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    A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"
    A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"
    A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"
    Ebook43 pages43 minutes

    A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535823708
    A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe"

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      A Study Guide for Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" - Gale

      1

      Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café

      Fannie Flagg

      1987

      Introduction

      Most often described as folksy, Pulitzer Prize-nominated Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, written by comedian and actress Fannie Flagg, spent thirty-six weeks at number two on the best-seller charts. At heart a love story about Ruth and Idgie, Flagg's novel is often listed among the great novels written by women. Reviewers often compare the novel to Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone Days or Alice Walker's The Color Purple.

      In an interview with Samuel S. Vaughan, Flagg said, "Strangely enough, the first character in Fried Green Tomatoes was the café, and the town. I think a place can be as much a character in a novel as the people." The actual writing of the novel, however, began when Flagg received a shoebox full of items once belonging to her Aunt Bess who, like Idgie, owned a café near the railroad tracks. Flagg developed the story through countless hours of interviews with old-timers. The story of the town, composed of news clippings, narration, and Mrs. Threadgoode's reminiscences, is told to Evelyn Couch, a woman having a mid-life identity crisis and awakening to a sense of feminism. Evelyn finds therapeutic help in the stories of Mrs. Threadgoode about life in Whistle Stop during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

      Author Biography

      Before Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Fannie Flagg was a famous character actress wishing she had more time to write. This changed when she attended a writer's workshop featuring her favorite author, Eudora Welty. Embarrassed by her lack of education and her dyslexia, Flagg hid in the persona of a twelve-year-old girl in the short story Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. She won the workshop contest and the story became her first novel. With some success as a writer, she turned to a story dear to her heart: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.

      Flagg was born on September 21, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama. Her given name was Patricia Neal. Her parents, William (a small business owner and projectionist) and Marion Leona (LeGore) Neal, died when she was young. At the age of five, Flagg began her acting career by writing and starring in a three-act comedy entitled The Whoopee Girls. She started working in theater at thirteen by writing skits. Her big break came when she sold some material for a revue at Upstairs at the Downstairs in New York. The following week, late in 1956, she began her ten-year association with Candid Camera, on CBS-TV.

      Flagg attended

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