"HER ORIGINAL NAME was Patricia Neal"(Reynolds1), but the author of Fried Green Tomatoes is better known under the alias: Fannie Flagg. In the novel Fried Green Tomatoes she uniquely compares the modern day world to the world in the early and the middle 1900's. As the novel shifts from the 1930's to the 1980's the significance of life is seen through two of the main characters, Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode and Evelyn Couch, as life ends and begins. Fannie Flagg shows that living life to its fullest indeed has its consequences, but is the only way to live a happy life without regrets.

From her start in the late 1920's Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode knew a little girl by the name of Imogene but everyone called her Idgie. Idgie was one of the Threadgoodes and back in Whistle Stop the name Threadgoode was a good name to have. They were the basic life of this little town in Alabama. The Threadgoodes were people known and well liked by the rest of the sparsely populated area. The name she carried did not stop Idgie from doing whatever she wanted to do whenever she wanted to do it. "Idgie used to do all kinds of harebrained things just to get you to laugh. She put poker chips in the collection bas

Maybe she was lectured by her priest or by her parents but she didn't regret it. Idgie was concerned with the present, not the past or the future. Of course she had her hardship that

could not have possibly lived life to its fullest. Because she did live life the way she wanted. And if she was asked if she lived life to its fullest, she would say, "The only thing I'd do different if I could go back would be to get myself a drivers license"(7). That's all! She was as close to perfection as she could be. When hearing this the question arises, "How did she do it? Or, what's the secret?" For Mrs. Threadgoode it was doing everything she wanted to. She was not concerned with material wealth and had faith that everything she needed would be provided by her God. "Cleo and I never did have a lot of fancy things, but the good Lord provided, and we had everything we ever needed"(26). This unselfishness and good faith gave her what she wanted, and all she wanted was nothing more than what she needed. She was fortunate enough to learn this throughout the years by the blindness of other people. In most cases it was money that blinded the people she knew.

These people like Mrs. Vesta Adock are blind from their own happiness. They can't see that their fox furs and diamond rings don't bring more happiness than other qualities, or

was not naturally the wild type and was never one to have urges to pull harmless pranks to get her kicks. She was more of an observer than a doer, but this doesn't mean she

Housewife, since this is what all of the women she knew were doing. It was an absurd thought to go run off with another young girl. Even though this is exactly what she wanted to do. Although she new it wasn't the choice she wanted to make she made it and suffered the consequences. "He's blackened her eye and knocked her down the stairs, and once, he broke her arm"(188). As if it wasn't bad enough leaving Idgie, she had married the devil. This was a choice that Ruth would do anything to change. Luckily Idgie was still deeply in love with Ruth and came to her rescue. "I admired Ruth for having the courage to walk away like that. It took real courage in those days, not like today, honey. Back then, if you were married, you stayed married"(191). This is the point at which Ruth started to realize she had to do something because this wasn't right. Her decision to leave he

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1618
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)