Throughout the movie of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Oprah Winfrey alternates Zora Neale Hurston’s story of a woman’s journey to the point where nobody even recognizes it. The change in the theme, the characters, and their relationships form a series of major differences between the book and the movie. Instead of teaching people the important lessons one needs to know to succeed in this precious thing called life, Oprah tells a meaningless love story for the gratification of her viewers. Her inaccurate interpretation of the story caused a dramatic affect in the atmosphere and a whole new attitude for the audience. During the movie, Oprah makes a shift in Janie’s character by strengthening her mental and physical state. She becomes much stronger physically because when the storm approached and flooded the town, she pulled herself and Tea Cake out of the water. However, in the book, Ms. Hurston has it completely opposite from the movie; Tea Cake kills a dog during the storm to save his and Janie’s life then, the cow gets Janie out of the water and Tea Cake pulls himself out of the water. “Tea Cake split the water like an otter, opening his knife as he dived. The dog raced down the back-bone of the cow to the attack and Janie screamed and slipped far back on the tail of the cow, just out of reach of the dog’s angry jaws… Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow’s rump and seized the dog by the neck… Then Tea Cake finished him and sent him to the bottom to stay there. The cow relieved of a great weight was landing on the fill with Janie before Tea Cake stroked in and crawled weakly upon the fill again” (Hurston 194). Zora’s purpose of making Janie weaker physically tells the story of a woman who cannot hold herself up on her own; ... ... middle of paper ... .... 2013. . "Their Eyes Were Watching God: Race Quotes." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . "Their Eyes Were Watching God: Race Quotes." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . "Their Eyes Were Watching God: Race Quotes." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . Their Eyes Were Watching God. Dir. Darnell Martin. Perf. Halle Berry. Harpo, 2001. DVD. Wilchek, Deborah. "Made for TV: Their Eyes Were Watching God." AP Central. The College Board, 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story centered on the idea of life cycles. The experiences that Janie faces and struggles through in her life represent the many cycles that she has been present for. Each cycle seem to take place with the start of each new relation ship that she faces. Each relationship that Janie is involved in not just marriages, blooms and withers away like the symbol of Janie's life the pear tree from her childhood.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a good place to start examining the roles of African-American women. It is written by a woman, Zora Neale Hurston, and from a woman's perspective. This book examines the relationship between Janie and...
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about a young woman that is lost in her own world. She longs to be a part of something and to have “a great journey to the horizons in search of people” (85). Janie Crawford’s journey to the horizon is told as a story to her best friend Phoebe. She experiences three marriages and three communities that “represent increasingly wide circles of experience and opportunities for expression of personal choice” (Crabtree). Their Eyes Were Watching God is an important fiction piece that explores relations throughout black communities and families. It also examines different issues such as, gender and class and these issues bring forth the theme of voice. In Janie’s attempt to find herself, she grows into a stronger woman through three marriages.
Their Eyes Are Watching God is written by Zora Neal Hurston. The novel is written during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance African American culture began the flourish. People were beginning to recognize and support African American; however, there were still laws against African Americans and people were still prejudice towards them. Their Eyes Are Watching God is a story about a woman, Janie Crawford, who was divorced two times before she fell madly in love with her third husband, Tea Cake. The story showcases her trials and tribulations to finding true love. When she married her second husband, Joe Starks, he makes her put up her long and beautiful hair in a head wrap so other men will not be attracted to her. Janie puts down her hair for the first time in twenty years when Joe dies, taking off the head rags symbolized the constraints imposed for women by powerful men.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie Crawford confronts social and emotional hardships that shape who she is from the beginning to the end of the novel. Living in Florida during the 1900s, it was very common for an African American woman to face discrimination on a daily basis. Janie faces gender inequality, racial discrimination, and social class prejudice that she is able to overcome and use to help her develop as a person.
Walker, Kristen. "Feminism Present in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." 7 February 2007. Yahoo Voices. 27 January 2014 .
Their Eyes were Watching God is set during a time period in the American history where African Americans were still segregated and suppressed by the white supremacist government. Janie Mae Crawford is shown to be born in a family with no male presence, and the women in her family are not married due to their past experiences with men. Her mother and grandmother have suffered and nursed many grievances caused by the men in their lives, such as the rape of the grandmother and Janie's mother. Thus, in order to prevent and eliminate this seemingly consecutive and bad generational history with men, and to ease her own worry about her granddaughter's future, the grand mother decides to marry Janie off despite her objections. This is shown with this quote:
Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, revolves around the small town world of Janie, a vibrant yet oppressed woman. The reader is taken through Janie’s experiences, which elicit tremendous emotional growth in the heroine. Their Eyes Were Watching God is teeming with symbols; however, one of the most prevalent symbols is Janie’s hair. Her hair conveys far deeper themes that the novel is imbued with. Described as long and flowing, Janie’s hair symbolizes her vivacity and free will; however, it also conveys the theme of being ostracized from a community you belong in. Janie’s hair, although lauded, gives her an appearance that is of stark contrast to the rest of her community.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, she utilizes an array of symbolism such as color, the store, and her husbands to solidify the overall theme of independence and individuality. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered by many a classic American Feminist piece that emphasizes how life was for African Americans post slave era in the early 1900s. One source summarizes the story as, 1 ”a woman's quest for fulfillment and liberation in a society where women are objects to be used for physical work and pleasure.” Which is why the overall theme is concurrent to independence and self.
Oprah Winfrey lied on the opposite end of Zora Neale Hurston’s spectrum when she produced her atrocious rendition of Hurston’s stellar novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. She modified characters and symbols, altered the theme and relationships, and utterly desolated the significance of the title, making it almost unrecognizable to someone who has read the book. Winfrey totally eviscerated Hurston’s unsurpassed novel, extrapolating what she thought important without going in depth in to the true meaning of the story. Oprah took Hurston’s writing and morphed it into her own abominable movie.
Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. " 'Tuh de Horizon and Back': The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
This excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were watching God, is an example of her amazing writing. She makes us feel as if we are actually in her book, through her use of the Southern Black vernacular and admirable description. Her characters are realistic and she places special, well thought out sentences to keep us interested. Zora Neale Hurston’s art enables her to write this engaging story about a Southern black woman’s life.
7 Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. “’Tuh De Horizon and Back’: The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Black American Literature Forum 17.3 (1983): 109-115. JSTOR. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. .