Suicide In Sharon Draper's Tears Of A Tiger

Tears of a Tomatoe

“I thought she would die right along with him,” (Flagg, 37). How would it feel to lose a sibling or close friend? Would one feel depressed and keep to themselves or would they emerge as a stronger person? In Tears of a Tiger, the author, Sharon Draper, exposes Andy as a depressed teenager who lost his best friend, Robert, in a car accident with the use of alcohol. The author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Fannie Flagg, exhibits withdrawal through her character, Idgie, after she loses her brother, Buddy, in a train accident. Following the death of two people very close to Andy and Idgie, in two separate novels, the authors depict the two characters comparably.

Andy loses his best friend in a car wreck after drinking and driving. This affects Andy greatly. Draper shows Andy having to go to therapy for his depression from losing Robert. The beginning of therapy sessions were not great. Andy

didn’t want to talk about that night or losing Robert, he didn’t even want to be there. Draper shows a bit of a breakthrough with Andy during these sessions with the therapist. Going to the specific school that Andy went to did not help with his situation. No one was really there for him except for his basketball coach and of course, his therapist. His parents didn’t care to talk to him about it and his little brother didn’t know what to say. Andy’s girlfriend, Keisha, however, especially didn’t help. She really made the situation worse than it already was for Andy. With her selfish attitude, Keisha explained to Andy that he was annoying her and left him when he needed her most. The therapist, seeing Andy as imperturbable, decides that there is no reason for the therapy sessions to continue, but what he didn’t know is that Andy felt suicidal. Andy felt alone with no one to turn to. He tried contacting his therapist who was out of town at the time. He tried getting in touch with his coach who didn’t answer his calls. He even tried to reach Keisha whose mother would not let him speak to her. Andy just needed someone to talk to. People not being there for him at that very moment is what led Andy to put a bullet through his head.

Idgie loses her brother in a train accident while taking a stroll with Buddy and Ruth after her sister’s wedding.

This catastrophe causes a different outlook on life for Idgie. Ninny Threadgoode tells Evelyn Couch, “You know, a heart can be broken, but it still keeps on beating, just the same,” (Flagg, 37). Idgie loved her family, but she didn’t stick around for more than she had to after Buddy died. Although she grew strong, she kept herself back. Idgie didn’t want to be around Ruth again at first after her mother tried to pull them back together. This is most likely because if it weren’t for Ruth and her hat flying off her head, Buddy never would have been on the railroad tracks. Nevertheless, after the two girls begin to hang out, Idgie and Ruth became closer than ever, leading to an immense friendship. Idgie never really got over the death of her brother, but she did move on with her life, along with Ruth by her side. If it were not for everything she and Ruth had been through together, Idgie would not have made it as far as she

did.

In Tears of a Tiger, Draper’s characters believe that Andy is fine and assume that he will make it through that rough time. Flagg’s characters in Fried Green Tomatoes, however, believe that Idgie would not make it through and would never move on. The irony between the two is that the assumptions were switched in the end. Andy was not fine and did not make it through. Idgie made it through and moved on with her life. The authors reveal the true characters of Andy and Idgie throughout the separate novels. The outcomes of the two novels are, more than likely, recondite to the other characters in the novels. They expected completely opposite outcomes for these characters. The ending of Tears of a Tiger, was shocking in reference to Andy but not too shocking at the end of Fried Green Tomatoes with Idgie.

Draper and Flagg both illustrate the two characters mentioned before as two normal people trying to cope with deaths of someone close to them. In the beginning of Tears of a Tiger, Andy is shown as a character that can make it through with the help of friends, and Idgie is shown the same way in Fried Green Tomatoes. Although individually the authors both did similar things with their characters, only Idgie in Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes followed through with what was expected to happen. Andy from Draper’s Tears of a Tiger, on the other hand, did not. The satire with this is that the characters of Fried Green Tomatoes expected that Idgie would die right along with Buddy but instead, Andy, from Tears of a Tiger, died right along with Robert.