Prompt #3

I think that the theme of Fried Green Tomatoes is acceptance. There are many things that people have to accept in the book, like Ruth and Idgie's relationship, Stump not having an arm, and African Americans. The people in Whistle Stop have to try to accept Ruth and Idgie's relationship. It wasn't very common for two women to be together back then, and if they were they were always trying to hide it. But Ruth and Idgie were very open about that, and I think that helped the people in town accept it. Also, Stump had to accept himself. It says, "'It's just that I'm scared, Aunt Idgie. I'm just plain scared... I'm kinda scared that I'll fall on her or lose my balence because of my arm...'"(266). Stump is scared to be with a girl because he is self concious about his arm, even though he can do anything without it. He is the quarterback on the football team, and yet the thought of being with a girl scares him and makes him worry about only having one arm. Another way the books shows acceptance is with the KKK and the black people in the south. "Quietly, two black pickups had parked in front of the cafe and about twelve members of the Klan, dressed in full regalia, had slowly but deliberatly gotten ou and lined up outside the cafe"(203). The KKK had gone to the cafe because they heard that they were serveing black people there. This shows that even though they were free, black people still hadn't been accepted by everyone. This is also shown when Clarissa was in the department store. "'I'm your Uncle Artis, your daddy's brother.'...'YOU GET AWAY FROM HER!...HE WAS GRABBING AT HER!'"(296-297). Clarrissa was a very fair skinned balck girl, and she could actually pass as a tan white person if she wantd too, and she was that day. She pretended to ignore her uncle and he ended up getting kicked out of the store for trying to talk to her. This shows acceptance, or lack of, because the sales lady accused Artis of grabbing at Clarissa.