Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is a book taken by Oprah to make a movie in which she completely changes. Some many differences between the book and the movie consist of symbolism and Janie going from weak to stronger in the movie. More changes made by Oprah also consist of Janie and Teacake's relationship and the deleted scenes. Oprah takes a book, makes a movie out of it, and twists it completely. The way Oprah changed the movie so much makes it difficult to recognize the book from the movie.
In this book, symbolism gets taken out by Oprah when she makes the movie. In the book symbolism comes as a key feature, Zora Neale Hurston made the gate symbolize a change in Janie's life while Oprah took it out completely and replaced it with water which stood for the change in Janie’s life. The Horizon in the book symbolizes Janie’s goals and dreams “She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.” (Hurston 193), in the book but when Oprah made the movie she did not put any scene regarding the horizon. The pear tree to Janie represented her love in the book many times but in the movie, Oprah references the pear tree once. Oprah's taking these scenes out makes it harder to understand how important the role symbolism played.
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Janie being a weak character in Zora’s version also gets taken out by Oprah when she makes Janie a strong character who fights back in Oprah's version. Janie stood up for herself in the movie she would not allow any man to treat her badly. In the book, Janie had to marry someone before moving in with them, and in the movie Oprah let her go with the man even if they had not committed to each other fully yet. Janie in the movie threatens to leave Joe when she realizes Joe starts to look old but does not because she remains obedient to what he says “Even now, you got to die with me being obedient, instead of me just loving you”(Their). Janie being a weak character in the book made Janie herself making her stronger and changed everything about Janie's character.
Deleted scenes in the movie that get taken out by Oprah make up some of the most important parts that the book mentions. Oprah takes out racism in the book when racism plays a huge role “ Honey, the de white man is de ruler of everything as far as Ah been able to find out.” (Hurston 14). In the movie, racism means nothing it gets taken out by Oprah when racism plays a key role in Janie's life. Oprah also takes out Mrs.Turner in the movie; Mrs. Turner played a huge role she wanted all things white and she did not like how Janie could marry someone darker than her. The jealousy over Janie’s marriage also gets taken out. Janie gets jealous when married to Tea Cake and Nunkie flirts with Tea Cake but Oprah takes that out of the movie. The deleted scenes played an important role, the scenes deleted made the book important.
Janie and Tea Cake have a strange relationship, in the book they have to go through a hurricane which they also go through in the movie but in the book, Teacake pulled Janie out of the water, and in the movie, Janie had to pull Teacake up like she had more power. Also in the book Teacake bites Janie when he begins dying after Janie shoots him “She was trying to hover him as he closed his teeth in the flesh of her forearm. They came down heavily like that. Janie struggled to a sitting position and pried the dead Tea Cake’s teeth from her arm.” (Hurston 184) but in the movie he does not bite her he just lays there and dies. When Teacake gets rabies he points a gun at Janie, because he can not see straight and does not realize Janie’s presence. In the book he never puts the gun down, because he never comes to realize Janie is in front of him but in the movie, he can barely see Janie and realizes what he almost did so he starts to put the gun down. Janie and Tea Cake's relationship made the book special it made Janie herself but Oprah changes her character when she changes Janie and Tea Cake's relationship.
Oprah takes the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, makes a movie on it, and changes the movie around drastically. Oprah changes the book so much that it changes the relationships the characters have with each other and the character's personalities. The exaggerations in the movie made it extremely difficult to make connections from the movie to the book.
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