Evelyn is a 48-year-old housewife who accompanies her husband, Ed, on his weekly visits to see his mother in Rose Terrace Nursing Home. Evelyn’s own mother died from cancer when she was 40, and the loss exacerbated her longstanding fear of illness, doctors, and hospitals. Even beyond this phobia, Evelyn is a timid, insecure, and sheltered woman. She grew up too early in the century to benefit from the feminist movement, and has spent most of her life obeying gender norms and deferring to her husband:

When the Vietnam War was going on, she’d believed what Ed had told her, that it was a good and necessary war, and that anyone against it was a communist […] She had tried to raise her son to be sensitive, but Ed had scared her so bad, telling her that he would turn out to be a queer, she had backed off and lost contact with him (41).

Evelyn feels that her life has passed her by and she isn’t able to relate to the changed society her son and daughter. She is unhappy with her restricted existence.

After meeting Ninny Threadgoode at the nursing home, Evelyn begins a slow process of transformation and self-discovery. Inspired both by Mrs.