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Our Eyes Were Watching God Movie And Book Comparison Essay

1457 Words6 Pages

Landon West
Miss Sibbach
AP English III
12 December, 2014
Our Eyes Are Watching Oprah
In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the author, incorporates details and literary devices that enhance the story and theme of the novel. Oprah did not display these key elements in her film. The relationships and character traits of the characters undergo a change in the movie to suit Oprah’s desires. These changes directly influence the theme and plot of the story.
In Oprah’s interpretation of the novel, Janie becomes stronger in her relationship with Logan Killicks to suit Oprah’s taste for a love story. Janie got her first taste of love when she kissed Johnny Taylor by the fence gate at Nanny’s house. Because she kissed Johnny, …show more content…

“It is the most beautiful poignant love stories I have ever heard” (Darnell). Oprah creates a movie based on a beautiful love story fueled by sex and attractive actors. “Janie does find love, but a love story, the novel is not” (Ceptus). The story that Zora Neale Hurston wrote did not have any aspect of a true love story. “The movie over sexualizes the book…” (Waesche). Oprah changes the entire theme and story by altering events to achieve her idea of a timeless love story between a strong, beautiful girl and a loving Tea Cake. There are certain events that are removed from the story to contribute to the love story. Tea Cake, while infected with rabies does not bite Janie after she shot him in the movie. By Tea Cake not biting Janie it makes their final act of love pure where in the book Janie getting bit makes Tea Cake look like he was trying to harm Janie. When Tea Cake gambles away Janie’s money in the movie Janie feels extremely angry and hits Tea Cake. Janie hitting Tea Cake supports Oprah’s theme of unfailing love by showing that their relationship can withstand a fight. “Janie does find love, but a love story, it is not” (Ceptus). In the novel Janie and Tea Cake’s relationship does not show true love because Janie loves the idea of Tea Cake not him. Janie, having a history of marrying older men, thought that marrying Tea Cake would be a pleasant change from older men. Tea …show more content…

The pear tree symbolizes her love life, and her maturity in her love life. Nearly every time Janie undergoes a change in her love life she sits under the pear tree or makes a reference to it. “…ever since the first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom” (Hurston 10). Janie changes throughout her life just as the pear tree does, from a child to a woman ready to wed. “ That was before the golden dust of pollen had beglamored his rags and her eyes” (Hurston 12). The symbolism of the pear tree does not hold a place in the film at all. The lack of symbolism in the movie removes the depth that it created in the book. “As the story progresses, the blossom/pollen motif reappears frequently, illustrating the development of Janie’s dream…” (Kendall). The pollen from the pear tree shows how Janie grows up and discovers love and makes her lust for Johnny Taylor. Without the pear tree you cannot see how Janie changes throughout her life and develops her idea of what love should feel like. The gate in front of Nanny’s house in the book represents coming change in Janie’s life and has crucial effect on the story. “She searched as of the world as she could from the top steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road” (Hurston 11). The gate

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Next, Janie continues on her determined journey for love when she goes off to marry Tea Cake. In the quote,

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A pear tree blossom in the spring” (106) Janie saw Tea Cake and she automatically thought that he could be the one she falls in love with. This metaphor shows that love can make you think crazy things. Hurston also

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When Nunkie tries to lure Tea Cake with playful acts, and Tea Cake does not fend her off as promptly as Janie wanted him to, Janie feels “[a] little seed of fear was growing into a tree” (136). In other words, Janie starts to feel and develop bigger and growing jealousy and fear of losing Tea Cake because of Nunkie. The metaphor illustrates how Janie feels about such situation with visual matters, seed and tree; seed and tree symbolize the progress and growth. Also, in other perspective, readers can recognize Janie’s true emotion, the love, towards Tea Cake by relating to how Janie feels about losing someone, which she never felt during earlier chapters when she lost two husbands. Summing up the contents, the metaphor used for highlighting that Janie has a bigger love for Tea Cake than she did for any other and jealousy about Nunkie’s action.

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She meets Tea Cake, falls in love, and later marries him. This marriage is by far the most special and unique marriage Janie has had. Her relationship with Tea Cake is her first true love; which consists of affection, happiness, understanding and everything else that follows. This marriage makes Janie feel like she has a second chance in life to relive her youth. Janie has lots of fun and is truly blessed and happy with Tea Cake.

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Finally, she married Tea Cake who showed her what it was like to be loved and feel love. In each of these marriages, Janie fights for her independence that was previously denied from her. She refuses to give up on her dream for true love and is only satisfied after she finds it with Tea

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After reading Hibben’s critique I agree with the statements she makes. Hibben’s talks about how Tea Cake and Janie’s relationship was different from the others. When Janie was with Mister Killicks she didn’t care about his “land, and his sagging belly, and his toenails that looked like mules’ feet,” she wanted love not material things. Janie wasn’t pleased with all the nice things she could obtain from marrying Mister Killicks, she was looking for the happiness love would give her, not what Killicks had.

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Near the end of the novel she observes, “In the years she had been tying scraps to the branches, the tree had died and the fruit turned bitter. The other apple trees were hale and healthy, but this one, the tree of her remembrances, were as black and twisted as the bombed-out town behind it.” (Hannah 368) The apple tree represents the outcomes of war. It portrays the author’s perspective that lives wither and lose life due to such violence.

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