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

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