Their Eyes Were Watching God

I rarely have best things, but watching this movie again this weekend I know it is undeniably my best movie and why I am so drawn to a particular message from the movie – its moral cushions my faith in making a decision at the present crossroads of my life.

Adapted from African American writer, Zora Neale Hurston's best-known novel set in Southern Florida in the early 20 th century, and produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Production, starring Hale Berry and Michael Ealy.

'Their Eyes Were Watching God' is a story that shows the resilience of a woman in overcoming the different men and situations that held her down in a search for an identity.

There has been a lot of argument on how much justice the movie really did to the book especially as it wrongly depicts it as a story of love, I have only read study guides of the book but to me, the movie is nothing close to worthless as critics try to portray it.

However the overwhelming message that keeps me glued to this story, is not so much of its application to love, but the rebellion of an imperfect woman.

While the other women accepted their condition, though they wished in their hearts they could have the power to see what they want to see and the determination to pursue it, Janie defied the societal efforts to define who she should be.

She dared to pursue what gives her happiness and full expression of who she is, at the end of her journey she might not have met up with the societal definition of success but she returned with an unusual sense of fulfillment, of someone gone to the horizon and back.

While writing this I remembered a poem I wrote last year:

My Generation Of Women

My generation of women is defined by the discovery of our wings
By the formidable quest for identity that has broken the cage of tradition
We soar high as far as our imaginations take us
Beautifying the sky of our world
With the colorful creativity of our exploration
No longer boxed up in the norms of the society
A society as multi opinionated as the countless faces that make it up
Listening to its obsolete rhymes could equal loosing yourself
And becoming as nameless as it is
Adversity has bred in us fortitude
Therefore, we are not afraid to bend or even break
We are running the race our mama could not when she was our age
Embellishing our walk with the desire to define
We ask questions of our various roles
Of who, what, where, how and when
We send our minds on an adventure around the global village
Merging our heritage with the beckoning of the future
And we find ourselves an expression therein

How true is it or could it be?