Conformity In The Great Gatsby And Their Eyes Were Watching God

The contrast of conformity between different social class

Conformity is the action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, and practices. It is very common for a person to conform to society, especially towards other people in the same social class. It is even more common for those of a higher social class to conform. The problem with conformity is that it urges people to be intolerant of people's differences, which diminishes a person's individuality. Conformity affects people’s everyday choices throughout their lives, which later results in inflicting a specific lifestyle for a person based on their social status. The conflict of conformity vs. individuality is present in the novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston. The characters Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, and Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God both struggle with conforming to society, but it is the choices they make that determines whether or not they develop individualism. The novels, The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald and Their Eyes Were Watching God, are both set in the 1920s and examine the issue of conforming to society's normal, which similarly shows that people who live within a higher social class are more likely to conform to society and lack individuality that later results in a life doomed to pleasing others.
To start, Daisy from The Great Gatsby was born into a rich family, and more prone to conformity.
As Daisy's best friend, Jordan Baker, is telling Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin, a flashback of Daisy’s life, she describes the house that Daisy lived in when she was younger. Jordan explains, “The largest of the banners, and the largest of the lawns belonged to Daisy Fays house” (74). From this information, readers can assume that Daisy’s family was very wealthy, which implies that growing up Daisy probably dealt with lots of pressure from her family to conform to the wealthy lifestyle. As Jordan continues to tell Nick about Daisy’s past, she explains Daisy's second thoughts on her wedding night. Jordan explains how she comes to check on Daisy, and finds that she is horribly drunk. Jordan asks Daisy what’s wrong and Daisy explains that she doesn’t want to marry Tom Buchanan, and begins to cry. Jordan tells Daisy she should take a bath to calm down, and eventually Daisy sobers up and marries Tom (76). The story of Daisy’s wedding night shows how badly she didn’t want to marry Tom, because she didn’t completely love him, and pressured into it by society. The fact that she was drunk before her wedding shows that Daisy was anxious about marrying Tom, and was fearful to marry him. Because she later decides to marry Tom, it shows that pleasing society is more important to her than being satisfied herself. Then, Jordan finishes Daisy’s backstory by specifying the people Tom and Daisy associated with after marriage. Jordan explains, “Daisy was popular in chicago, as you know. They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich” (77). Daisy and Tom are now surrounding themselves with other people of the same class, meaning that conformity is going to be even more prevalent. A big factor that is affecting Daisy is the fact that she married Tom, who is a follower of society, and he is surrounding himself, and Daisy with other conforming people and making it more difficult for Daisy to make her own decisions. Therefore, people who are born into a higher social class are more likely to be pressured to conform, making it harder to be an individual.
Secondly, because Daisy continues to surround herself with those of similar moral character, she is influenced by others unscrupulous behavior. For example, when Nick is attending one of Gatsby’s parties, he is having a conversation with Jordan and remembers why she seems so familiar. Nick thinks, “At her first big golf tournament there was a row that nearly reached the newspapers—a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round” (63). Daisy has been friends with Jordan since she was a child, and because Jordan is a dishonest person, it negatively affects Daisy’s personality. Jordan is not an exceptional influencer because she thinks that just because she is wealthy, she can go through life cheating. Because Jordan is Daisy’s best friend, it goes to show that Daisy does not surround herself with favorable people, and it negatively affects her character. Next, Tom, Jordan, Daisy, and Nick are all having dinner when the phone rings and Daisy and Tom go inside. Jordan whispers to Nick, “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (18). Not only is it bad enough that Tom has an affair while he is married to Daisy, but Daisy knows Tom is having an affair and does nothing to stop it. Daisy doesn’t express her opinion about the affair to Tom because she doesn’t want to damage her relationship with him, in fear of losing the status she has being married to Tom.
Lastly, towards the end of book Daisy has still not developed self identity, and continues to let society make her choices. For instance, Nick tries to plan a funeral for Gatsby, and is still expecting a phone call from Tom and Daisy, but never receives one. Nick explains, “...I could only remember, without resentment, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower” (174). Because of this action readers can conclude that maybe Tom and Daisy knew about Gatsby’s death and fled town, so they wouldn’t be suspects. The response also shows much about Daisy's character, and that even though she may have loved Gatsby, her feeling aren’t as meaningful as the thought of her losing her social status. Next, Gatsby and Tom are both in a hotel room together with Daisy, and are arguing about who Daisy really loves. Daisy yells, “Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now—isn’t that enough” (141)? Daisy never intended for Tom to find out about Daisy’s past relationship with Gatsby. She also never thought she would have to choose between Tom and Gatsby, and confront her feelings. Daisy says that Gatsby is asking to much of her to tell Tom she never loved him, because doing so would risk losing her marriage with Tom. Daisy instead says she has loved them both instead of saying how she really feels, because she doesn’t want to ruin the status she has with Tom.
Conversely, in the book Their Eye were Watching God, Janie is faced with many conflicts involving conformity because she is poor.

One day, Nanny sees Janie kissing a local boy named Johnny Taylor, so Nanny gives Janie a speech about her future. Nanny explains that she had a hard life growing up. Nanny lived in slavery and was later raped by her white master, and gave birth to Janie’s mother. Janie's mother was also raped by a school teacher and gave birth to Janie. Gradually, Nanny started to take care of Janie because of her mothers absence, and did everything she could to give Janie a good life (33-37). Nanny had a hard life, and wants Janie to have a better life than she did. There is a great deal of pressure that Nanny puts on Janie so she will learn from her mistakes and conform to society; for example, Nanny believes that Jaine should marry for protection, not love even though it is against Janie's values. As a result, Nanny convinces Janie to marry Logan Killicks so Janie will have a secure future. The narrator explains, “In the few days to live before she went to Logan Killicks and his often-mentioned sixty acres” (38). The protection that Nanny wants Janie to have is money. Nanny most likely forced Janie to marry Logan for his land, so Janie would be safe. Although this act is out of Nanny’s love for Janie, It’s forcing Janie to conform to society and marry for money, even though it is going against Janie's morals of marrying for

love.
With the failure of her first marriage, Janie is faced with many important choices to make and unlike Daisy, she starts to develop individualism. With this in mind, Jaine runs away with a man named Joe Starks, and moves to the newly made town of African American named Eatonville. The people of Eatonville later elect Joe mayor, and ask Janie to make a speech. Joe explains “Thank yuh fuh yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout speech making. Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat” (61). Joe is the type of person that conforms to society, and believes in society’s gender roles of women. Joe takes Janie’s voice away from her, which upsets Janie but she doesn’t act on her feelings yet. Finally, after seven years of marriage to Joe, he becomes very ill and Janie decides it is time for her to voice her opinions to Joe. Janie explains that maybe she hasn’t been the best wife, and then Joe accuses her of having no sympathy. Janie says that he never gave her the chance to use any. She tells Joe that he never listened to her and after twenty years of marriage, he barely even knows her because he was always busy working (105-106). The fact that Janie speaks her mind to Joe is a turning point for her because it is the failure of her marriage with Joe, that she begins to develop a voice. Janie is now becoming more of an individual, and starting to stray away from society's rules that she is expected to follow. Then, Janie starts seeing a man named Tea Cake, and after months of flirtations, she decides to run away with him. Janie describes that Tea Cake has sent her a letter saying that he has a job in a city named Jacksonville. Janie doesn’t see anything stopping her, so she runs away with Tea Cake to make a new life (138). Janie is finally making decisions for herself, not to please anyone else. Janie is actually taking her life into her own hands and doing what makes her happy, regardless of what others think of her. This shows that she is an individual.
Lastly, Janie continues to have her own voice, and self identity.

At the end of the book, Janie finishes telling Pheoby the story of how she ended back in Eastonville. Janie exclaims, “Now, dat’s how everything wuz, Pheoby, jus’ lak Ah told yuh. So Ah’m back home agin and Ah’m satasfied tuh be heah” (217). Jaine is happy with herself, and happy with the choices she’s made throughout her life. Because she came back to Eatonville after Tea Cake died, it shows that she doesn’t care what people think of her. Janie doesn’t care if people gossip about what they think happened with Tea Cake because she is content with herself, which shows that she is her own person. Finally, Janie goes up to her room and gets ready for bed while thinking about Tea Cake. Janie thinks, “Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking….Here was peace” (219). At the very end of the book, she feels at peace even though Tea Cake is dead, and is very calm. This shows that she doesn’t have to put on a sorrowful facade to please society, because that’s what a person is supposed to do when a loved one dies. Janie is very at peace with herself because she doesn't let the world around her define her choices anymore. This also shows that she doesn’t need a man in her life to be happy, because she is an individual. As stated above, Janie develops individualism, and doesn’t let society

define.
In both novels, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, and Their Eye Were Watching God by Hurston, there are conflicts between conformity and Individualism which shows that people who live in a higher social class are more at risk to life of pleasing people because of the lack of development of individualism. Both characters Janie, and Daisy dealt with pressure to conform to society throughout their lives. The value of Their Eyes Were Watching God is an enduring idea that wealth strains strict pressures on people to conform to the society norms of their status. The idea of conforming to society can still be seen in many television shows and movies; such as, the movie Mean Girls. On the other hand, Hurston suggests less wealth is more appoint to being an individual, which can also be still be seen today.