Fried Green Tomatoes

Andee Ondina
Jeannina Perez
WST 3015
April 14, 2010

Ecofeminism in Fried Green Tomatoes

    The movie Fried Green Tomatoes is based on Fanny Flaggs novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The movie begins with introducing Evelyn Couch, a self concsious, unhappy, middle aged, housewife, who escapes her dull life by meeting up with Ninny Threadgoode, a resident at the near by nursing home. Ninny's walls are covered in decorations of flowers, nature and memories. Ninny begins telling Evelyn a empowering story of two strong women, Idgie and Ruth, taking place in the depression era of the rural south. The two women's story, who's love and friendship got them through abusive husbands, children, death, and murder helped Evelyn Couch be strong in her own life.

    Women in the movie seemed to be run by men; Ruth and her abusive husband, Evelyn and her demanding husband. It seems that the women in the film represented nature, and oppresion of nature were the men. "Shiva (1988) noted that in the western model of development, sources, living things that can reproduce life--whether forests, seeds, or women's bodies -- are turned into resources to be objectified, controlled, and used" (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 538). All the women in the story seemed to be more intuned to their own nature. Idgie and Ruth do not fall into the stereotypes women were expected to hold during that time. They were liberated, they smoke, gamble, drink, have a job, and speak their mind. Idgie's and Ruth's nature enlightend Evelyn to start standing up for herself in her own life. Idgie and Ruth are both more in touch with nature than Evelyn is. Idgie and Ruth enjoy the outdoors, Idgie, a tomboy likes getting dirty and relying on the environment, Evelyn takes this and using the nature she once overlooked, empowers herself. "Everyone is connected to the natural environment in the most mundane but prfound ways..."(Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 538).

    In the end of the movie Evelyn and Ninny find themselves in front of what used to be the Whistle Stop Cafe, the location of half the stories Ninny had been telling Evelyn. Ninny is distraught at the sight of the condemned spot. The same spot years ago, was so full of nature and life. Now all that was left was dirt and weeds. Ninny was looking forward to going back to the same lively spot she spoke so foundly of, instead she found nothing. No one had even cared to think twice of knocking down something that had meant so much to her. This goes to prove that although some people view nature as just a piece of land, that can be used to make money, many people see it as a home, a memory, a story. Land should be preserved, not wasted.

   

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women and the Environment. Women's Lives Multicultrual Perspectives. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 535-549.