Film Analysis: Psychological Perspectives in Fried Green Tomatoes

This essay delves into the psychological themes present in the movie 'Fried Green Tomatoes,' focusing on social cognitive, trait, and psychoanalytic perspectives. The analysis highlights Idgie's self-efficacy and independence, the characters' diverse traits, and how Ninny Threadgoode's stories influence Evelyn's life changes. The essay also emphasizes the significance of generosity, true friendship, and courage as portrayed by the characters, particularly Idgie's protectiveness of Ruth and Evelyn's transformation through her friendship with Ninny. The film's message revolves around personal freedom, self-sufficiency, and the importance of self-respect, urging viewers to embrace autonomy and kindness.

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Fried Green Tomatoes 1991
The psychology themes portrayed in this movie include social cognitive perspective
whereby Idgie depicts self-efficacy in the sense that she is independent and believes in her
instinctive ability to achieve her goals. The characters have dissimilar traits at the beginning of
the movie (the trait perspective) as Evelyn Couch is emotionally repressed about her life while
Idgie enjoys her independence. Attitudes and Persuasion is a social psychology theme
represented in this movie by how Ninny Threadgoode, through her stories, convinces Evelyn to
change her life. Psychoanalytic perspective is one of the principal themes portrayed as the
personalities of the characters are guided by their childhood experiences (Van Buren, 1998).
Generosity, true friendship, and courage are depicted by Idgie as she is protective of Ruth
and helps her leave her violent husband. She is with her through thick and thin even in her
deathbed. There is also true amity between Evelyn and Ninny who guides towards self-
awareness and a higher self-esteem. (Van Buren, 1998). As Evelyn drowns in her self-pity,
Ninny is right there by her side encouraging her to get a job in order to gain some self-
sufficiency.
Idgie’s autonomy and courage stand out especially in her time of existence. That is the
1920s when few women had the courage to do the right thing. Ruth’s strength in painful
situations in amazing. She does not drown in the sorrow of losing Buddy whom she loved and
even asks Idgie to let her deal with her husband even if he was violent to her. If these characters
did not possess with strengths, they would have been unable to deal with all the obstacles and
adversity they faced.

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The role of the virtuous character does not necessarily make that of the antithesis persona
more outstanding since there is no one purely evil or good in the movie, that is, all the characters
portray a mixture of personalities. However, Idgie’s indicates a very strong character who has the
ability to influence others to do the right thing. For instance, she is very generous giving the poor
people food out from the train and sways Ruth to do the same(Church, 1996).
Idgie’s strengths unconsciously influence her behavior, attitude as well as her mood.
Conversely, she is not aware of her own strengths since they are influenced by her childhood
experiences before and after losing her brother. Her brother was her main support, sometimes her
only strength before his death as she felt everyone was picking on her. After Buddy died,
however, she felt alone for a while and this changed how she related to other people(Van Buren,
1998).
The characters in the film connect through friendship which consequently gives meaning
to their lives. Ninny says that having a best friend is the most important thing and this fact is also
indicated in Ruth’s and Idgie’s endless friendship(Church, 1996).
Idgie is very much like me as independence means so much to me. I like making my own
decisions and doing the right thing without influence from anyone. At the beginning of the
movie, both Evelyn and Ruth did not portray ant audacity whatsoever, which is very much unlike
me. For example, if I found myself in a similar situation as Evelyn whose husband did not
acknowledge her existence and Ruth whose spouse was violently abusive, I would not hesitate to
leave the marriage for a better life.
Idgie’s character inspires me to be a better version of myself. I like being independent but
am not nearly as good a friend as she is and this is a challenge for me to work on my friendships

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and strengthen them for the better. Evelyn’s curiosity and friendship with Ninny is what pushed
her to be a better person. She encourages me to make friends with people I admire and to be
ready to learn from them for a better life. Ruth’s character indicates comparable lessons in the
case of her friendship with Idgie(Church, 1996).
The director was trying to put across a message on personal freedom and self-sufficiency.
He or she also wanted to indicate to the viewers that it is possible to change their lives for the
better(Church, 1996). This information is passed on through Evelyn’s character as she gained
some independence in all aspects of her life including financially and Ed finally started to
recognize her presence.
The lesson derived from this movie is that people and the society as a whole will always
value and respect a specific individual just as much as that person values and respects themselves
(Church, 1996). It teaches that everyone should try to be autonomous and have a high self-
esteem as well as being nice to others and do the right thing.

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References
Church, J. R. (1996). The Balancing Act of Fried Green Tomatoes. Vision/Re-Vision: Adapting
Contemporary American Fiction by Women to Film, 193-210.
Van Buren, J. (1998). Food for thought in the film Fried Green Tomatoes. Psychoanalytic
Inquiry, 18(2), 291-299.