Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop Cafe: Novel vs. Movie
“I may be sitting at the Rose Terrace Nursing Home, but in my mind I’m over at the Whistle Stop Cafe having a plate of Fried Green Tomatoes” (Flagg ). Both the novel and the movie received a number of great reviews and honors. However, the two vary greatly in content. The novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, brings the reader a much more detailed and very different story compared to the movie.
For example, the character Vesta Adcock as portrayed in the novel is a citizen of Whistle Stop. Flagg sees Vesta as having church meetings and socials at her home and also as being the president of the drama club. “... Mrs. Vesta Acock, this little bird-breasted woman... who’s from Whistle Stop, came in wearing her fox furs and her diamond dinner rings” (Flagg 27). However, in the movie, Mrs. Adcock’s character changes completely. She does not play a woman from Whistle Stop, but Ed Couch’s aunt. The film shows her as a grouchy old woman residing in the Rose Hills Nursing Home
Also, in the novel Flagg describes Buddy Threadgoode’s lover as Eva, the town harlot and proprietor of “The Wagon Wheel River and Fishing Club”. “...she had slept with a lot of men..., but [Buddy] didn’t care. Eva was as easy with her body as she was with every thing else.... The first time she took [Buddy] to bed, she made him feel like a man” (Flagg 94). Although the movie shows Buddy in love with the most admired woman in Whistle Stop, Ruth Jamison, the film shows Buddy walking with Ruth by the river. His eyes light up when he sees her and he cares about her greatly. In fact, he was trying to retrieve Ruth’s hat when the train killed him. Ninny Threadgoode says in the movie, “...his heart belonged to Ruth Jamison.”
In addition, in the novel, Evelyn, who feels her life has become an endless battlefield, mainly because of her severe self-conscienceness, invented a person she used to give her courage in times she felt belittled. When someone would make her feel worthless Evelyn would think about Towanda and all the super hero battles she would fight if she really were Towanda. “Evelyn had even made up a secret code name for herself... a name feared around the world: TOWANDA THE AVENGER!” (Flagg 238). On the other hand in the movie, the unrefined and untamed Idgie Threadgoode thinks up Towanda. Evelyn uses...
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...st scattered to the wind.” She does not find her house, although her new friend comforts her. In the movie, Ninny says,“ Hey Evelyn, somebody stole my house. It was right here when I left.” Evelyn, who has fallen in love with Ninny, takes Ninny to her house and makes a home for her there. However, in the novel, Ninny Threadgoode goes back to her home in Whistle Stop, a growing city. There has been a lot of changes in the town, and all of Ninny’s memories have become rundown issuers. Despite the changes she returns to her house. Shortly after she returns, she dies a peaceful death in her sleep. “She wasn’t sick...she died in her sleep” (Flagg 378).
Indeed, the movie and the novel hold many differences. Characters have changed, been eliminated, events have been left out, and relationships differed. Despite the changes, the film still managed to live up to the standards the book set. “Fried Green Tomatoes is a thorouly enjoyable move...,” says James Berardinelli quoted from the internet. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1987, this novel has tons of material which changed in the screenplay. However, both works offer dynamic characters, an interesting plot, and charming dialogue.
Being essential to the characteristics of a few of the main characters, Evelyn Couch, Ruth Jamison, and Idgie Threadgoode. While during one of Evelyn’s usual nursing home visits, she happens to strike a conversation with an old kind card of a woman (Ninny Threadgoode) who happens to brighten her day with the telling of stories from the past. As she begins Ninny recounts tales of her sister-in-law Idgie a young free spirited girl who always seemed a cut above the rest, but however, differed from others in the sense that after her older brother Buddy’s untimely death she began to close herself off to others around her. While before then was always different as she was a girl who enjoyed rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with
Overall, the movie and book have many differences and similarities, some more important than others. The story still is clear without many scenes from the book, but the movie would have more thought in it.
There are few similarities between the book and the movie. Usually most movies are similar to
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Each version also has the main characters boarding up the windows. Anyone who thought the birds won’t attack are usually found dead, but in the movie they are found with their eyes pecked out. Also, both the story and the movie have REALLY bad endings! They aren’t very similar, but they both leave you hanging. When you see a movie or read a book you want to know what happens to the main characters. In these two, you didn’t get an ending. They left you hanging and for some people that ruins it all.
...d coloring of certain images. The novel, however, puts much greater emphasis on the imagination and creativity, and on the main character Tita. The novel really makes the reader feel Titas pain and grow with her as she discovers her freedom, whereas the movie failed to achieve this. Moreover, the movie tends to ignore the significant of 3 integral motifs, cooking, tears and sensuality.
There are very few differences between the Book and the Film of To Kill A Mockingbird. But one of the few differences that you can’t miss is in the film there are several characters that were never introduced such as Mr.Dolphus Raymond, Aunt Alexandria, Uncle Jack, Miss Caroline, Cousin Francis, Miss Gates, and Aunt Rachel. Also in the film they left out some scenes such as the scene where it snows in Maycomb and Miss Maudie 's house burns down. A few similarities in both the novel and the film, first similarity is that Scout Finch is the narrator in both. Another key similarity is the story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama.
Now for the counterargument. Some people say that they enjoyed watching the movie after reading the book. They may say that they think the movie does follow the book, and that the characters and events are the same in both versions. However, they are wrong because there is plenty of evidence that says otherwise. The different scenes of the book and movie, and also the characters that are completely different and don’t follow the same path in the two different
The story Flowers for Algernon has both similarities and differences with the film version Charly such as they are both same age and act the same way. They both aren’t very smart and they act basically the exact same. They both read and write the same and they both do the same thing. Miss Kinnian is a little different in the book than the movie. She is a teacher in the movie but in the book she isn’t. Dr.Strauss is also different from the book than the movie. Dr.Strauss is a woman in the movie but in the book Dr.Strauss was a man. The book and the movie both have similarities and differences, but it's good that there are differences because having the same thing would just make the movie
Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth were both prominent American civil rights activists of the 19th century who focused on the abolition of slavery and women’s rights issues, respectively. While both of these women challenged the societal beliefs of the United States at the time regarding these civil rights issues, the rhetorical strategies used by each of these women to not only illustrate their respective arguments but also to raise social awareness of these issues was approached in very different fashions. Angelina Grimke promoted the use of white middle-class women’s positions in the household to try to influence the decision makers, or men, around them. On the other hand, Sojourner Truth, a former slave turned women’s rights activist,
In conclusion, details involving the characters and symbolic meanings to objects are the factors that make the novel better than the movie. Leaving out aspects of the novel limits the viewer’s appreciation for the story. One may favor the film over the novel or vice versa, but that person will not overlook the intense work that went into the making of both. The film and novel have their similarities and differences, but both effectively communicate their meaning to the public.
The 19th century was a time of great social change in the United States as reflected by the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement. Two very influential women leaders were Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth. Grimke was born a Southern, upper class white woman. She moved to the North as a young woman, grew involved in abolitionism and women’s rights, and became known for her writing, particularly “Letters to Catherine Beecher”. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree; she escaped to freedom, changed her name, and became an active speaker on behalf of both the abolition and women’s rights movements. Truth’s most famous speech is “Ain’t I a Woman?”. While both Grimke and Truth use a personal, conversational tone to communicate their ideas, Grimke relies primarily on logical arguments and Truth makes a more emotional appeal through the use of literary strategies and speech.
Some of the characters in the novel, like Lennie, are portrayed differently in the movie. In the novel, Lennie is said to be “a huge man” (2), but in the movie he isn’t very big, although he is bigger than George and some of the other characters. In the movie he is stronger and bigger than the others, but not to the extreme amount that the book portrays him to be. Also, Lennie is depicted as very mentally challenged, which is shown by the way he speaks. Whereas in the book, Lennie is said to have a mind of a young child instead of being disabled. As well as Lennie, Curley’s wife is represented a little bit differently. In the movie,...
For this assignment we were asked to review a movie. I choose to analyze the movie Fried Green Tomatoes from 1991. This movie has many lessons hidden inside, but also has a story of a story. It starts off with a woman named Evelyn Couch going to visit her husband’s bitter aunt, and turns into the daily visits to another member of that house. This woman’s name is Ninny Threadgood, and she always has wonderful stories to tell Evelyn. At first, she seems unsure of this elderly woman’s presence, but opens up quickly. These two ladies have a connection, and Evelynn’s prospective of life soon changes. Ninny tells her stories all along, but in the end it reveals that Ninny was really talking about her life in the past. Evelyn was going through a rough patch in her life, and visiting this woman was all she needed to make some changes. She changed her diet, knocked out a wall in the house, stood up for herself, and changed her
One thing that can make a book good is characters. In the book, there were many more animals in the farm. The movie did not show many animals except for the main animals. Even thought this is a small difference, it can be noticeable. In the book, Mollie was a character.