Janie In The Great Gatsby

Unlike Bigger, Janie proves that challenging people’s expectations can in the end produce satisfaction and happiness. Janie’s second husband Jody enjoys asserting his dominance over Janie and making sure she knows her place is below his. Finally fed up with his superiority complex, Janie retorts, "[God] told me how surprised... y’all is goin’ tuh be if you ever find out you don’t know half as much ‘bout us as you think you do. It’s so easy to make yo’self out God Almighty when you ain’t got nothin’ tuh strain against but women and chickens." (Hurston 75) Most women during this time would not have the confidence to stand up to any man, especially their husbands. Hurston displays Janie’s courageous personality by not not only having her boldly

confront Jody’s attitude and mock his “God Almighty” complex, but exposing how he is completely incorrect in regarding women and farm animals as on the same level. After the death of Jody, Janie meets a young man named Tea Cake, and they become enamored with each other. Unfortunately, the town disagrees with this new relationship and collectively they judge, “Tea Cake and Mrs. Mayor Starks! Another thing, Joe Starks hadn't been dead but nine months and here she goes sashaying off to a picnic in pink linen...Tea Cake and Janie gone hunting. Tea Cake and Janie gone fishing. Tea Cake and Janie gone to Orlando to the movies.” (123) Janie’s biggest act of rebellion begins with consorting with Tea Cake, a man significantly younger than her. Hurston has the community call Janie “Mrs. Mayor Starks” in order to associate her with a formal title and the responsibilities that come with it to highlight how they scorn her act of rebellion. Janie obviously does not care what the majority thinks of her, because she happily “[sashays] off to a picnic,” to hunting, to fishing, and to the movies.

Janie could have let the town still simply regard as the wife of the deceased Jody Starks, but instead she chooses to live her life and find the enjoyment in it. In the end, Janie had to kill Tea Cake in self-defense after he tried to shoot her while afflicted with rabies. When returning to the town and the house she resided in with Jody, Janie observes, “Now, in her room, the place tasted fresh again. The wind through the open windows had broomed out all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness.” (205) Despite the tumultuous nature of her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie doesn’t regret any part of it, because he brought her pure joy––something she didn’t have before. Janie felt trapped earlier, but Hurston uses “the wind” to symbolize how her relationship with Tea Cake brushed out the feelings of “absence and nothingness” Janie faced. Again, choosing to ignore the protests of others allowed Janie to find the satisfaction she lacked in her life before Tea Cake came and to ultimately reach a state of freedom and contentment. Through Janie, Hurston describes how breaking from expectations can lead to fulfillment in

life.
Even though Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston both examine how by using society’s expectations to dictate their lives people will develop a warped perspective of themselves, Wright’s Native Son details an individual who has gone on a path of misery because he absorbed these conjectures, while Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God explains how one can eventually reach serenity by daring to go against the norm. White society discriminated against Bigger for his race, making his situation clearly whites vs blacks. However, Janie’s community of fellow African Americans unfairly treated her due to her gender and actions, therefore proving that prejudice doesn’t only exist within one group. Human nature feels inclined towards making judgements and forming preconceptions of the unknown, but these start with one person and grow until they infect the general masses. Whether they were displaced or chose to come to a new land, people hope to construct a better existence than they had previously. Their success depends on how they approach the barriers they come across, and sadly many will fail.