Read the book, now see the film

The Main Library will be showing the film Their Eyes Were Watching God (starring Halle Berry) on Thursday, May 31 at 7:00 p.m. in the large auditorium.

The end?

What do you think happens to Janie after the book? Does she settle back in Eatonville, living among her old friends and neighbors? Or could Janie soon suffer from rabies and die? She had been bitten by Tea Cake during the fight in which she shot him (p. 184); the doctor had previously  expressed concern that towards the end of his illness, Tea Cake was a threat to Janie, that he might bite her.

Robert Haas wrote an article, “Might Zora Neale Hurston’s Janie Woods Be Dying of Rabies? Considerations from Historical Medicine” (Literature and Medicine 19, no. 2 (Fall 2000) 205-228) in which he argues that everything else the doctor said to Janie came true as far as Tea Cake’s illness, and so why wouldn’t his specific warning that Tea Cake might bite her and give her rabies also come true. Could Janie be telling Pheoby her story because she won’t be around for very long to tell it herself? What do you think?

Janie and Pheoby

One of the questions from the NEA’s Big Read discussion questions for Their Eyes Were Watching God is:

 ”Why does Janie choose to tell her story only to her best friend Pheoby? How does Pheoby respond at the end of Janie’s tale?”

Do you think Janie will tell her story to others as time goes on? Why or why not?

At the end of the book (p. 192) Pheoby says to Janie,

“Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Ah ain’t satisfied wid mahself no mo’. Ah means tuh make Sam take me fishin’ wid him after this.”

Do you suspect that Pheoby will be successful in her efforts to make changes in her life, like insisting that Sam take her fishing for starters?

Related links of interest:

Complete list of NEA Big Read discussion questions for the book