In society, there are always stereotypes and molds that seem to be filled by certain people. These expectations tend to come with an insurmountable amount of pressure that tends to force these people into their roles. Although, sometimes there are individuals who do not conform when they are faced with these pressures. The main characters in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, show the different ways societal pressures affect certain people and how individuals react to them.

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the life of O’Brien and his fellow soldiers are shown through many short war stories. One particular story that magnifies the social pressures that O’Brien felt surrounding the war is “On Rainy River.” This short story was obviously the most embarrassing story for O’Brien to tell in his book as it surrounds the time that he almost fled from the war.  O’Brien says “To go into it, I’ve always thought, it would cause embarrassment to all of us, a sudden need to be elsewhere, which is the natural response to a confession” (37). In June of 1968, the year after O’Brien graduated from Macalester College, he received a draft notice in the mail (O’Brien 38). Immediately, O’Brien began to think about all that he could lose if he went to fight in the war. He thought about how he did not agree with the war that was being fought, how he was too young to fight, and how he did not want to be part of the bloodshed. All of these ultimately pushed O’Brien to one day begin running away from home. He had made a plan to run for the United States-Canada border. From there he would cross into Canada and begin a new life. Along the way, O’Brien stops at a lodge and meets a man named Elroy. Elroy is an older man who takes O’Brien in, and without even telling him anything, Elroy understands what O’Brien is doing. Towards the end of his stay at the lodge, Elroy gives O’Brien an emergency fund of $200 and says that he is willing to take him to the border in his boat if that is what he wants. “At night I’d toss around in bed, half awake, half dreaming, imagining about how sneak down to the beach and quietly push one of the old man’s boats out into the river and start paddling my way to Canada,” said O’Brien (48). In the morning, Elroy takes O’Brien out on his boat and he stops in between the two borders. Elroy then casts out a fishing line and patiently waits for O’Brien to make his decisions. This is when the societal pressures of the war majorly affect O’Brien.

At this time, O’Brien’s mind races in a thousand different directions as he tries to weigh his options. He thinks about the life he will have if he swims to Canada, but he also thinks about what that will do to his life back home. In the end, he decides to stay in the boat and ultimately return home. He says that what drove him to decide to return home was just the sheer feeling of shame. He was afraid that people would see him in a negative light if he fled (O’Brien 49). This fear and shame was created because O’Brien realized that running was be seen as wrong by the people around him. O’Brien said “All of us, I believe, like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss or discredit” (37). Society at the time recognized that men who went to fight as the war were “heroes.” If you were drafted, it was seen as the right thing to do to go and fight in the war rather than flee. This placed a huge amount of pressure on O’Brien. In the end, even though he did what may be seen as courageous in the eyes of many people, he did it because of his fear to fail to meet the expectations of society.

While O’Brien is seen as someone who let societal pressures determine his decision, Janie, the main character in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an example of someone who did not let the pressures affect her. Janie is seen as a strong, independent, middle aged woman who has been in a handful of relationships in her past. These relationships have caused her to move away from her hometown of Eatonville, Florida. When she returns, she is not greeted with warmest welcome. The ladies of the small, southern town sit on their porches and judge and critique every aspect of Janie’s life. “These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins,” says Hurston, “But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.” They critique the way she dresses, the fact that she moved away from Eatonville, and her past husbands and lovers (Hurston 49). Despite the criticism that she receives, Janie does not seem to allow the expectations of how she is supposed to dress and act affect her. While the ladies of the town note that Janie should be wearing a dress, she instead wears a pair of muddy overalls. One of the women asked “What she doin’ coming back here in dem overalls? Can’t she find no dress to put on?—Where’s dat blue satin dress she left here in?”. Additionally, while there is societal pressure for her to be in a relationship, by the end of the story Janie has found strength in herself and realized that she can be independent and does not need to rely on someone. She continues throughout the whole story to not allow the pressures and criticisms to define who she is. This is the perfect example of someone who does not conform to the stereotypes and molds that society expects her to fill.

In today’s society, we see different people react different ways to the societal pressures that have been placed on them based on things like their race, gender, or religion. The main characters in The Things They Carried and Their Eyes Were Watching God perfectly represent two different ways that people react to these pressures. Tim O’Brien shows how the pressures can sometimes cause people to crack and change their decisions based on what society will think of them. On the other hand, Janie shows how people can break away from those expectations and form their own identity. Both reactions are seen even in today’s society, and they were shown full scale in both of the stories.