'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald And 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' by Zora Neale Hurston

In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she sets the protagonist, Janie Mae Crawford as a woman who wants to find true love and who is struggling to find her identity. To find her identity and true love it takes her three marriages to go through. While being married to three different men who each have different philosophies, Janie comes to understand that she is developed into a strong woman. Hurston makes each idea through each man’s view of Janie, and their relationship with the society. The lifestyle with little hope of or reason to hope for improvement. He holds a sizeable amount of land, but the couple's life involves little interaction with anyone else.

Tom Buchanan’s characteristics were fabricated to mimic those in society who decide against treating their significant other with the respect and love that he/she deserves. In the novel, Tom was never content with just having the wife he claimed he loved (Daisy), so he also began to an affair with his mechanic’s wife. He never exhibited any remorse for his infidelity, even after Daisy reveals that there have been more affairs on page 131: “Do you know why we left Chicago? I’m surprised they didn’t treat you to the story of that little spree.”. She reveals this in an attempt to get her husband to feel some remorse for his cheating or at least to convince him to allow her to leave him for Gatsby. Her attempts fail, however, and he fights even more to keep her as his own. Although Daisy uses a term with a less harsh connotation to mimic Tom’s verbal evasion of his actions, Fitzgerald makes it clear that Tom refuses to have a monogamous relationship, yet demands Daisy to do so.

Janie’s second marriage left her widowed, but a couple months after Joe Starks death Janie found her next husband. His name was Vergible Woods, but he was also known as Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake’s marriage was everything that she ever wanted for marriage to ever be. It is crazy how everything she wanted comes after she had been through two marriages. If Nanny Crawford were to be the judge of Tea Cake, he would be everything that she wanted Janie to stay away from. He was a young 28 year old marrying Janie at 40, he did not have much money or a big, nice place to stay, and he was a gambler with the

On the other hand Tom and Daisy’s relationship was incredibly flawed, however they suited each other in terms of social class. They both had the same shallow views, as Nick states in the end, “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy, they smashed things up and creatures and retreated back into their money and vast carelessness.” The ending of the novel reinforces the idea that in such a morally corrupt society only relationships concerning those of the same social standing could work even in the slightest, and even so those relationships were doomed to a certain extent.

There are no two people exactly alike in the world. Identical twins, the only people in the world who share the same fingerprints and genetic information, have different personalities, distinct strengths and diverse shortcomings. When comparing two people, parallels can be drawn between them, but crucial dissimilarities will be highlighted as well during the process. Such is the case when it comes to analyzing the protagonists of The Natural by Bernard Malamud and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both Roy Hobbs and Jay Gatsby, the main characters of the two books respectively, are driven by money and their lust for women, and these factors lead to their eventual downfall; however, their character development is different in that Hobbs undergoes a change of heart and Gatsby suffers from a lack thereof. Although both books share many parallels such as problematic relationships, a key distinction of the two men is their ability to garner sympathy from the readers.

Many people believe in marrying for love and they spend most of their life searching for it. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Nora Zeal Hurston, Janie Crawford goes through three marriages, and as a result, she learns who she wants to be and how to become that woman. Janie has her idealized view of marriage that depicts that you marry for love, and everything is like a fairytale. Through Janie’s three marriages, she learns what she truly desires in life and finds herself along the way. As each marriage comes to a close, Janie becomes stronger and surer of herself.

Tea Cake comes into the store in Eatonville where Janie worked at, and she is automatically interested his charm: “She was in favor of the story that was making him laugh before she even heard it” (Hurston 90). They quickly fall in love with each other as Tea Cake treats her like a real woman. Tea Cake respected her and made her feel better about herself, something Logan and Jody had never done: ”... she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play… she looked over and got little thrills from every one of his good points” (Hurston 92). Tea Cake lets her play checkers and didn’t treat her as an object or lesser than himself. Soon enough, Tea Cake and Janie fall in love, move to Jacksonville then to the Everglades. Tea Cake gives Janie everything she’s ever wanted. He teaches her to shoot a gun, and doesn’t care Janie has a better shot; he does not care for the power over Janie that Jody did. Tea Cake drives Janie to find security in herself and find her own independence. Janie is finally herself with Tea Cake; however, the novel quickly proves the critical lens when a rabid dog bites Tea Cake. Tea Cake was trying to save Janie from drowning a river after a hurricane hit the Everglades. He had to fight away a mad dog, and he was bitten in the face. His health quickly declines within a mouth. He begins going mad and accuses Janie of not loving him and cheating on him. Before

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, a young woman travels through difficult life experiences in order to find herself. Hurston portrays the protagonist as an adventurous soul trapped in the binds of suppressing marriages. Janie experiences three different types of marriage learning from each one what she values most. From these marriages she learned she values love and respect, finally achieving them in her last marriage. Each new marriage brought something new to the table for Janie and no matter the situation or the outcome of the relationship Janie grew into her own independent individual because of it.

Tea Cake was Janie's third husband.  He was a simple person who returned kindness for kindness.  He saw women as equal human beings and told them that.  He was very passive in thought, but smart in his own ways.  His desire in life was to love and be loved.

At the beginning of the chapter Janie was coming back to Eatonville. From a relationship with Tea Cake. Janie and Tea Cake decided to be together.She entered the relationship knowing what to expect.The previous marriages. Almost demolished her hopes at achieving true love and marriage. Tea Cake turned out perfect for her. Allowing her the freedom she craved along with the support she needed.Janie felt a different kind go love from Tea Cake. Differently fro her other marriages.This is the first relationship Janie actually chose to be without being extremely desirable conditions.She had already begun to develop a strong, proud sense of self, but Tea Cake accelerated this spiritual growth. Tea Cake was much younger than Janie.He allowed her to experience real love and happiness. Tea Cake shared all his wealth with Janie. He wouldn't even let Janie seen the money inherited form Joe. He wanted to be the only one providing for her. Tea Cake treated Janie the best. He allowed her to follow her interests and be happy. He shared everything with her. Janis was truly in love with Tea Cake.IN the relationship Janie was truly equal. What was hers was Tea Cakes, and what was Tea Cakes was hers. She was beyond happy with

When Janie was having doubts in his love for her, she confronted him about it, and after having an arguement all through the night and making up the next morning, Janie asks again. “The next morning Janie asked like a woman, “You still love ole Nunkie?” “Naw, never did, and you know it too. Ah didn’t want her.” “Yeah, you did.” She didn’t say this because she believed it. She wanted to hear his denial” (138). Janie was so happy to hear that Tea Cake didn’t like Nunkie it gave her a sense of relief, and even though she knew the answer, she still asked just to hear him remind her that she was the only one he loved. Above all else Tea Cake loved Janie enough to risk his life for, which he does when the hurricane comes. During the hurricane Janie and him try to make it to safety before the water reaches them and kills them, but the powerful water they are walking to takes Janie and drags her off. Grabbing onto a cow’s tail to keep afloat a dog tries to attack her, but that when Tea Cake come in, “Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow’s rump and seized the dog by the neck. But he was a powerful dog and Tea Cake was over tired. So he didn’t kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dog couldn’t free himself either” (166). Tea Cake loved Janie so much that he risked his life to save her during the flood. He love and cherished her, like her other husbands had not, and was willing to lay down everything for

This possible because Tea Cake did not seem to have any predetermined views about gender roles between a man and his wife, and he even encouraged Janie to try new things. In this chapter, Janie assumed the roles of both the male and female gender. Tea Cake did not control her gender roles and appreciated what she did for him through whatever roles she played. This dual gender role playing by Janie could clearly be seen as stated in this chapter, “Sometimes she’d straighten out the two-room house and take the rifle and have fried rabbit for supper when Tea Cake got home. She didn’t leave him itching and scratching in his clothes, either” (132). Janie was allowed to hunt, a role traditionally played by the male, and she still cleaned his clothes and had dinner ready for him after his work, which were activities traditionally done by women. Janie even went to do manual labor out in the fields with her husband, because he told her that he missed her. This was in contrast to her earlier preconception of what she thought her gender roles ought to be, as can be seen in her failed marriage with Logan Killicks in the preceding chapters. Tea Cake sometimes even played the female gender role by helping with dinner as can be seen by

Humans are malicious and furtive creatures. They conform to their surrounding environments and surrender to the pressures of their social class and peers. Therefore, people dissemble their true feelings, and present a false identity of themselves to the world. Humanity also struggles with the acceptance and realization of reality, for people consume themselves with their own mental fantasies. In the novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the events the characters face during the roaring ‘20s and World War II illustrate how vastly different plot can share similar themes of humanity. The duality of humanity consists of people, who conceal their true identities and emotions beneath a facade, and their willingness to reveal the truth decreases due to their social circumstances; while other times, the refusal to accept reality can cause humanity to imagine elaborate fantasies that they strive to achieve.