Movie Comparison
History 202
Professor David Ulbrich
2nd Semester: 3/27/05
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a made for tv
movie created from the book, written by Zora Neale Hurston. The movie
was a very close portrayal of the book and achieved a very accurate
depiction of a “strong woman who overcame obstacles and hardships”
which, Zora Hurston so eagerly wanted to share with the world. The
story is about a woman named Janie, who seemed to have the life every
African American woman would want during the late 1800’s and early
1900’s. Janie may have seemed happy on the outside, however on the
inside she had dreams and a vision of what a real woman was. Janie
says, “I have an inside and an outside and can see the difference
between the two.” Janie’s husband dies and Janie feels like now she is
free to be the women on the outside that she feels she is on the inside.
The movie mimics the book in that the movie portrays
Janie as a strong woman who over comes the views of society and
obstacles of broken love to become the woman on the outside that she
feels on the inside. One of Hurston’s goals as an author was to
“portray strong women who overcome obstacles and hardships.” In the
book, Hurston uses her childhood home of Eatonville, FL as the setting
of the story and the movie uses the same setting. Just as Hurston
reflects the survival and lifestyles of people and women before the
Great Depression, mainly black women, so does the movie in its
portrayal of Janie.
Professors Comments: Professor Ulbrich didn’t leave
any comments on my paper, just a check mark that means full credit.
Source: Whisenhunt, Donald W. Ed. America
Between the Wars, 1920-1945. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc.
Imprint, 2002.