Their Eyes Were Watching God

An emotional rollercoaster of a movie, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," tells the story of Janie Crawford and the relationships she has with men. Janie tells her story in retrospect to her friend Pheoby and her tale of love and hardship. In a way Janie's story is a kin to a Greek tragedy as every time she finds happiness that happiness is engulfed in a void of despair. Her first husband Logan is cold and unromantic. Talked into marrying him by her mother Janie is thoroughly unhappy with the relationship.The charismatic Joe Starks captures her heart and they elope to Eatonville. Jody, as she calls him, isn't the dream man as she thought he was. Controlling and ill-tempered Janie suffers through two decades of marriage before asserting her independence and chastizing him. His ego now hurt he brutally beats her. Time passes amd Jody falls greatly ill. Janie belittles him while he is on his deathbed  and he dies in shame. Janie's endurance of an unhappy relationship and the way Jody treated and beat her Janie gets the last word. She once again becomes independent skeptical of relationships with men as her previous ones with them were trials of contempt. Tea Cake a much younger man, eventually wins her heart. Tea Cake steals her money as soon as they are married but he apologizes and states his hearts belongs to her. They enjoy happiness after the event and Janie finally finds the man of her dreams. One day a hurricane hits Janie and Tea Cakes homtown and a series of unfortunate events occur. Trying to escape for higher ground Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog in enthralled in a fit of madness. Forced to kill him to save her life Janie shoots him. Absolved of the charge if murder Janie returns to Eatonville where she finds peace in a town unfilling to embrace her. Janie's story doesn't end in what you would call a happy ending. She faces many trials that test her character and resolve. Her story speaks on what it means to be a black woman in in a patriarchial society, Southern society. In this tale, however, whites are not the oppressor. Black man and women are both the protagonists and antagonists. "Their Eye's Were Watching God" examines the internal politics of black society. The townspeople are eager to try to demean Janie as they feel so overstepped societal bounds for women of that time. Marrying Tea Cakes so soon after Jody's death was an act of independence that interrupted a social fabric that people were uncomfortable with. A woman being free without worryong how society sees her caused resentment in women who were afraid to do the same thing, hence the malicious gossip when she returned to Eatonville. Janie defined herself at the end and as she had at the beginning. Through the ups and downs of her life she found true inner peace within herself as happiness lies within.