Their Eyes Were Watching God

(woman) I remember when I first read

this book, I fell in love with the story,

It was one of the most beautiful,

poignant love stories

I'd ever read,

This is a story about a woman

allowing herself to be a full woman

and not subjected to the definition or

identity others have carved out for her,

The first time Janie and Tea Cake kiss

reinvents the whole idea

and notion of kissing,

I would have to say

that if you can get a kiss like that,

you can die a happy woman,

When this movie airs, Zora Neale Hurston, wherever she is, is gonna give a shout

(woman) There's two things

everybody got to find out for theyselves,

They got to find out about love,

and they got to find out about livin',

(woman) Now, love is like the sea,

It's a movin ' thing,

And it's different on every shore,

And livin',,,

Well,

I just come back from buryin' the dead,

(man) Is that Miss Starks?

Sure enough Iooks Iike

Miss Starks' Iooksome features,

Yes, 'cept Miss Starks

wouldn't be wearin' no coveralls,

That Tea Cake,

That's what happens when you run off

with a yellow fellow Iike Tea Cake,

Oh, you just mad

'cause she ain't run off with you!

(men laugh)

Ain't no way in the world

that's Mrs, Mayor Starks,

No way in the world,

Janie?

Lord, we been worried sick about you!

Go to hell,

- What you say?

- I said afternoon, Iadies,

Jasper, Run get Miss Phoebe, You tell her

her friend Miss Janie come back,

(boy) Yes, ma'am,

I told you she'd come runnin' back here,

Crawlin' back, Didn't I?

(plays slow tune)

(women's voices outside)

(woman #2) What's she doin' with Iong

hair down her back, Iike some young gal?

(woman) Where's Tea Cake,

that's what I want to know,

Weren't she a widow woman, almost 40?

That young boy

weren't never gonna marry her,

I covered up your furniture an' all,

I thank you,

You sure Iook good,

Shoot, you Iook Iike your own daughter,

Girl, you talkin'

Iike you think I brought you something,

I ain't brought home nothing but myself,

That's a gracious plenty,

Your friends wouldn't want nothing better,

Girl, go on and bring me them rations

you done brought in here,

- Thank you,

- Janie,

Here you go,

If that Tea Cake ever shows his behind in

Eatonville again, he gonna wish he hadn't,

He knew that you had just Iost Joe, so he

took advantage of you, and your money,

He ain't wasted none of my money,

And if he was here,

But he gone,

Ain'the?

He dragged you down to his Ievel,

and then,,,

- Y'all think he did me wrong,

- Janie, we all know he did you wrong,

Well, I ain't stunned what they think,

You don't care what I think neither, do you?

You Ieft this town,

Me and Tea Cake had us a real Iove,

You got the nerve to come back up in here

with no shoes on your feet,

and nothing but overalls on your back,

making everything we believed in

Iook Iike dirt,

- Me and Tea Cake had a real Iove,

- How could you do that?

- Y'all couldn't see that,

- I used to Iook up to you,

Phoebe,

The only way you,

and this whole town, ever seen me

was as Mrs, Mayor Starks,

Sittin' out there on that porch,

Silk dresses on,

All high an' mighty.

Just as Iadylike as you please,

That might have been the Janie y'all knew,

But that wasn't the Janie I ever was,

(Janie) You see,

I ain't never known my poppa, or my ma,

My grandmomma raised me,

I was born sorta knowing things,

Like how the trees and the wind talk,

I told the seeds when they was fallin ',

"I sure hope y'all fall on soft ground, "

That year,

something about me was different,

It's like my life was starting

right at that moment,

Hey, Johnny T aylor,

- How you doin', Janie?

- I'm all right,

Janie!

How Iong you been Iettin' Johnny Taylor

kiss on you? What is wrong with you?

Ain'tnothingwrongwith me, Nanny.

- We was,,,

- I seen what you was doin',

You was just Iettin' that trashy boy, that

breath an' britches, wipe his feet on you,

- He wasn't wipin' his feet on me,

- The woman is the mule of the world,

I didn't mean no harm, Nanny,

You don't even know what harm is, girl,

Yeah, You gonna get married right away,

- To Johnny Taylor?

- No, child,

I'd wanted you to school out,

but that ain't your idea, I see,

Why,,,

Why, I ain't ready to get married,

Oh, So you don't want to marry off decent,

You want to be Iike your momma was,

You want to run wild, break my heart,

Someone good and decent's

been asking after you for a while now,

Brother Logan Killicks,

Logan Killicks?

That's what he been

hangin' around here for?

He Iook Iike

some old skull head in a graveyard,

Brother Killicks got 60 acres,

And he's good and decent,

I don't care what he got,

(Janie) Nanny took the horizon

and pinched it into a little bit of a thing,

(Nanny) Janie?

Janie, what in the world are you doing?

I'm watching God,

Now, y'all want to make sure his dinner's

always hot when he comes home

and the floor's swept clean in the morning,

And... be... bewelcomin'to him.

Here he comes,

Dry your eyes,

How do,

Miss Janie,

(Janie) We got married,

just like Nanny wanted,

It was true, Logan was good and decent,

I was a proper married woman,

But I was still waiting for love to begin,

(Logan) Girl! Come on, now,

Lord, I woke up this morning

I looked around in my room

When I woke up this morning

I looked around in my room

I said, "Hello, blues

"Now, what you doin' in here so soon?"

I knowed it was the blues

'cause I heard 'em walking in my room

I knowed it was the blues

'cause I heard 'em walking in my room

Lord, I wonder what's the matter

that the blues just won 't leave me alone

oh, blues, blues

Won't you let poor me be

oh, blues, blues

Won't you let poor me be

And let me have one day

out of the seven days a week

I'm goin' over Hamilton County,

get us another plow,

- Can I go with you?

- You stay here, help me out some,

That porch need cleanin',

Cut up them seed potatoes,

Don't spend all day daydreamin',

SIaughter that runt, and bleed 'im good,

I want chops for dinner,

So that's a no?

Next time,

OK, Oh,,,

Move it, Go on,

Go on, before you become ham hocks,

- Put my pig down,

- Not if you're givin' him to the foxes,

I'm tryin' to Iet him go, Put him down!

Go on, Go on,

Think you're bein' kind?

He'II be dead before morning,

I ain't kind in no kind of way,

Your momma and poppa gonna

give you hell for settin' them pigs free,

They dead, And I don't care

what my husband thinks, neither,

Husband?

Went to get a plow,

so I can help in the fields,

Lord, gal,

you got no more business behind a plow

than a hog got with a holiday,

Pretty Iady Iike you need to be treated

Iike a Iady every single day of your Iife,

My name is Joe Starks, I'm from Georgia,

Where you headin', Mr, Starks?

Down the road a ways, Some colored folks

got together, made their own town,

All-coloredtown?You...

Yeah, they called it Eatonville,

I'm plannin' to get there

while the town's still a baby,

Seem Iike a tall tale to me,

Maybe you need

to come with me and see it,

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