Wednesday, February 9, 2011
summer7 post #2
In the novel "Fried Green Tomatoes" by Fannie Flagg, I feel like Fannie made the setting one of the most important things in the novel. The setting just brings everything together,without it the book would not make as much sense or have the same affect towards pople as the writer wants. The setting in the novel includes some of the following, small towns, racial segregtion, strong family and friends reltions, and overall an entire town that lived arount the Whistle Stop Cafe. For example, when Ninny says, "Idgie opened the place at daybreak and didn't close the place until as she said, 'the last dog was hung'" (51). I understand that by just reading this quote you would not really see how the setting is an importance but it truly does almost wrap up the setting in one sentence. The reaon I chose this quote to help explain setting was because you can tell the Whistle Stop Cafe was the place to go, they were opened from daybrack till there was no more people wanting in even if that meant staying open all night. You can also tell that it's back in a later time period by the word choose used like how she said "until the last dog was hung" instead of saying something like until the last person was out. Another example that helps to explain the setting is when Grandy said, "Now Idgie you ought not to be selling those niggers food, you know better than that. And there's some boys in this town that's not to happy about it. Nobody wants to eat in the same place that niggers come, it's not right and you just ought not to be doin' it" (53). This quote really helps you understand that racial segregation in this story was a major part of the setting because, it shows that peopledid not want mxed colors in the same place. It also shows that Whistle Stop Cafe was a small town by the way he say's the "boy's of the town" which usually means it's a smaller population in a small town. So just by simply looking at these two quotes you can tell the setting has a major affect on the story and without it the story would be lost.
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I agree with Summer in the fact that the setting in "Fried Green Tomatoes" is one of the most important factors. To me without the setting of the somewhat racial Southern states, then the readers could get lost when trying to understand the importance of the stories that Mrs. Threadgoode tells. In order to understand the stories and to understand why what the main characters did could seem wrong back then, you'd have to understand what the times we like. Like when Ruth and Idgie would feed african americans out back at the cafe. Now a days that doesn't seem like a big deal becuase we as people aren't as racists as people were back then. We can not understand how people would be mad at that. With the setting I think it helps the reader understand the importance and the seriousness of the stories.
ReplyDeleteI somewhat agree. The café really helped the setting by becoming its own character. And by being its own character the café also helps compliment the issues Evelyn is having. The café became a place where the racial feelings of the time weren’t a major factor, cause Idgie did sell to African American out her back door, and like the café overcame some of those issues, Evelyn over came her issues with being the typical ‘house wife’ and trying to learn to be more confident in herself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you because I think that if they changed the setting at all the book wouldn't be the same at all. I think that even if they took one simple setting out, like the cafe, the book would be missing so much. A lot of the book is centered around the cafe, and it helped create that characters and make them who they are. Without the cafe, I think that you wouldn't fully understand who Idgie or Ruth were, so the setting is a very crucial aspect of the book.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the setting is very important! But mshurtz7. Come on its not sonewhat rascist, its completly racist! The way Grady talks about black people in the quote spells it out that it was a very rascist time. I agree with you maebutterfly1 when you said that at the cafe it wasnt as rascist as some parts of town because of the things idgie did. I think that if it wasnt for the setting, the cafe would have no importance. Because (at least not around here that i know of) people dont have a resturant where they go every day and hang with the workers and their neighbors and just talk about life. Thats not a normal thing now-a-days. Now its, keep to yourselves, dont let anyone in. Without the setting this book would make no sense
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this. Fannie makes every scene,the news paper, and cafe, the nursing home. Everything comes together and includes details that allows everything to flow together.It wouldnt make sense is the Whistle Stop cafe was in 1980 lets say. for one, black people would be allowed in, and there would be WAY more places to stop and eat and take a break rather then only one resturant. Also, people do not ride trains as much as the used to. So the idea of everyone being tired and travling for so long wouldnt be as stressed.
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