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LITERATURE
SELECTION>>
Analyzing Setting
Janie (Halle Berry) and
Joe Starks (Reuben
Santiago-Hudson).
Zora Neale Hurston’s acclaimed 1937 novel about a free-spirited young
woman’s quest for happiness in 1920s Florida has been made into a television movie.
Here’s an excerpt of the script by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks.
Their Eyes Were Watching
BY ZORA NEALE HURSTON
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The Story So Far . . .
Janie has fallen in love
with and married Joe
Starks, an ambitious
man who has just
succeeded in creating
the first incorporated
African-American town.
Tonight, the town
gathers to celebrate all
of their hard work. But
for Janie, the celebration
may be bittersweet.
EXTERIOR STARKS’S GENERAL STORE—DAY
A banner draped across the front of the store reads:
“TOWN LAMP LIGHTING! TONIGHT!”
EXTERIOR STARKS’S HOUSE—DAY—
MOMENTS LATER
JOE strides toward the house, carrying a package.
He pauses to look back toward his store and the solitary new street lamp, happy about what he sees.
PHEOBY comes rushing down the street, crashing
into JOE in her haste. They laugh good-naturedly as
PHEOBY hurries away.
Lord, I rund over the Mayor!
Almost, Pheoby, almost!
PHEOBY WATSON
JOE STARKS
Laughing, JOE heads through the gate and into his house.
INTERIOR STARKS’S HOUSE, PARLOR—DUSK—LATER
JANIE excitedly unwraps JOE’s package. It’s a dress. In contrast to the simple
elegance of the homemade dress she is wearing, this store-bought dress is of heavy
silk, trimmed in fussy matronly lace, and stiff as armor with its built-in corset.
JANIE
JOE STARKS
(veiled dismay) It musta cost
a lot.
I ordered it. From the finest
ladies’ store in Orlando.
He proudly shows her the elegant silk tag inside the
dress, and JANIE sees that it is lined with row after
row of stiff whalebone stays.
JANIE does a feeble twirl in her homemade dress.
JANIE
JOE STARKS
All the ladies helped me
make this one. It’s pretty.
But it don’t befit a
Mayor’s wife. Yr the
bell-cow, the other
women are your gang.
ABC/BOB GREENE
JOE steers JANIE to the mirror, stands behind her.
ANGLE ON JANIE as JOE proudly drapes her with
the unforgiving dress. It’s like a shield.
continued ➟
CAST OF
CHARACTERS
JOE STARKS: the
ambitious mayor of
Eatonville, Florida,
in his 30s
JANIE: Joe Starks’s
free-spirited
17-year-old wife
PHEOBY WATSON:
Janie’s best friend;
Sam Watson’s wife
SAM WATSON and
AMOS HICKS:
townspeople in
their 20s
PEARL STONE:
gossipy woman in
her 30s
LULA MOSS:
gossipy woman in
her 20s
CROWD: townspeople of Eatonville
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LITERATURE SELECTION >> THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
➟ continued from page 7
JOE STARKS
No one else’s wife should rank with you.
(more kindly) I’m gonna show you the world, remember?
JANIE smiles, remembering his initial promises to her that gave her such joy. She takes
another look at the dress and decides to be more accepting of his wishes.
EXTERIOR STARKS’S GENERAL STORE/MAIN STREET—DUSK—LATER
The street is thronging with people. Not just from Eatonville—folks from all over have
arrived. The festivities are well underway. AMOS is in charge of the barbecue. PHEOBY
WATSON works the punch bowl, while PEARL STONE and LULA MOSS serve up generous helpings of greens, stuffing, cornbread, and yams, plus an array of cakes and pies. Kids
are playing tag, and a YOUNG BOY makes mischief when he steals a pie.
A Dixieland-style band is playing and people are dancing. Everything announces Eatonville’s
arrival and proud hospitality.
FRANK and ANNIE TYLER, 30s, are there. ANNIE, her eyes bright with drink, is dressed
flashily and laughing too loud. She sips on an alcoholic beverage, which her husband unsuccessfully tries to wrest from her grasp.
SAM WATSON
AMOS HICKS
Try as he might, Frank Tyler can’t seem to control that wife of his.
Shoot, if Annie Tyler was my wife, I’d kill her cemetery dead.
Unbeknownst to the gossips,
Janie has heard their unkind words. Stung,
Janie retreats to Joe’s side.
Janie in Starks’s
General Store.
EXTERIOR STARKS’S
GENERAL STORE/
PORCH—DUSK
JOE is holding court again,
seated on the porch surrounded by men such as
SAM WATSON and
WALTER STONE, who
hang on to their Mayor’s
every word.
JANIE stands beside JOE;
she’s uncomfortable in her
stiff, overdone dress, but
smiling like a trouper and
enjoying herself.
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I’m telling you, in five years time, Eatonville’s gonna be the county seat!
The men are impressed with JOE’s big plans. JANIE smiles approvingly, but steps away.
NEAR THE SIDE OF THE PORCH
In the yard, PEARL STONE and LULA MOSS gossip.
PEARL STONE
LULA MOSS
Guess the homemade dress wasn’t good enough for Mrs. Mayor Starks.
And she’s standing up there with the men, too good to help us out.
Unbeknownst to the gossips, JANIE has heard their unkind words. Stung, JANIE retreats to
JOE’s side. She puts her hand on his shoulder, and he loops his fingers through hers.
JOE STARKS
This town we got is full of union and love! I means to put my hands
to the plow . . .
EXTERIOR STARKS’S GENERAL STORE—NIGHT—LATER
The townsfolk, now slightly disheveled and partied up, are assembled around the street
lamp. It’s long past sunset, but the day’s heat still lingers. JANIE, JOE, and PASTOR
THOMPSON, 30s, stand on a small raised platform surrounded by the crowd.
JOE STARKS
. . . and strain every nerve to make our town of Eatonville the
metropolis of the state!
The crowd cheers heartily. JANIE cheers too. This is the big-talking JOE that she is so proud of.
LEFT PAGE, ABC/VIVIAN ZINK; RIGHT PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: ©CORBIS; ©SCOTT GRIES/GETTY IMAGES
JOE STARKS
And to that effect, let’s get started tonight with a little surprise I got
for you:
He pulls a STAMPED CHARTER out of his pocket.
JOE STARKS
Our incorporation! Eatonville is now the first incorporated colored
township in all America!
The crowd goes wild. JANIE is as surprised as the rest of them. She throws her arms
around JOE. His glory is her glory.
AMOS gets what may be the first great idea of his life.
AMOS HICKS
And now, let’s have a few words of encouragement from
Mrs. Mayor Starks.
The crowd cheers in approval. It’s a recognition of JANIE’s part in their success. Smiling,
JANIE opens her mouth to speak, when—
JOE STARKS
(jovial) Thank you for your compliments, but Mrs. Mayor Starks
don’t know nothing about speech making. I didn’t marry her for
nothing like that.
MEET THE
AUTHORS:
Zora Neale
Hurston
(she wrote the
original
novel)
BORN
1891, in
Alabama
DIED
1959, in Florida
RENAISSANCE
WOMAN
Hurston lived and
wrote in New
York City during
the Harlem
Renaissance of
the 1920s.
THANKS ALICE
Interest in
Hurston’s work
waned long
before her death,
but was revived
by author Alice
Walker in the
1970s.
SUZANLORI PARKS
(she wrote the
screenplay)
BORN
1964, in
Kentucky
TOP DOG
In 2002,
became the first
African-American
woman to win the
Pulitzer Prize for
Drama for her first
Broadway play,
Topdog/Underdog.
continued ➟
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LITERATURE SELECTION >> THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
➟ continued from page 9
JANIE steps back. JOE’s dismissal of her cuts deeply. The crowd recognizes it too.
JOE STARKS
Janie
about
town.
Pastor, please step forward.
The PASTOR steps forward and lights the lamp.
JOE STARKS
When we touch the match to this lamp wick . . .
All watch the lamp being lit. The look of hope on the faces of the townspeople is in stark contrast to the excluded look in JANIE’s eyes.
JOE STARKS
. . . We ask for the light to shine into the hearts
of each and every one of you gathered here
today. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
The CROWD takes up the song. The Dixieland band joins in. As they
sing, their faces, aglow in the lamp light, are also glowing with the light of
their own possibility, but JANIE is struggling to put a brave face on things.
. . .Mrs. Mayor Starks don’t know
nothing about speech making. I didn’t marry
her for nothing like that.
CROWD
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of
mine, I’m gonna let it shine . . .
JOE hugs JANIE around her shoulders. She smiles up at him and, mostly for the sake
of appearances, joins in the singing. But we can tell that her dreams have suffered a
heavy bruise.
JANIE and CROWD
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it
shine, let it shine.
INTERIOR STARKS’S HOUSE, BEDROOM—NIGHT—LATER
JOE at the bedroom window, watching the lamp-light below, turns to JANIE, sitting on the
bed. A broad smiles spreads across his face.
REPRINTED
WITH PERMISSION.
COURTESY HARPO
FILMS/ABC
10
How you like being Mrs. Mayor?
It’s all right, I reckon.
(moving to bed) All right? You oughta be glad.
Don’t you think it keeps us in a kinda strain?
JANIE struggles to put her feelings into words. JOE stands at the foot of the bed, unable to
understand. He loosens his tie and takes a seat on the bed.
JANIE
FEBRUARY 2005 Literary Cavalcade
Well, I just hope it’s over soon.
ABC/VIVIAN ZINK
JOE STARKS
JANIE
JOE STARKS
JANIE
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Over? God, I ain’t even got started good.
JOE leans in and kisses JANIE at the nape of her neck, then slowly unfastens her dress, revealing the deep indentations her dress stays have left on her back, signs of her new corseted life.
JOE STARKS
I’m gonna be a big voice and you oughta be glad cause that’ll make a
big woman out of you.
■
JOE kisses her. But now, she’s so not feeling it.
SKILL DRILL
THIS STORY CONVEYS A STRONG SENSE OF TIME AND
PLACE. ANALYZE THE DETAILS TO SEE HOW IT’S DONE.
List details from the dialogue and the stage directions that establish
the setting. You don’t need to write in complete sentences, just be as
clear and specific as possible.
20-Minute
Essay
>>TAKE 20
MINUTES
TO PLAN AND
WRITE AN ESSAY
BASED ON THE
FOLLOWING:
How is the dress
that Joe Starks
gives Janie
symbolic of their
relationship?
LC Book Club
Questions
1
>>Your Turn!
Select one incident from
the excerpt and describe it
from Janie’s point of view. Write in first person, and explain
what happened and how you (as Janie) felt.
Why do you
think Janie
failed to protest
when Joe stopped
her from making
a speech, even
though what he
did hurt her?
What do you
think of Joe’s
assertion that his
success should
make Janie
happy? If you
were Janie, how
would you
respond to Joe’s
final line?
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