Essay Comparing Their Eyes Were Watching God And The Great Gatsby

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, and The Great Gatsby, the ideal roles of women in each time period were whatever they made it out to be. In both books, women do what they want. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the time period is a time where woman weren’t allowed to “Voice” themselves…. but Janie did after enduring loss, love, and suppression. In The Great Gatsby, different women have their own voice, and some just aren’t trying to find it.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie searches for her voice. After being forced and convinced to marrying domineering husbands, she finds the one. With enduring the hardship of finding love, and happiness, she realizes who she is, and once she found her voice, she was never silent again. In this novel,

women aren’t seen as individualized people. Janie was not allowed to participate in the “Foolishness” of the townspeople, nor have a good time.

She was told to keep silent, and to put away her beauty. After the death of her second husband, she exemplifies the magnitude of her own voice, and her freedom: “She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length the glory was there.” (Hurston 87). While Janie’s second husband was still living, he forced her to “Put away” her hair. He doesn’t see Janie as a human being with her own opinions and feeling, but as property, to keep from other men. Janie’s hair represented her value, and her independence. After his death, Janie takes it down, and observes her power. She no longer endures the bondage of the ideal woman during her time. Jody, one of Janie’s over protective husbands stated; “Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chickens and cows. I god, they sho don’t think none theirselves.” Janie replies to Jody saying, “Ah knows uh few things, and womenfolks thinks sometimes too!"

Jody replies, "Aw naw they don’t. They just think they’s thinkin’. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don’t understand one." (Hurston 71) In Jody’s mind he compared the mental capacity of women to that of domesticated animals, and children. In Their Eyes Where Watching God, women aren’t allowed to speak their minds without feeling wrong, and intellectual. As for Janie she spoke her mind, and proceeds to finding herself. In the end she finds her voice of passage, and realizes she was more than a chicken, and a cow…she was a courageous woman.

In The Great Gatsby, many of the female characters are seen enjoying the fashion, wealth, and parties.

This novel was written after the Women’s Suffrage Movement occurred, which granted women the right to vote and stand for electoral office. In turn Women were in high demand for their rights. However, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, displays a variety of many different types of women in his book. Women, who allowed themselves to be taken care of by men, and were not in search for their own, individualized voices. But other women, such as Jordan Baker were. Baker was the only woman in the book, who actually emerged as an independent thinker, and found her own opinionated voice. She was not content to sit around and let some man look after her. She was more open-minded for her time, than the other female characters, such as Daisy. Earlier in the novel, when referencing to her daughter in regards to the status of females during that time, Daisy states: “I’m Glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool…that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”(Fitzgerald 17) Some women, such as Daisy, see the female society as possessional items. They must grow up, be fools, and beautiful enough for a rich man to want them. Myrtle, another female character was lost in between who she was, and what she wanted to be. She had NO voice, and no intention of gaining one. As a poor mans wife, living in the Valley of Ashes, she had an affair with Daisy’s husband,

wishing to be something she wasn’t, therefore leading to her down fall. One night while Myrtle and Tom were together, Mrs. Wilson mentioned Daisy’s name. Myrtle then becomes infuriated at the prospect of Daisy’s name: “Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. ‘Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ shouted Mrs. Wilson. ‘I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-’ Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” (Fitzgerald 37) Myrtle couldn’t face the fact that Tom had another woman in his life, she wanted Tom, and that’s all she could see. No “Voice” was worth having.

In both Novels different types of women are represented. In Their Eyes were Watching God, Janie was opinion less, and without a voice, but as time progressed she realized who she was…even if the pressures of the way women were treated, weren’t on her side. In The Great Gatsby, several women are under the impression that they are possessive items for men. They have no voice. Although many women were represented this way, many didn’t tolerate doubt in the woman’s society.

Many real world women during the 20s, such as Jane Adams, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Burns, were prominent civil right leaders, and played crucial roles in the Women’s rights movement. They learned what they had to say, and expresses themselves with their own individualized voices.