Chutes and Ladders in The Great Gatsby and Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay

Chutes and Ladders: The Movement Through Social classes

In The Great Gatsby (1925) F. Scott Fitzgerald acquaints the reader with a developing love story that occurred in the early to mid 1920s, in the nations busiest city, New York City, at a time or industrial and social reform. In Their Eyes Were watching God (1937) Zora Neale Hurston chronicles the life story of a poor African American girl in the late 30s throughout a variety of regions; a small town where she and her Grandmother grew up and lived with her first husband, a town where her husband becomes mayor, and the everglades where she and her third husband live. Both these novels are predominantly love stories, with some social class backdrops. The fact that characters dramatically move up and down the social ladder, only for the purpose of love is against general ideology and practicality. The sole reason that Gatsby is motivated to move up the social ladder, to be a wealthy man, is to be with the person he loves and to reach a sort of self-actualization to know he is deserving of his love, while the reason Janie moves in the opposite direction, towards the working class, is to allow Tea Cake to feel satisfied with not having to have high social status to please her. Both these shifts are classic examples of social mobility, and they directly affect how the person who moves lives their life, yet they willing do it for love.

The climbs and drops of social status in both books are moderately pronounced so that when one takes place, it is very hard not to notice. Janie and Gatsby both start out as more or less poor, and then Janies grandmother makes her marry a well-off farmer named Logan, throwing her from a low class to a middle class status. Meanwhile Gatsby starts as a man who digs for clams for a living, then meets a wealthy man with a yacht who treats Gatsby like family, buying him whatever he desires, and thats when he ascended to a superficial upper-middle class. It was superficial because he wasnt the one making the money, or who owned the fancy yacht, but he still had some sort of claim to it seeing as how he was treated like family. After these primary shifts, both of these social interlopers went through another change soon after; Janie left Logan for Jody, a man who she loved for his intelligence and sophistication. For a brief period of time they were moderately lower class, and then they arrived at a town and discovered it was in need of a mayor, and with great enthusiasm Jody accepted the self appointed position and his new upper class status. This change was dictated, not by Janie, but by Jody, and Janie passively accepted it with gratitude. Gatsbys next move was down, as opposed to Janies move up, to a normal army man, and for a time thats all he was, then he was promoted to lieutenant and he was no better off socially, but he was respected because of rank. After the Great War Gatsby spent a few months at Oxford, and suddenly he had something to claim as his own; he was technically an Oxford man.

Janie and Gatsbys next change would be their most dramatic, taking them to a completely different side of the social spectrum. Gatsby was recently back from Europe, and had nothing but the clothes on his back when he met a man named Mr. Wolfshiem who offered him lunch and a career selling bonds. This was the beginning of Gatsbys climb to his high social status from the slums of New York, a very dramatic shift, and to being on par with Daisy, the woman he loves. Janies social change was attributed to Jody dying and Janie being left a widow. At this time she was wealthy, but alone, then one day she met a young man named Vergible Woods, though he goes by Tea Cake throughout the story, who was shopping in her store and they fell in love. Their relationship was looked down upon by many townsfolk, and so to get away from their scrutinizing eyes, they ran away to a new town to get married. Janie and Tea Cake were happy with each other and Janie decided to leave her fortune behind to assure Tea Cake she didnt need him to be successful for them to be happy. Both these Changes were primarily influenced by the characters love of another character, thus leading to a desire for happiness.

The movement both these characters went through have differing results on how they are viewed by others. Janies movements were frowned upon by townsfolk because they had no idea why anyone would give up the position she had when she was the mayors wife, and because of their disdain for her move, their vice grew to her and rumors about why she did it spread around town to make the peoples vision of her justified in their eyes. On the opposite side, Gatsbys climb to the top was admired by everyone that knew him, and they didnt care about his motives, they only respected the fact that he had risen this high; high enough to host parties where he never met all the people in attendance in one night. He had achieved the American dream in the eyes of his peers, and in the eyes of the reader he was somewhat more glamorized because we knew the fact behind his humble beginnings, though characters in the story were under the assumption that he had inherited his wealth.

It appears that in Their Eyes Were Watching God Janie moves through different social classes almost accidentally, while in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is conscious of his movement up and down the social levels. Janie only moves through them in order to be with who she loves, and if they were all in the same social class, whether it be high or low, she wouldnt mind at all, making social classes almost non-existent to her in her pursuit of love. Gatsby is definitely conscious of his movements because the whole reason to go through them is for them is to be with Daisy and if Gatsby was unaware of his movement, he would most likely be unaware of his proximity to Daisy. Though Janie has no preference in social status, that does not mean she doesnt notice it, it only means she is like a piece of driftwood; she goes wherever the tide takes her. Gatsby both notices and cares because his ultimate goal is to be in the upper class so he can be on par with Daisy

As a result of each characters awareness of their own social position, other characters have unique views of them. Because Janie doesnt care either way, many women in her town spread rumors about her and Tea Cake saying something like Tea Cake took all her money and she didnt stop him, or that She doesnt really have money because no one ever sees it. Many people who know Gatsby respect, or maybe merely like him because of the fact that he throws great parties, providing a place for people to get drunk and eat.

These two books seem to be centered around love and social class, but they go about them in different matters, though the difference is most visible in social movements which gives them their own sense of struggle for both of them. Janie has multiple loves, yet in the end, she ends up only loving one because the others had many flaws that conflicted with Janies personality, yet Gatsby has one love throughout his story which he never gets to enjoy the company of. The social aspects are even more varied, with Janie Drifting to and fro, up and down, and whichever other back and forth descriptions you can think of, but it the best ending you could wish for in the end. Meanwhile Gatsby is on a continuous incline to the top of the top since the books beginning, with only one minor detour after his military escapade, living in luxury and having crazy parties every weekend, yet never achieving his ultimate goal of getting Daisy thus making it a less than satisfactory ending.