Both Janie and Gatsby have common facets that influence their renovations, their pasts, society and how they are able to mold themselves into the outcomes. Both characters have elements from their pasts which add to their mindsets of wanting to change the way their lives are progressing and form them into something they will benefit from. Society plays a major role in each novel, positively in one and negatively in the other. Overall, in both Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, and The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main characters experience lifelong journeys of self-reinvention influenced by factors surrounding them.

Although both characters' pasts influence them, Janie uses hers as a motivation to better her life, while Gatsby concentrates on trying to recreate the life he had. Throughout her existence, Janie's Nanny had been the only parental figure in her life. She brought...