Is True Love Real?

The American dream has been seen to have love, success, and happiness inside of it. Nevertheless, Janie Crawford and Jay Gatsby chase impossible dreams in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zara Hurston. As both protagonists seek passionate and genuine loving relationships, they are blinded by toxic societies and ideals such as materialism and patriarchy. These novels share a common theme of looking for their American dream of true love, but in the end, it fails, and only one is able to escape.  

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby had an abstract dream about his relationship with Daisy Buchanan. In his eyes, he saw her as an object he needed to feel complete. He thought she would help him establish his identity in society: "Her voice is full of money" (120). Gatsby talks about Daisy as a representation of consumerism and is only concerned about the materialistic parts of her. He decides to go full throttle in order to win Daisy back. Showing off his consumerism even more with all the cars, clothes, and parties. He would throw lavish parties, hoping for her to show up. Gatsby always wants more; he wants the past again and wants her only to have loved him: "I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past." "Can't repeat past," he cried incredulously. "Why, of course, you can" (110). It is clear that Gatsby wants what he used to have, even if that is impossible. His approach to love is through the lens of materialism and consumerism due to the society in which he has surrounded himself. He is so stuck in this abstract American dream that he cannot be content without more. Gatsby idealized Daisy to the point that when he finally gets to know her more, he is let down because she is nothing like what he had portrayed in his head: "There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of her colossal vitality of his allusion" (95). Gatsby's need for more has polluted his affection for Daisy. He has become a capitalist who wants to own everything and only finds value and happiness in materialistic things.     

Similarly, Janie had the American dream of a perfect marriage in Their Eyes Were Watching God. She was sitting under a pear tree and felt all the passion a marriage can give, but she could not obtain it because the society she was in was so toxic. Patriarchy was common in her relationships and poisoned each one. All she wanted was a loving husband who reciprocated love back. However, instead, she had to deal with the abuse and toxicity in these relationships and society: "The thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and in ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with daylight. So this is marriage!" (11). This is the moment Janie realizes her dream of a passionate and emotional marriage and when her abstract American dream comes to life. Like Gatsby, Janie was desperately looking for her dream to be fulfilled. Even after several abusive husbands, Janie stuck with her intent to find someone to share a life with: "Tea Cake you sho is a lucky man"…" lawd wouldn't ah love to whip uh tender woman lak Janie" (147-148). Janie's husbands were cruel to her, and it was normalized in society to talk about each other in such awful manners. Her dream starts to slip away as it becomes clearer how impossible it would be to obtain. 

Neither Janie nor Gatsby ever got the outcome they wanted. All along, Janie and Gatsby wanted unimaginable things. A status through materialism and consumerism and a passionate marriage in a toxic society. These were never obtainable, and it is unfortunate how long it took them to realize. Fortunately, Janie could escape through narrative and tell her story, empower other women, and finally be at peace with herself. Gatsby was never able to escape. Because he never stopped pushing for his dream to reconnect with Daisy, it ultimately drove him to the ground and left him dead and alone: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (180). Fitzgerald tried to show Gatsby moving forward through a "current," but that was too hard for him, and then it became too easy for him to fall back into wanting to possess the past. However, Janie successfully steps away from the American dream. The dream of finding true love. She is able to completely detach herself from the patriarchy in society by shooting her husband and unplugging. She creates her own narrative: "Ah done grown ten feet higher just listenin tuh you" (192). Janie's friend Pheboy was empowered after listening to what Janie was able to do and used it as motivation. She was able to find freedom and peace, all very outside of her dream of marriage and love.  

Janie and Gatsby discover many things through their American dream journey as they fight for the perfect partner. Both were fixated on the image they wanted and kept searching for it. Both seek passionate and genuine loving relationships but are blinded by toxic societies and ideals such as materialism and patriarchy. Luckily for Janie, she could escape and find peace at the end of the road. Gatsby was too obsessed with ownership, and this led to his downfall.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner : Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. HarperPerennial, 2006.