Whose Eyes Were Watching God Movie Analysis

Whose Eyes Were Really Watching?
Oprah Winfrey’s movie version of Their Eyes Were Watching God depicts Zora Neale Hurston’s books true meaning. The movie and book display several differences between each other. The movie altars the book's version of Janie’s relationships with other characters in which implied, while also changing Janie’s image. Oprah made her movie with so many differences than Zora Neale Hurston’s book.
In Oprah’s movie she puts her own spin on what Janie and Pheoby’s relationship truly means, and makes it the complete opposite. Oprah revised Janie and Pheoby’s relationship from close friends who could tell one another anything and they could trust that they would tell their business just as they would say it “ Dat’s just

de same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf “ ( Hurston 6 ). This giving the audience the impression that they were close but then all of a sudden not as close to one another. Pheoby Watson supposedly considered a ‘porch watcher’ who wanted to know every detail just as others about what has happened to Janie and her young lover in the book, but never seen as a porch watcher in the movie. Their relationship also changed when Oprah decided to make the ‘ close friends ‘ argue and disagree with each other on Janie’s choices. Janie and Pheoby may seem to the audience now as a totally different friendship due to this change... Oprah Winfrey has taken this relationship and made it into something it should have never become.
Another major relationship that Oprah twisted around involved Janie and Joe whose intentions changed. Joe met Janie who at the time had been covered in dirt and muck which in this time period of the book would have never happened “… in Medusa hair and dirty overalls. Gossips in the middle-class town hiss that she looks all wrong for the wife of a mayor … “( HEFFERNAN, VIRGINIA). Indicating again that Joe and Janie’s relationship in the movie could have never happened. In book Janie and Joe waited two weeks to run off with each other, while in the movie they waited a day which made them seem as if their relationship had moved too fast. A huge change that Oprah showed between Joe and Janie’s relationship consisted of showing their moments of sexual times not only in their home, but in public “ ‘ Looks to me like Joe starks is the perfect man for the job. Look at this face good looking enough to be on a silver dollar, this chest strong and broad, bet you got a big speaking voice in there, these hands lord loves these hands made to count the money ‘ “ ( Harpo ). Janie saying this to Joe would have never happened. Oprah went a whole different route than Zora Neale Hurston did in her book with Janie and Joe giving their relationship strength that Zora Neale Hurston did not intend for them to have.
One relationship that Oprah switched all around in the movie is with Tea Cake and Janie by technically ‘switching roles’ with each other.

Zora Neale Hurston made Tea Cake use Janie’s money to throw a party in the book while the movie said he gambled it away,  ironically the money belonged to Janie which Tea Cake stole so he stole his “ woman's money”. Janie also supposedly got hit by Tea Cake in the book so he could show he owned her, but the movie never showed him doing that action “ Also absent from the film is the beating that Tea Cake gives Janie, his “ brainstorm “ that “ relives the awful fear inside him” (Hurston 1990, 140 ). This giving the impression that Oprah wanted their relationship seen as nothing involving hate. The book made Janie out to seem jealous over another woman as for Tea Cake also; yet in the movie no form of jealousy showed, again showing Oprah’s intention to just show their relationships purity. She has changed the audience’s whole outlook on Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship from not the perfect couple to the perfect couple stereotype.
Oprah’s movie also left out one relationship that Zora Neale Hurston’s book had, consisted between Nanny and Janie. In the book their relationship consist of Nanny telling Janie what to do and making all of her life decisions. Janie back talks her grandmother several times and the book states that Nanny would have never hurt Janie yet she slapped Janie across the face. Yet in the movie this relationship and all the situations did not show in Oprah’s movie. The audience never sees Nanny which becomes a letdown in the

end.  
The movie shows several difference in the town than the book displayed. The men of the town come off in the form of the “gossipers “of the town rather than the women. Oprah portrayed the women and Janie to also get along which never came about in the book. Showing them getting along and doing work together is hard to believe due to the time period set. Oprah also left out a big part of Zora Hurston’s book; Janie’s trial and the process she went through to clear her name. She shows how ironic the trial ended up being since the blacks ended up turning against Janie while the whites backed her up in her case of defense “In the courtroom, the black who’ve come to watch have obviously turned against her, and are even willing to testify against her “ ( LitCharts ). The movie in other hands show no scene of the trial which to the audience may shock and disappointment since the person who died ended up a main character. With these differences in the town it gives off the approach that Oprah paid no attention to Zora Neale  Hurston’s book.
A major difference between the book and movie can be shown through Janie and her strengths progression. Instead of Janie keeping her mouth closed and doing as told in the book, where Zora Neale Hurston has the intention for Janie to come off as the basic housewife, Oprah makes her movie to where Janie’s the center of attention and where she has the strength to talk back and give her opinion of situations, which she never would have done in the book. Janie’s shows her strength again in the movie when she helps not only physically but strategically build the town of Eatonville. Oprah Winfrey also changes Janie’s character from Zora’s version of just a ‘trophy wife’ to a strong woman not just mentally strong but strong overall. She shows this in the movie by allowing Janie the part of pulling Tea Cake out of the flood waters rather than like in the book Tea Cake pulling her out of the flood waters. Once again Oprah changes Zora Neale Hurston’s main characters meaning around to fit her idea of what she means.  
In the movie Oprah had seemed to have forgot about some of the key symbols in the book, indicating her lack of attention to details. A main symbol in the book; the horizon, which represented a hope for Janie. It gave Janie something to strive for in life. This symbol never came up in the movie which comes off ironically, because a key symbol like that for the main character should show not only in the book but the movie. However the book does mention the horizon and gives detail on how Janie reaches her horizon in life which some struggle to do. The movie also did not go in detail on the ‘ gate ‘ which showed Janie’s past and what her future holds for her “  The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off “ ( Shmoop 3.32 ). The gate again symbolizes Janie’s past and future and her looking off up the road symbolizes her horizon in which she will reach soon. The book explains the ‘gate’ better, but for the movie it never seemed of importance to Oprah to give detail into what it means. A symbol never shown; pear tree, which symbolizes Janie’s sex life “ One of the most obvious symbols used in the novel, and charged with sexuality, the pear tree motif is introduced early in Janie’s story… a symbol to Janie of the ideal relationship… illustrating the development of Janie’s dream… Janie meets Tea Cake, the fulfillment of her dream under the pear tree “ ( Pear Tree ).  Oprah’s movie never presented the pear tree which gives off the impression that she paid little attention to Zora Neale Hurston’s books detail.  
In conclusion Oprah Winfrey’s movie version of Zora Neale Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God shows the audience all the major and minor difference made while making the movie and the lack of certain situations, people, and symbols shown in the book. With Oprah making the movie how she did it leads to a disappointment due to all the differences between the book and movie.