"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

     This movie is adapted from the 1937 novel by Zora Neale Hurston, in which was produced by Oprah Winfrey on the basis of Hurston's novel. During class today, I did not expext for this film to be as interesting and entertaining as it was. Halle Berry(Janie) and Michael Ealy(Tea Cake) both played an exceptional role and did wonderful. This film was about an African American woman in which was a mixture of both the white and black race. However, they lived in an all black town, Edenville, in which Janie didn't have to worry about being treated differently even though she was of mixed race. However, when she became the wife of the mayor and he expected for her to change; then she began being looked upon differently by the townspeople becuse it suddenly seemed as if she was deemed to act above them (like White people). Janie never really cared about what anyone thought anyways which was rare for black people during this time. They were always trying to live by the rules of society after being oppressed for so long by the white race as well as even the black. Therefore, African American women seldomly ever did anything to draw attention to themselves or give others an even more reason to downgrade them further.
     When this film began a quote became embedded in my head, Janie stated, "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh themselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' for themselves." This was Janie's motto about life. Because of this quote, she succeeded through each twist and turn life threw her way. Janie's character was very strongwilled but sometimes she submitted a little to her husband(Mr. Mayor Starks), because after all every African American woman was raised with the understanding that the man is "the head of the home." Therefore, Janie settled for what she had and became complacent while just passing through life
     Another favorite quote of mine from this film is the quote about 'Love' that Janie began the movie with as well as ended it, which stated,
 "Love ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore."
This quote began the film and throughout it, Oprah explored Hurston's reasons for the belief of this quote as well as made readers all around come to understand for themselves also the meaning of this quote.
However, from researching the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the movie doesn't seem to do its justice. From reading the first twenty-five chapters this novel, I can understand the whole story from Hurson's point of view; instead of watching this film which mostly centers around romance than actual life. In my opinion, no this film wasn't an actual true depiction of this novel.