The Ethics of Four Southern Women:.
A Review of Fried Green Tomatoes.
Fried Green Tomatoes is a movie adapted from the Fanny Flagg book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. The movie is about four women, their relationships and the little efforts that are necessary to improve big things. This paper reviews the ethical standing of its characters and how those ethical standings can evolve or change for a person.
The movie begins in a Southern nursing home; a feisty resident and old local fixture named Ninny Threadgoode befriends Evelyn Couch a depressed housewife and stirs her to action with an inspirational tale. She tells the story of a magnificent friendship between two young women living in Alabama in the 1930s, Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jameson, who forge a powerful bond after witnessing the terrible tragedy of Idgie's brother's death together. The two women open a cafe together in their small Southern town of Whistle Stop and manage to survive the hardships of life, despite racism, prejudice and the pressures of trying to live their lives as individuals in a strict and close-minded Southern society. Their friendship lasts through many ups and downs over the years, helping one of the women through an abusive marriage, and sustaining both of them through the gossip and jealousy of those small-minded people who try to control their lives. These four main characters actions can be classified as utilitarian, although not all of them start out that way in the movie. .
It is interesting to ponder the similarity between the Ninny-Evelyn and the Ruth-Idgie friendships. In both cases, companionship increases the value of life to each individual, the women use the relationships to improve themselves or their circumstances and the relationships themselves improve the lives of others around these main characters. The women all turn to a utilitarian approach in maintaining those relationships.
