Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Their Eyes Were Watching God

In the books The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, both Gatsby and Janie set out on a journey to find what they thought love is. Barbra Will writes, ”Jay Gatsby, a figure marked by failure and shadowed by death throughout most of the novel, nevertheless achieves a form of "greatness"(Will). In both stories Gatsby and Janie set out to find this greatness of love in their lives. In their journey of finding this greatness of love, they find themselves failing and retraying over and over. When they find themselves failing they sometimes learn something from it. A lot of the time they are only looking at the big outcome of love but really they are finding some of their greatness from the …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby mentally attaches himself to a future he will never reach. Barbra Will expresses Gatsby 's obsession of Daisy as, “Nick sees Gatsby as the incarnation of this national impulse, this ‘extraordinary gift for hope,’ using the same term? ’wonder’? to describe Gatsby 's desire for Daisy Buchanan and that of the first American colonists gazing at ‘the fresh green breast of the new world"(Will). Gatsby has put himself in a very rough situation. As Barbra Will explains Gatsby brain is consumed in the love of Daisy. In life Gatsby wired his brain to only look into the future. This leaves his mind to only act on impulse in the moment . This causes Gatsby to be blind to his surroundings and people around him. Gatsby can’t learn to take what he has for granite and be thankful off it. Since he got so attached to Daisy when he first met her, it made him build this extreme love for her. The biggest reason his passion of love for her got so extreme was the time spent away from her. When one is faced with time away from someone they love, the love only builds more and for Gatsby it caused him to create his whole life around it. Since Gatsby wasn 't able to see her because of the issue of new money and old money, he turned his love for her into the light. As the quote expresses Gatsby admires daisy by the green light. Since he isn’t able to see Daisy he used this light to represent her. It gave him a way he could always see her and know she …show more content…
Barbra Will states, “Gatsby’s Apotheosis into the carrier of the American Dream takes place by means of the same mechanism of “vanishing” that lies at the heart of his obscene indeterminacy”(Will). As one would notice Janie and Gatsby devote their lives to find this “American Dream” as Barbra Will describes it. The American Dream in Gatsby and Janies case is what they thought love was. From time to time they never thought they were going to accomplish it or only thought they were going to accomplish it. Janie was actually able to accomplish her dream to find a man that filled the feelings she needed filled. For most of their time they struggled with their Journey. They made mistake after mistake learning what to do and what not to do. Janie was able to pick up these moments she noticed she really liked, and built a list of things she needs in a man. Once she was able to build this list her journey to find love was completed it took was time. Gatsby’s Journey went the opposite way of Janie 's journey. He started from a position close to Daisy and pushed himself only farther away. As explained before he used a green light to set his goal in life. Sadly for him her never was really able to understand a future that was reachable and a future that was in reach. Although Gatsby wasn’t as successful as Janie they both tell unique stories on the journey of finding