History Literature / FriedGreenTomatoesAtTheWhistleStopCafe

''Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café'' is a 1987 novel by Creator/FannieFlagg. It was adapted into the film ''Film/FriedGreenTomatoes'', which was released in 1991.

''Fried Green Tomatoes'' tells the story of two enduring friendships. The first, set in [[TheEighties the modern day]], is between Evelyn Couch, a dissatisfied, middle-age, menopausal housewife too frightened of death to commit suicide, and Ninny Threadgoode, a boisterous and talkative octogenarian who bolsters Evelyn's spirits with her storytelling. The story she tells is of another pair of women: incorrigible {{Tomboy}} and raconteur Idgie Threadgoode and sweet, stubborn SouthernBelle Ruth Jamison, who together ran a café in [[TheGreatDepression Depression-era]] [[TheDeepSouth Alabama]].

** He's a Klansman in the movie as well, as Idgie points out because she recognizes his shoes when he's in his robes, and when he says he "doesn't recognize" the Georgian Klansmen that show up in Whistle Stop. Apparently [[EvenEvilHasStandards Whistlestop Klansmen have different standards for how they treat black people than the Georgia ones]]. This would, however, have been subverted by a deleted scene. Idgie mentions offhandedly that she recognizes the "size fourteen clodhoppers" she believes Grady wears. In the deleted scene, Grady reveals the truth--his feet (and thus his shoes) are actually quite small, and thus he couldn't have been who Idgie saw in those robes.

** To most younger readers, who are brought up in a world where racial slurs are intolerable, the easy way that the characters in the book use the word "nigger" is very strange and highly offensive. Absolutely justified, though, as that was how people talked to black people in the early parts of the 20th century; even with people like Grady, who likes Big George and his family, but talks down to him when trying to look big in front of out-of-town police officers, or the Threadgoodes who consider Sipsey and Big George part of their family.

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: In the novel, Idgie and Stump were out collecting leaves and pinecones for Ruth's sick-room when she died.

* KevorkaMan: Artis Peavey is not particularly attractive, and he's usually down-and-out, spends his money on gambling and flashy clothes, and relies on women to support him. Fortunately for him, the ladies love him and will fight each other to be the one to take care of him.

* CainAndAbel: Arguably deconstructed with Big George's twin boys Jasper and Artis. Jasper is born light-complected like his mother, while Artis is dark like his father. Throughout his life, Jasper is encouraged to mingle with only lighter-complected black people and to be deferential to white people. Jasper grows up hard-working, successful, and highly respectable, while Artis comes to resent his brother's advantage, leading him down a path of fast living, gambling, and crime. As children, Artis's resentment drives him to attack his brother with a penknife, while as adults, Jasper loves his brother but finds himself avoiding Artis due to Artis's unsavory lifestyle. The book none-too-subtly hints that the difference in the brothers' lives are due to the disparity in the way they were raised and the way their complexions are perceived by white society.

* StrawFeminist: Various purposefully comical stereotypes show up in Evelyn's time, and after getting caught up in the story, Evelyn herself becomes an aggressive female-empowerment activist for a while before calming down.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Due to some ambiguous pronouns, Evelyn is devastated and furious when a nurse seems to callously tell her that Mrs. Threadgoode has died. She's also a little bit ''too'' happy when the nurse clarifies that it was Mrs. Threadgoode's ''roommate'' who died.

* ScaryBlackMan: Big George invokes this when he and Idgie help Ruth leave Frank. All he has to do to scare Frank out of interfering is stand there, be big, and core an apple.

* PsychoKnifeNut: At age 10, Artis stabs his brother Jasper and can't stop when he finds out how good it feels (thankfully it's only a pen knife and Jasper survives). Many years later, [[spoiler:when his brother Willie Boy is murdered, Artis [[{{Revenge}} tracks down the killer]] and cuts his heart out]].

* ButtMonkey: Julian Threadgoode is the Butt Monkey of the Threadgoode family. Even the baby of the family, Idgie, takes advantage of his gullible nature and lack of smarts while they're growing up. [[spoiler: In spite of this, Julian and Idgie end up as companions in their old age.]]

* JustLikeRobinHood: Railroad Bill is a local outlaw who breaks into government railroad cars to steal supplies, which he throws off the train to down-and-out people suffering during the Depression. While there's quite a price on Railroad Bill's head, no one is too eager to see him caught, as his stealing saves lives. [[spoiler: Later on, adult Stump reveals that Railroad Bill was really Idgie in AshFace working in secret with the town sheriff.]]

** In the film, Idgie is played by Mary Stuart Masterson, who at 5'4" is significantly shorter than many of the full-grown men she stands up to. (Subverted in the novel, where Idgie's described as tall and lanky.)

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: An odd but minor example: In the novel, the woman Ed and Evelyn visit in the nursing home is Ed's unnamed mother. In the film, they go to visit Ed's aunt Vesta Adcock. This is an interesting (if random) switcheroo, since in the novel, Vesta Adcock is a long-time resident of Whistle Stop whom Mrs. Threadgoode has known for many years, while in the film, they're only fellow nursing home residents and there's no evidence that they knew each other previously.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: The prosecutor thinks that Idgie and Big George killed Frank Bennett [[spoiler:but Judge Smoote dismisses the case anyways. Unbeknownst to him, the real killer is Big George's mother Sipsey.]]

* KissingCousins: Ruth and Idgie in the novel (though they're related by marriage, not by blood, and it's never established to what degree they're cousins).

* HideYourLesbians: Between Idgie and Ruth. See also AmbiguouslyGay. Averted in the novel, where they are explicitly a couple.

* CainAndAbel: Arguably deconstructed with Big George's twin boys Jasper and Artis. Jasper is born light-complected like his mother, while Artis is dark like his father. Throughout his life, Jasper is encouraged to mingle with only lighter-complected black people and to be deferential to white people. Jasper grows up hard-working, successful, and highly respectable, while Artis comes to resent his brother's advantage, leading him down a path of fast living, gambling, and crime. The book none-too-subtly hints that the difference in the brothers' lives are due to the disparity in the way they were raised and the way their complexions are perceived by white society.

* PassFail: Examined. One of the novel's subplots involves Big George's granddaughter Clarissa, who is light-complected enough to shop in white department stores. Unaware that his niece is trying to pass, her dark-complected elderly uncle Artis hugs her in public (in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1950s) while she refuses to acknowledge that they're related. Artis is violently ejected from the store, while Clarissa burns with shame over what she's done to him, but is unable to intervene, knowing she'll be even ''more'' violently ejected if the white employees realize they've been deceived.