Analysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Oprah made the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God different from the novel that the author Zora Neale Hurston would not even recognize her own work. Critics like Barbara Ceptus can even agree with this statement. “Oprah takes a four-course novel that requires time to savor and digest and reduces it to baby food. It’s easily digestible, but hardly nurturing or memorable” (Ceptus). Oprah changed the relationships between the characters to where some had purity and some had not. She refused to include important symbolism in the movie that it made the audience focus on the story as a story of love instead of a story of revelation. Oprah changed the dynamics of the story by shortening or eliminating significant scenes in the movie and made the

audience focus more on the main character Janie. Oprah made viewers of the movie who had never read the book think that the story had all the purity.
Oprah refused to include significant symbolism in her film and also went on to insert her own symbols and changed the way the viewer saw the story. Oprah took out Janie’s far but never reached horizon. “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men” (Hurston 1). Janie had hopes that her life would become better in time. The horizon showed up again when she had marry Logan Killicks and she hoped for better. “Janie pulled back a long time because he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance” (Hurston 29). Janie had hope that true love would come and she thought that Joe had came to save her yet she had no love for him. The horizon had was not mentioned in the movie and eliminated the hope Janie had for better. Oprah also took out the symbolic gate out of the movie. The gate symbolized a force that separated Janie’s past life and Janie’s present life. Johnny Taylor’s kiss led her into a part of that adulthood that she no longer portrays the characteristic of a child and it makes the audience see that image of the pear tree. “So she extended herself outside of her dream and went inside of the house. That was the end of her childhood” (Hurston 12). The gate got taken out and it did not show how Hurston had added the gate to show the separation of Janie’s childhood (past) and her adulthood (present). The pear tree also had a symbolic meaning like the gate had since it symbolized Janie’s desire of marriage and everything included in marriage. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom: the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from the root to the tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing in delight. So this was marriage! Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid” (Hurston 11). Janie had always had a strong love for nature itself so the pear tree was what Janie used to show the beauty of nature and to express her desires with the pear tree and the bees. A symbol that had no part in the novel got included in the movie: water. The water symbolized the cleansing of Janie’s body and soul. “Periodically, Janie, a child of nature, takes breaks to swim on her back and watch God. She also lets a bug crawl on her face so she can feel its legs” (NYTimes)” The movie focused more on Janie and her “watching God” and always jumping in water after her marriages to show her revival and cleaning of the soul which had no meaning in the novel whatsoever.
Oprah changed the relationship between Janie and Phoeby that it turned impure. “You can tell’em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me’ cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf” (Hurston 6). Janie knew that if she told anything to Phoeby, Phoeby would say it exactly the way Janie said it. The relationship between the two characters had purity and it showed a sign of a true friendship because everyone in the town has a similarity because they have impurity in them. Phoeby and Janie’s relationship was the purest of all and she ruined it with one scene and made their whole reconciliation into an argument. The two characters had a very close relationship and had known each other for the 20 years Janie had married and lived with Joe. Janie knew that Phoeby would not lie about Janie and gossip like the other porch-sitters.
Oprah made Janie’s character stronger than women had in this time era in Janie’s relationship with Joe. Janie had wanted to speak up in the novel but she could not because Joe controlled her. “Janie Loved the conversation and sometimes she thought up good stories on the mule, but Joe had forbidden her to indulge” (Hurston 53). Joe contolled women because he had the idea that men had superiority. Janie wanted freedom from the Joe’s bondage and control. “Didn’t buy’im fuh no work. I god, Ah bought dat varmint tuh let ‘im rest. You didn’t have gumption enough tuh do it” (Hurston 58). The donkey scene in the book shows irony because Janie has no freedom and Joe gave the donkey the freedom she did not have and this scene got eliminated completely and did not show all the way how Janie longed for freedom. Joe got jealous that other men found her attractive and wanted Janie for himself. Walter had touched Janie’s hair and it made him angry so he told Janie to tie her hair up and she did so. “That night he ordered Janie to tie her hair up around the store. That was all. She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 55). However in the movie, Janie denied to do what Joe had told her to do and also threatened to leave Joe and Janie’s character did not have that strength in the book to do this. “Janie left their home and moved in with Phoeby which again added more strength in Janie’s character” (Harpo). Oprah once again gave Janie more strength that she did not have in the novel.
Oprah changed the relationship between Tea Cake and Janie and turned it into a pure relationship and turned the relationship into a love story.

“It was one of the most beautiful and poignious love story I have ever read” (Harpo). In the novel, the relationship between Janie and Tea Cake had little purity but Oprah changed a lot of things that she turned it into a pure true love story. Tea Cake had told Janie that he would never leave her unless he found someone that brought his attention like Janie did in the book. “If Ah ever gits tuh messin’ round another woman it won’t be on account of her age. It’ll be because she got me in de same way you got me—so Ah can’t help mahself” (Hurston 121). Tea cake implied that he would not leave Janie unless he finds someone like Janie; he implies he could cheat. This statement got eliminated so Tea Cake would be seen as pure. Tea Cake had taken Janie’s money and had a party where Tea Cake would only allow the pretty women inside the party Tea Cake threw. “And he stood in the door and paid all the ugly women two dollars to not come in” (Hurston 122). Tea Cake only let the pretty girls in his party. Tea Cake seemed to have attracted women because other females would flirt with him. Nunkie had importance because it showed Tea Cake’s impurity 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” (Hurston 136). The scene had much significance

because Janie learned the feeling of jealousy. “Tea Cake goes through the motions of trying to resist the young girl, and Janie chases her away” (CliffNotes). Tea Cake loved Janie but he had the temptation to do the wrong thing which Oprah removed so the fake purity would exist. Nunkie had a scene of about 3 seconds in the movie that had nothing to do with jealousy because Oprah took it out of the movie to keep in the purity. “Hey what’s your name? Janie, what’s yours? Nunkie” (Harpo). This part was very siginificant to the novel and the fact it got eliminated completely showed how Oprah had an obsession of keeping this story pure. Towards the end of Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship, things started to get worse. Tea Cake had a parallel to Joe Starks because Tea Cake also controlled his wife. “Naw, naw Janie. Ah know better’n dat. But since you got dat in yo’ head, Ah’ll have tuh tell yuh de real truth, so yuh can know. Janie, Ah gits lonesome out dere all day ‘thout yuh. After dis, you betta come git uh job uh work out dere lak de rest uh de women—so Ah won’t be losin’ time comin’ home” (Hurston 133). Tea Cake controlled Janie and told her that she had to do what a woman does.
The dynamics of the novel did change in Oprah’s movie that some of the important scenes had gotten short or scenes got completely eliminated.

The hurricane scene in the novel had the most importance in the novel but had gotten shortened. It led to the climax and what occurred also led the end of Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship. “The hurricane represented the destructive fury of nature… The hurricane makes the characters question who they are, and what their place in the universe is” (SparkNotes). The hurricane had the most important significance in the whole novel and the fact that Oprah shortened it made it seemed unimportant. Janie loved nature so much but this type of nature became the reason why Janie’s life changed. “The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God” (Hurston 160). The scene showed the fear in the people in the town and the hope they had on God for it to all

end.
In conclusion, the movie produced by Oprah lacked Zora Neale Hurston’s work. The movie did not include major symbols, characters, and dynamics. Many critics have also agreed with this statement and have evidence to prove. “Oprah’s rendition of Their Eyes Were Watching God reduces the novel’s complexities of race, gender and history to pretty costumes, lush backgrounds, and sexy bodies” (Ceptus). The movie lacked the qualities of the novel and made Hurston’s story unrecognizable.