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Their Eyes Were Watching God Book Analysis

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Their Eyes Were Watching God Book Analysis
Oprah Butchers Hurston’s Classic Novel
Oprah Winfrey's movie, totally transformed Their Eyes were Watching God, beyond resemblance from Zora Neale Hurston's book. Throughout the movie many relationships changed, Janie gained much strength, morals became altered from the normal acceptance of this time and, the meaning completely shifted and symbols meaning completely. Obviously, Oprah had conducted changes in the movie which altered the entire recognition of the book.
During the movie, Oprah twists the moral fiber of what people considered proper and correct for this time period. Scenes showed graphic sexual and intimate situations between characters. These sexual tones contradict what the moral values of the time period conveyed during the
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Joe became jealous of other men viewing Janie’s beautiful luxurious hair. “Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn’t seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was. He never told her how often he had seen the other men figuratively wallowing in it as she went about things in the store.” (Hurston 55) Hurston explains a scene of Joe demanding her hair out of view and Janie obeyed his request. In contrast, during the movie Janie receives the strength of standing up to Joe and refusing to wear her hair up. Polar opposite of what society held Janie accountable to do in the book. Zora Neale Hurston shows Janie doing the everyday expected tasks of a woman during this time period. Oprah depicts Janie partaking in the hard manual labor of the fields. The field work became known as a man’s job during the book. This shows Janie received just as much strength as a man for that day in age. In the novel, Janie could not have a voice in the town because Joe would not allow it. “He kept her socially isolated, set her apart, leaving her lonely and unfulfilled. Without that sense of belonging, Janie could not find the voice she had been lacking for so long, the voice that could stand up to Joe Starks…”(hubpages) The movie opposes this and granted Janie the strength to speak up and voice her opinions for the public to

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