It's a rare person who has the ability to live life for real. And to do this you only need to know your strengths, do things that are really interesting, be with those you love, and don't care what anyone else thinks or says about you. Only by stopping digging into your own and others' shortcomings can you find your place. The novel Fried Green Tomatoes, at the Half Stop Café is just about that, and more.
Fannie Flagg began writing and producing television specials at age nineteen and went on to distinguish herself as an actress and writer in television, films, and the theater. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (which was produced by Universal Pictures as "Fried Green Tomatoes"), Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!, Standing in the Rainbow, and A Redbird Christmas.
I was going to call this text "An Incredible Kindness Post," but then I changed my mind. There are different kinds of kindness. Some have an innate ability to understand and accept people while remaining open and welcoming. Some find it difficult to get out of their armor and reduce the distance between themselves and others, but these "some" do the right thing, preferring to remain in the shadows. This is a kindness of a special kind, and it can often save a life.
Fanny Flagg used the technique of hindsight through letters, notes, and memories, and combined the resulting text with conversations between the two characters in the present tense. Therefore, the plot develops not in a spiral, that is, in chronological order, but in spurts, or, if you will, in a mosaic. Of course, there is a general line that starts at the beginning of the 20th century and gradually "catches up" with the time of action in the book, but some events are first mentioned in passing, and only a few chapters later are fully revealed.
The story centers on the life of an unusual girl, a girl, a woman Iji in the circle of family, friends and enemies. Her fate, relationships with people, business acumen, and crazy stories are woven together in a series of flashbacks showing life in Alabama, a small now faded town. At the expense of the literary device that was voiced above, the story appears alive, breathing, as it does in a conversation, when the subject changes suddenly from a single word. This is how our memory works, it throws to the surface one episode after another. This is also how a novel is written.
I did not bring up the kindness, Idzhi is just the kind of people-wolves who live isolated, on his own mind, rarely opening up even the closest people. But for all her reticence, ostentatious rudeness and cynicism, she enjoys great influence in this small town. Of course, her fame is contradictory, and along with respect for her exhibit other not so pleasant feelings. Some even consider her a "cuckoo. She is a bit of a kook, but hardly anyone dares to say so, because Iji knows how to stand up for herself and for others. Yeah, yeah, you don't want to mess with a panther, especially if she's the owner of flaming hair.
Iji doesn't care what anyone thinks about her lifestyle, how she dresses, who she lives with, the fact that black people are served in her cafe, even if it's from her backyard, and that someone doesn't like it. She doesn't care about other people's anger, envy, and squeamishness. But once someone shows unkind intentions toward her partner Ruth, her child, her family and acquaintances, the indifference disappears. What's more, Iji can stand up for those who don't digest her at all and for whom she feels reciprocity. This is what distinguishes real kindness from ostentatious kindness - doing good not only to those you like, but also to those you wouldn't talk to at other times.
It is unlikely that the book is intended to promote ideals, to teach or mentor something. Rather, the way of life of the characters and the situations in which they find themselves allow the reader to reflect and draw their own conclusions. If you wish, you could say that "Fried Green Tomatoes..." - is an inoculation against snobbery, racism, chauvinism and other -isms with negative connotations, as well as all sorts of phobias.
Yes, the time in which Idji lived was extremely aggressive and intolerant of blacks, and the country still had a long way to go to recover from a protracted crisis, hunger, and poverty. And the clock hand had not yet reached the emancipation of the sexes. So you can imagine what a challenge to society at that time was a woman running her own business, not letting men near her, suspected of being unconventional, and even taking part in former slaves! Horror, scandal, shame, lawlessness! But this little big woman clicked everyone's nose and stood her ground against the odds.
There is, of course, something about the characters that makes it hard to believe in them to the end. And so some readers think that Flagg has deliberately idealized her characters, but I disagree. The characters are by no means perfect, they all have their quirks, and in many of their actions you can see a double bottom. This also applies to everyone's beloved Ruth, who in practice did not hesitate to manipulate her friend, also applies to the inhabitants of the Peninsula and Iji's relatives. And she herself is a walking bomb, certainly not a halo. Still, there's a sense that good wins out, and the evil-doers themselves will suffer for their actions. But that's not a bad thing. At least somewhere good will have a chance to outlive the bad. The end is always the same.
For me, "Fried Green Tomatoes" was close to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" in terms of perception and feeling. I won't tell you America here. Regardless of the time of year in the narrative, I still imagined summer and or that very beautiful fall. At one point I could easily imagine Jean-Louise growing up and becoming Iji and Ruth's neighbor. And then, as she grew older, retold the deeds of bygone days to her newly minted friend, as in reality Ninnie Threadgood did when she told her readers about the old backwater Halfway House.
After this book, one wants to examine oneself again from all sides, to remember and accept. It is fundamentally wrong that some people are higher and more wonderful than others - we are all unique, each of us has its own unique zest. And who cares who will be written about in the history books, and who will be left with just a shoebox full of pictures, broken dentures and other more unsightly junk. It's not "then" or "then," it's "now" and "now. And we only live once.
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