THE ARCHETYPE OF THE QUESTER IN THE GREAT GATSBY AND THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

WHAT IS AN ARCHETYPE?

An Archetype in a literary text is a type of character that is seen over and over again, in different variations in many different works of literature. Examples: Damsel in Distress, Hero, Quester

THE QUESTER

This Archetype is simply a character who is going on a quest. The main points of a quest are: A Quester A place to go A stated reason to go there Obstacles along the way A real reason to go there

WHO ARE OUR QUESTERS?

In the novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, our two Questers are Jay Gatsby and Janie Crawford (turned Killicks, turned Starks, turned Teacake!).

These characters are both Questers on the pursuit of love.

THE BEGINNING

In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, I believe the beginning of Janie’s quest is when she is sixteen and spies “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 frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!” (Hurston 11).

For young Janie, this pollination is her first encounter with anything that seems so right and loving and natural. This is what starts her journey of looking for love.

OH, WHERE WILL SHE GO?

Janie ends up marrying Logan Killicks because her Nanny wants her to be with someone who could provide for her. In order to make herself actually marry Logan, Janie convinces herself that marriage and love are synonymous when she proclaims “Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that

was what marriage meant. It was just so. Janie felt glad of the thought, for then it wouldn’t seem so destructive and mouldy. She wouldn’t be lonely anymore” (Hurston 21).

“She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 25)

Ultimately, this is not where Janie will find true love.

JOE

While she was still with Logan, Janie met Joe Starks. A man with a dream of obtaining power. After a fight, Janie ran off with Joe to a town in Florida called Eatonville. At first, everything was fine, but soon Jody became oppressive and domineering. He was a jealous man and when he witnessed another admiring his wife’s hair, he forced her to wear a head wrap. But after Jody’s funeral, “…she burnt up every one of her head rags and went

about the house the next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist” (Hurston 89).

THIRD TIMES A CHARM

About six months after Joe’s death, Janie finds the One. Vergible Woods, who goes by Tea Cake. It starts out with a simple game of checkers, which is something Joe never allowed Janie to play “He set it up and began to show her and she found

herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it was natural for her to play… She looked him over and got little thrills from every one of his good points” (Hurston 96).

Their love began to bloom and after a time, they ran away together to the Everglades.

THAT DARN DOG!

Unfortunately, while Janie and Tea Cake were fleeing the Everglades because of the hurricane, Tea Cake was attacked by a dog and contracted rabies. Soon after, Janie had to shoot him and she returned to Eatonville without her love, but as a strong, independent woman. “[Tea Cake] could never be dead until she herself had

finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see” (Hurston 193).

THE BEGINNING AND THE END

For Gatsby on the other hand, he never went looking for love. He found it in 1917 when he was stationed in Louisville with Daisy. “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face

came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete” (Fitzgerald 110-111).

WHERE?

For Gatsby, he already knows where he is going to go. He will go wherever Daisy is. But first he had to finish his tour with the military and figure out a way to win her back.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

One thing that was in Gatsby’s way of winning Daisy back, was money. She had been raised with Old Money and was used to being taken care of. Gatsby knew that money was part of Daisy when he shares that “’Her voice is full of money,’ [Gatsby said suddenly]…

that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…. high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl….” (Fitzgerald 120)

TOM: THE “OTHER” MAN

Another obstacle Gatsby had to face was Daisy’s husband Tom Buchanan. After he was sent over seas Daisy married him and they had a child together. But Gatsby thought Daisy could never love another. That she just married Tom because she thought she would never see Gatsby again. “’I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s

past.’ She began to sob helplessly. “I did love him once – but I loved you too” (Hurston 132).

“’You loved me too?’ he repeated” (Hurston 132)

HAPPINESS (FOR MR. WILSON) IS A WARM GUN

In the end, Gatsby’s persistence in believing that he could recreate the past becomes his own down fall. “’Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of

course you can!’” (Fitzgerald 110).

He dreams that everything with Daisy will be the same and they would ride off into the sunset. But everything has changed and unfortunately, he and Daisy have been apart for too long. She’s married and extremely fool hearty. She kills Myrtle and Mr. Wilson believes it’s Gatsby who has killed his wife. So he shoots Gatsby in his own pool.

JANIE VS. GATSBY

Janie Gatsby

To find love To be with Daisy

Logan and Joe (oppressive)

Money and Tom

Tea Cake Affair

Finishes Fails and Dies

Self-knowledge Dead