in maintaining a relationship in the case of Evelyn and Ed
  • Dominance of women using the example of Vesta Adcock
  • Openly living out one's own sexuality with Eva Bates
  • Breaking through the classic role up to the assumption of a more typical male position at Idgie
• The meaning of friendship, for example, in the relationship between Ninny and Evelyn or between Idgie and Big George or Eva Bates
• The relationship between law and a sense of justice illustrated by the trial of the murder of Frank Bennet and the pastor's false testimony
• Relationship of the black and white population in the southern states of the USA with representation of the segregation in the café and the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and the unequal treatment on the part of the judiciary
• Dealing with disabilities using the example of Ninny's mentally handicapped son Albert and the mutilated Buddy Jr.
• Presentation of the diversity and strangeness of religious practices in different Christian churches in the USA
• The life of tramps is shown using the example of Smokey Lonesome.

Influences

The Irondale Cáfe in Irondale, Alabama inspired Fannie Flagg to write her book. The café is still in operation today and, like the Whistle Stop Café, is known for its fried green tomatoes.