Their Eyes Were Watching God

1463 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Zora neale hurston their eyes watching god essay

The movie and the book of Their Eyes Were Watching God both tell the story of a young woman’s journey to finding love; however, the movie lacks the depth and meaning behind the importance of Janie’s desire for self-fulfillment. Oprah Winfrey’s version alters the idea from the book Zora Neale Hurston wrote, into a despairing love story for the movie. Winfrey changes Hurston’s story in various ways by omitting significant events and characters, which leads to a different theme than what the novel portrays. The symbolisms and metaphors emphasized throughout the book are almost non-existent in the movie, changing the overall essence of the story. While Zora Neale Hurston’s portrayal gives a more in depth view of Janie’s journey of self-discovery and need for fulfilling love, Oprah Winfrey’s version focuses mainly on a passionate love story between Janie and Tea Cake.
In the movie, Oprah Winfrey changes the audience’s perception of Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake by excluding the abuse and jealousy that takes place in the novel. "Janie learned what it felt like to be jealous. A little chunky girl took to picking a play out of Tea Cake in the fields and in the quarters. If he said anything at all, she’d take the opposite side and hit him or shove him and run away to make him chase her. Janie knew what she was up to – luring him away from the crowd. It kept up for two or three weeks with Nunkie getting bolder all the time. She’d hit Tea Cake playfully and the minute he so much as tapped her with his finger she’d fall against him or fall on the ground and have to be picked up. She’d be almost helpless. It took a good deal of handling to set her on her feet again. And another thing, Tea Cake didn’t seem to be able to fend her of...

... middle of paper ...

......." Teen Ink. Emerson Media, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2000. Print.
Kikaya, Feza, and Zahra Gordon. "Silver Chips Online : Oprah Winfrey's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" receives mixed ..." Silver Chips Online [Silver Spring, MD]. N.p., 9 Mar. 2005. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Miller, JDove. "Movie vs Book: Their Eyes Were Watching God." Hubpages. N.p., 17 May 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
"A Woman on a Quest, via Hurston and Oprah - NYTimes.com." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 4 Mar. 2005. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .

Show More
Related

  • Movie and Novel Depictions of Zora Neale Hurston´s Their Eyes Were Watching God

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie like the book expressed Janie’s life as she grew up and started to search for her identity through relationships. Some parts that were different in the movie and not in the book was when she ran from Nana and went into the pond after kissing Johnny Taylor, when Joe Starks abused her infront of the community, when Joe embarassed her and she almost walked out on him, and the corset dress that Joe purchased for Janie. When Janie bathed in the pond, this was not in the book, rather in the book she was under a peach tree dreaming of her love life. The difference in scenes from the movie to the book provided peole with more connection to the characteristics of Janie, Joe, or even Tea Cakes. The pond scene was symbolic because it showed rebirth and cleansing, just as when the church baptises someone to remove all sins, and this was important since she had kissed Johnny and so the water was a sign of her starting over and not being put down by what Nana had told her. While the peach tree in the book expressed how she was starting to develop and mature, since she was masterbating and describing her desires. A scene different in the book than the movie was when J...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Hurston

    2115 Words  | 5 Pages

    Zora Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” depicts the journey of a young woman named Janie Crawford’s journey to finding real love. Her life begins with a romantic and ideal view on love. After Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, soon grows fearful of Janie’s newfound sexuality and quickly marries Janie off to Logan Killicks, an older land owner with his own farm. Janie quickly grows tired of Logan and how he works her like a slave instead of treating her as a wife and runs away with Joe Starks. Joe is older than Janie but younger than Logan and sweet talks Janie into marring him and soon Joe becomes the mayor of an all African American town called Eatonville. Soon Joe begins to force Janie to hide not only her

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston: Character Analysis

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, Janie is an outgoing and caring person who wants to meet and have fun with other people. Most of the people in her life made her avoid being able to fit in with the crowd. Janie could not overcome the control others had over her. People always continued the gossip throughout the community because she was different. After Janie met Tea Cake, she was determined to do as she wanted without anyone’s say so. Janie will always be known as the

    Read More

  • The Ambiguity Of Janie's Voice In Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author takes you on the journey of a woman, Janie, and her search for love, independence, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit seems to constantly be disregarded, yet Janie continues to hold on to the potential of grasping all that she desires. In, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Hurston illustrates the ambiguity of Janie’s voice; the submissiveness of her silence and the independence she reclaims when regaining her voice. The reclaiming of Janie's independence, in the novel, correlates with the development and maturation Janie undergoes during her self discovery.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Book Analysis

    1804 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Eatonville, gossip spreads throughout the townspeople. Sitting on each other's porches will become a usual community assembly. In the movie, the men gossip rather than the women who gossip in the book because Oprah wants equally between the men and the women. Janie’s best friend, Pheoby Watson, sits and talks with the women of Eatonville when Janie returns. Oprah portrays Janie in the movie as friends with all the women on the porch, but in the book she did not speak to none of the women. Pheoby walks to Janie’s house and Janie knows that the women have talked about her. Janie makes it clear that what the women say does not affect her. "To start off wid, people like dem wastes up too much time puttin’ they mouf on things they don’t know nothin’ about […]" (Hurston 6). Janie shows she does not care about what the women on the porch think of her because she knows what occurred in her and Tea Cake’s relationship not the women. Pheoby walked to Janie’s house to understand her reasoning for coming home in worn out overalls with no shoes on her feet and to bring her dinner. Oprah wants a weaker relationship between Janie and Pheoby. Zora Neale Hurston made them closer because Pheoby had the comfort of walking through Janie’s back door whereas in the movie she walks in the front door. In the movie version, Janie and Pheoby argue and in the book they never did. Oprah made them argue to continuously display Janie’s

    Read More

  • Comparing the Role of Women in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Go Tell It On the Mountain

    2317 Words  | 5 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Sweat,” Hurston uses the characters Janie Crawford and Delia Jones to symbolize African-American women as the mules of the world and their only alternative were through their words, in order to illustrate the conditions women suffered and the actions they had to take to maintain or establish their self-esteem.

    Read More

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that presents a happy ending through the moral development of Janie, the protagonist. The novel divulges Janie’s reflection on her life’s adventures, by narrating the novel in flashback form. Her story is disclosed to Janie’s best friend Phoebe who comes to learn the motive for Janie’s return to Eatonville. By writing the novel in this style they witness Janie’s childhood, marriages, and present life, to observe Janie’s growth into a dynamic character and achievement of her quest to discover identity and spirit.

    Read More

  • Janie's Coping Mechanism In Their Eyes Were Watching God Analysis

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the journey of Janie Crawford as an African American woman who grows and matures through the hardships and struggles of three different marriages. Although Janie is an African American, the main themes of the novel discusses the oppression of women by men, disregarding race. Janie gets married to three different men, aging from a young and naive girl to a mature and hardened women near the age of 40. Throughout the novel, Janie suffers through these relationships and learns to cope with life by blaming others and escaping her past by running away from it. These relationships are a result of Janie chasing her dreams of finding and experiencing true love, which she ultimately does in the end. Even through the suffering and happiness, Janie’s journey is a mixture of ups and downs, and at the end, she is ultimately content. Zora Neale Hurston utilizes Janie’s metaphorical thoughts and responses of blame and escape, as well as her actions towards success and fulfillment with her relationship with Tea Cake, to suggest that her journey

    Read More

  • Janie's Three Marriages in Hurston's There Eyes Were Watching God

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is about Janie Crawford and her quest for self-independence and real love. She finds herself in three marriages, one she escapes from, and the other two end tragically. And throughout her journey, she learns a lot about love, and herself. Janie’s three marriages were all different, each one brought her in for a different reason, and each one had something different to teach her, she was forced into marrying Logan Killicks and hated it. So, she left him for Joe Starks who promised to treat her the way a lady should be treated, but he also made her the way he thought a lady should be. After Joe died she found Tea Cake, a romantic man who loved Janie the way she was, and worked hard to provide for her.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    1. c.Robert E. Hemenway, in his Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography, University of Illinois Press, 1977, 371 p.

    Read More

  • Janie’s Courageous Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through her use of southern black language Zora Neale Hurston illustrates how to live and learn from life’s experiences. Janie, the main character in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a woman who defies what people expect of her and lives her life searching to become a better person. Not easily satisfied with material gain, Janie quickly jumps into a search to find true happiness and love in life. She finally achieves what she has searched for with her third marriage.

    Read More

  • “Ships at a Distance”: Dreams in Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1954 Words  | 4 Pages

    2 “Their Eyes Were Watching God Reader’s Guide - Introduction.” The Big Read. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. .

    Read More

  • Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    color of her eyes.  Janie was worked hard by Logan.  He made her do all

    Read More

  • Oprah Winfrey: An Inspirational Role Model

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fry, Elizabeth. “A Childhood Biography of Oprah Winfrey.” About.com, a part of The New York Times Company, 2010. Web. 3 April 2010.

    Read More

More about Their Eyes Were Watching God

Open Document