LEARNING STRATEGIES:Skimming and Scanning, Note-taking, Think-Pair-Share, Discussion Groups

Learning Target• Analyze and evaluate how a text is altered or maintained as it is reinterpreted

into a film version.

Before Viewing Filmmakers who adapt a novel face the challenge of conveying their interpretation of the major themes of the work. The film adaptation of Their Eyes Were Watching God offers the opportunity to critique a media production of Hurston’s novel. You will watch the last approximately 28 minutes of the film, taking notes about what the filmmakers chose to add, alter, and delete, and the effects of these choices.

1. First, refresh your memory by scanning Chapter 14, when Janie and Tea Cake arrive on the muck, to the end of the novel. Make a list of the major elements and scenes found here that you think are essential to getting across the major themes of the novel.

2. Using your list, what do you predict Oprah Winfrey’s production will focus on in this film adaptation of Their Eyes Were Watching God?

During Viewing 3. As you study the last part of the film, use the graphic organizer on the next

page to take notes on what the filmmakers chose to add, alter, and delete. Most importantly, think about the effects of those choices.

ACTIVITY

5.18Oprah Winfrey Presents. . .

My Notes

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Add

• What do film techniques add to the text? Consider visual images, camera angles and movement, framing, music, lighting, diegetic and nondiegetic sound, and so on.

• What do the actors add to characterization?

• Are any plotlines added?

What is the effect of these additions?

Alte

r

• What elements and scenes from the book are present but altered? In what ways?

• Which scenes in the film present a mood that differs from the mood in the parallel scene from the novel? In what ways?

What is the effect of these alterations?

Del

ete

• What did the filmmakers leave out? What is the effect of these deletions?

ACTIVITY 5.18continued

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Unit 5 • An American Journey 409

My Notes

Check Your UnderstandingReturn to the four critical reviews of Activity 5.17. Consider these as commentaries, not on Hurston’s novel, but on Winfrey’s film version of the novel. Select one of these that you can connect to the segment of the film version of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Think how the commentary might be relevant to Winfrey’s film version of the novel. Cite the statements from the critical review to which you are responding. Make a list of at least three details from the movie to support your opinion.

In your discussion group, share your choice and how you connected to the movie version of the novel. You might use this graphic organizer to prepare your discussion notes or make notes in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

Oprah Winfrey Presents. . . ACTIVITY 5.18continued

Review referenced:

Evidence from Critical Review Evidence from the Movie How is the review relevant to a modern interpretation

of the novel?

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