Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Their Eyes Were Watching God

In the novels, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston, the authors follow the central characters in their struggle to achieve their hopes and dreams. In Fitzgerald’s novel, Nick Carraway, narrates his growing knowledge of the central character, Jay Gatsby, being a bystander to Gatsby’s venture for Daisy Buchanan’s love. In Hurston’s novel, the main character Janie fails to grapple what she truly wants for herself as she is thrown into abusive relationships. In both novels, the authors focus on the shortcomings of hopes and dreams with the central characters. The authors use several scenarios to depict confusion amongst characters in the novels. “She was the first “nice” girl he
“I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Fitzgerald, 180) The green light is a depiction of Gatsby’s impossible fantasy for Daisy’s love. Nick compares Gatsby’s situation to the rest of society. Everyone’s past follows them, drawing everyone back from the their unfeasible futures. Hurston alludes to the pear tree for Janie’s aspirations. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!” (Hurston) Janie takes this experience and searches for it throughout the novel. Her hopes and dreams are to find love, the force driven by the natural world. Hurston retouches the pear tree as her relationships progress but Janie begins to realize that her freedom is what makes her joyful.
Scott Fitzgerald and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston is that hopes and dreams may be improbable but it takes perseverance to find happiness in alternative ambitions. Gatsby fails to recognize other opportunities and dies yearning over Daisy. Janie persists towards her goals and finds love with Tea Cake. Although he dies, by the end of the novel, Janie comes to a full circle and feels peace with