My favorite book is Their Eyes Were Watching God. When Oprah brought it to television I was a bit worried that the story would get overly diluted. And once I saw it I wasn't completely satisfied w/ the result, but I wasn't entirely disappointed either. I gave it a pass because how on earth could something so dynamic be translated into something for my television? Anyway, one of my favorite scenes in that movie was when Janie went to talk to Joe on his deathbed about how he'd spent the majority of their relationship pinning her under with his thumb, worried about her strength and threatened by her freedom, almost as though he resented her. She wasn’t allowed to wear what she wanted, she had to hide her hair and cover her head in a scarf, had to cook and clean a specific way, at a specific time, and couldn’t say what she felt. She was essentially a prisoner in her marriage. I could relate all too well to that. It’s one of the things that I am afraid of having repeated in my life.

Phoebe and Janie are having a conversation and Janie explains why she changed and left.

Phoebe: Joe gived you everything you could want. You're not happy because you expect too much.

Janie: Something fell off the shelf inside me. It was Joe. He tumbled down and shattered.

*Remembering the day Joe died

Joe (labored breathing): Doctor say that I'm dyin'. I guess you come to watch.

Janie: Jody. Maybe I ain't been such a good wife to you. But you gave me everything a woman could ever dream of havin'. And I thank you. But Jody, you and me done been together now for 20 years, and you don't know me half at all.

Joe: I know you.

Janie: You changed from that Jody I run off down the road with. I wanted to keep a house with you in a wonderful way, but you wasn't really satisfied with me the way I was.

Joe: I built a whole town for us. But that ain't good enough for you.

Janie: It was just that my own feelings had to be squeezed and crowded out of me to make room for yours in me.

Joe: Blame everything on me. I don't let you show me no feelin', huh? Janie, that's all I ever wanted.

Janie: Ain't nobody tryin' to blame nothing on you, Joe. But all this bowin' down and obedience, well, it just... It just ain't what I run off down that road with you for.

Joe: Shut up!

Janie: Shut up. Even now, you got to die with me bein' obedient. Instead of lettin' me love you.

Joe: I hope... that thunder and lightnin'... kill you. Now get outta here. Get lost! (gasps)

Janie: Jody?

Poor Jody... Sittin' in that rulin' chair was hard for you too.

(Now speaking again to Phoebe)

Janie: Whatever folks thought of Joe while he was livin', they turned out for his funeral, and cried over him. 'Cause whether they liked him or not, they knew he had been a good man, and that his passin' was a great loss. I felt the sadness, too. But alongside the sadness, I was feelin' something else. I was feelin' free.