Setting

While reading the novel, Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg, I have noticed that the setting does play a major role, and could be considered a character. The peculiar thing about this book is that it has a few different settings because different passages are from different time periods and different characters. A major place is The Whistle Stop Cafe, the time frame ranges from 1931 to 1949. The cafe helps you learn about the characters and many things happen there. You learn how kind and compassionate Idgie and Ruth are, for example, "One of them was over here the other day for something or another and saw you was selling to niggers out the back door and thought he'd try to shake you up a little bit."(204). Even when she was threaten by the KKK she stood up for what she wanted and didn't care what other people said, or thought. The other most important setting in the book is the Rose Terrace Nursing Home, in the 1980's because this is where Miss Threadgoode tells Evelyn stories and we learn a lot from those stories. Mrs. Threadgoode liked to talk a lot, maybe too much, for example "One hour later, Mrs. Threadgoode was still talking. Evelyn Couch had finished three Milky Ways and was in the process of unwrapping her second Butterfinger, wondering if the old woman beside her was ever going to shutup."(11) She gives the best insight for the characters she tells us about, especially Idgie.