A Comparison Of Women In The Great Gatsby And Their Eyes Were Watching God

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“Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression” (Nelson Mandela). History has shown that women have always been treated unequally compared to men. They are heavily repressed by stereotypes formed by society and by men who believe they are superior to women. Zora Neale Hurston explores the roles of women in the novel, Their Eyes were Watching God, through the characters of Janie and her second husband, Joe Starks. Even with two different marriages Janie never got the chance to be who she really was; the men in her life held Janie back from what she wanted. Similarly in the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan is the wife to Tom Buchanan who is an arrogant man that seeks …show more content…

In both novels, Joe and Tom were in control of the women. Therefore, women are typically seen as below the other gender because of their roles assigned by the society.
To begin, men have superiority and power over women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Joe Starks is a great example of this. While working in the store, Joe makes Janie wear a head rag so that her luscious hair can only be seen by him, while staying hidden from others. Janie lost all control when she realized that, “her hair was NOT going to show in the store….She was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 73). Joe clearly illustrates that Janie’s sole purpose is to serve and please only him. He will do so much as to demand Janie to wear her hair in a certain way so it doesn’t distract any of the customers. Joe tries to maintain his superiority over Janie by not letting her be herself and telling her what she needs to do. Janie is to be his object of control and she must always obey him. It is obvious how society expects all women to conform to their husbands rules and any disobedience leads to punishment. Unfortunately, Janie had complied to her husband’s rule by tying her hair up because she did …show more content…

After arriving to Eatonville, Joe has become the new mayor of the town. The people, in excitement of the changes the town is experiencing, want to hear some encouragement from Janie on behalf of Joe being the mayor, but Joe replies, "Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin’. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home" (Hurston 61). Joe thinks that women do not have the intellectual capacity of men and should not be allowed to speak. He cuts short any chance for Janie to make herself heard because society considers a woman’s place to not be in the public eye, but to be in the privacy of the home. Joe refuses to let Janie speak out, and by not allowing her use her voice, he isolates her from everyone. Society wants women to isolate themselves and inevitably, their voices are lost. Likewise, when Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, kept on repeating Daisy’s name,Tom got so mad that he punched her in her nose Tom dominated Myrtle by, “making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37). To assert his dominance Tom used forceful tactics to control Myrtle and keep her quiet. Due to Tom being so powerful, Myrtle was afraid to stand up for herself because she knew women were not as powerful compared to men. This proves that society has created a “rule” on how women are to be subordinate to men. When women don’t follow

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