When comparing Gatsby and Janie in The Great Gatsby, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, Gatsby was the more hopeful person. He took initiative and tried desperately to win back the love of his life. Janie, although not as hopeful, took initiative as well, and tried to gain control of her life. In trying to accomplish similar goals, both go through a degree of maturity. But, even though Janie hated Nanny because Nanny told her to marry someone rich and not for her to follow her dreams, due to the fact that Janie had Nanny to teach her moral values, Janie does mature. This was because the values that she was raised with stuck with her, though perhaps subconsciously. On the other hand, Gatsby, who had little to no interaction with his parents when …show more content…
Janie was worrying about her marriage with Logan. She expected to fall in love with him, because that was her impression of marriage. But, when she expressed her troubles to Nanny, Nanny scoffed “ yo’ mouf full uh foolishness... Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo’ bawn days, and big protection...and you come worryin’ me ‘bout love." (23) Nanny’s vision of a good life is to be with someone who is well off, or has money and property. This is why, when Janie starts seeing Johnny Taylor, Nanny shouts “Janie!” Nanny wants Janie to be very careful and not run off with the first person she likes, and who is poor. Because Nanny was raped when she was young, she wants to make sure Janie is cautious. It is because of Nanny when Janie meets Jody, and falls in love with him, she “hung back. The memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong.” (29) Janie is heeding Nanny’s words and is making sure Jody will take care of her and she will be happy. And for a time, she is happy. It is the moment where she becomes unhappy, and their marriage starts to fall apart, she has the strength to stand up to Jody. Here we see Janie mature and tell Jody what she really thinks of him and how he never listened to her. Because, although she hates Nanny for telling her not to follow her dreams, Janie is able to stand up to Jody because Nanny’s moral values are subconsciously with her. When Jody is dying, …show more content…
His mother died when he was very young, his dad did not have a big role in taking care of him, and the closest person he had to a father was Dan Cody, who was an alcoholic. Because he had no one to teach him moral values, he had to teach them to himself, and because of this, he was unable to mature. For example, Nick sees Gatsby one night “[stretching] out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away.” (20-21) This short scene gives us a vivid picture of how Gatsby is stuck in the past and how he will never let go of Daisy. This was an immature thing of Gatsby to do. That fact that he expects Daisy, after five years, to reunite with him, and to have waited for him all that time, is foolish. But even so, if Gatsby was taught moral values, he would have had more of a chance to win her back. This is because his “profession” was a bootlegger, or selling alcohol illegally. If he had been taught, like Janie had, morals, he would have realized what he was doing was morally wrong and corrected his path. But, because he didn’t, he simply didn’t understand, and didn’t even occur to him, that Daisy could never be with him, not even just because she was already married, but because what he was doing was so immoral, the idea of them