A Stubborn Divide: Jaye Tyler and Sookie Stackhouse

Both Wonderfalls and True Blood take place in contemporary society and deal with the themes of change and the supernatural in rather prominent ways. The heroines of each show may seem similar at first-but some of their behaviors might also lead them to clash in a hypothetical meeting.

Wonderfalls is a quirky, bold and short-lived series produced in 2004. Featuring a Brown graduate female protagonist named Jaye (Caroline Dhavernas), Wonderfalls explores the malaise of the post-graduate twenty-something dealing with contemporary life near Niagara Falls. Something supernatural also 'speaks' to the normally-sarcastic Jaye via objects with faces; realistically and metaphorically, Jaye strives to cope with this gift/curse.

True Blood is a hit HBO series based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. In both the book and the series, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is a no-nonsense waitress with a telepathic ability. Sookie's struggle with telepathy offers her a unique insight into the emergence of a supernatural subculture outing itself to the regular world.

It wouldn't be difficult to imagine a meeting between Sookie and Jaye. Though the regions of Louisiana and Niagara Falls are integral to the characters' stories, respectively, they do travel through their journeys. If they met up in the middle of the country, what would happen?

Age

Jaye and Sookie are both twenty-somethings; physically they are close in age. In many instances, both Sookie and Jaye act in a fast-thinking, more mature manner than their peers, sometimes having to keep their acts of do-goodery to themselves. Both women have irrational moments and times of extreme emotional maturity and are often unfortunately defined by how other people see them as opposed to their actions. Sookie in particular is often measured against the standards of vampires (who can potentially live for millennia) while Jaye is measured by her overachieving siblings.

While this might serve as common ground for the ladies, both have a history of 'one-upmanship' due to their natural competitive nature.

Friends and Race

Both women are strong-attracting strong women as friends in turn. Both Sookie Stackhouse and Jaye Tyler have strong female African-American friends in particular. Sookie's best friend is Tara Mae Thornton (Rutina Wesley), a loyal friend with some family troubles in her background (as a note: in the book series, Tara is a less significant character; a Caucasian store owner). Jaye's best buddy is Mahandra McGinty (Tracie Thoms).

Both protagonists best friend relationships work well because Mahandra and Tara are not afraid to get in Jaye or Sookie's way-unlike other people in the protagonists' lives. While this creates conflict, it also functions to display the bond between strong women in both series.

Furthermore, it shows a bit of social commentary on friendship and race, sometimes indicating that other Caucasian friends don't necessarily work as well for Sookie and Jaye, who require friends that can take their sarcasm and speak honestly in return. This perhaps shows that Jaye and Sookie aren't over-opinionated; they're just surrounded by many (white) people too apt to ignore problems.

Occupation

Jaye and Sookie both work in service jobs. For Jaye, this matter is seriously explored and criticized by multiple other characters-she is, after all, an Ivy League graduate working in a Niagara Falls retail store. Jaye is constantly questioned for her conscious choice to remain in her position and to live, apparently content, in a trailer park.

Sookie works as a waitress at Merlotte's, a local bar with a decent boss. The general understanding is that Sookie's a 'good girl' and could 'do better,' but that she's simple-a result of Sookie's real difficulty in coping with her telepathic abilities.

While Sookie and Jaye could no doubt commiserate about the annoying things customers say, think and do, Jaye would be a bit more upfront about cursing out the offending customers and staff. Sookie would usually find a more ladylike means of venting her frustration in private-even if that means taking vampire boyfriend Bill to bed.

Headstrong or Stubborn?

Both characters have been criticized by television audiences and their fictional peers for being too headstrong or stubborn. This is a classic setup for the female heroine, though both Sookie and Jaye are put in some unusual situations which test the limits of those qualities and provide them with the opportunity to use their headstrong nature for extraordinary purposes.

These similar properties would likely help Sookie and Jaye understand each other, but it might also repel them from one another. Undoubtedly, they might even harbor jealousy over each other's situations; Jaye thinking vampires are badass and Sookie more receptive to divine signs from God.

Gay and Lesbian Characters

Jaye and Sookie both experience positive relationships with gay and lesbian characters despite the moral differences of their other peers. For Jaye, this comes with the revelation of her sister's sexuality. Sookie is friends with Lafayette Reynolds, her best friend Tara's cousin and also the fry cook at Merlotte's. Lafayette is openly gay and serves partially as a plot parallel when the vampires 'come out,' even serving an 'AIDS burger' to some harassing customers.

While acceptance of the gay and lesbian characters and subculture may be a mark of the characters' ages, it's also a mark of progressivism among contemporary television characters. More than anything, it's of a personal nature for both Jaye and Sookie-after all, they each have odd experiences that makes them different in others' eyes, so a person different due to sexuality is a person easy for them to relate to.

Coping With the Supernatural

Jaye Tyler's supernatural ability: things talk to her and guide her to do (usually kind) things she wouldn't normally do. It's a struggle for the typically-skeptic Jaye, and most people in her life seem to think something's completely wrong with her. How does Jaye cope? She drinks, jumps into a relationship, agrees to see a psychologist for help and eventually convinces her theologically-inspired brother that the cow creamer talks to her. While the situations created are humorous, we never really find out of these things are actually occurring or if Jaye simply wants to do them and envisions seeing objects talk to her.

For Sookie Stackhouse, telepathy has been part of her life since she was a child. Sometimes she thinks of it as a curse or a disability, but when vampires 'come out' to the world (followed by the identification of shape shifters), Sookie feels confident and emboldened-not so alone.

Sookie and Jaye could likely relate heavily on this topic, especially since they have both felt socially inadequate at times due to these supernatural abilities.

Family Relations

If one thing could sabotage a real friendship between Jaye and Sookie, it might be their relationships with their families. This is a very personal topic for Sookie who lost her grandmother to murder and her parents in a tragic accident. Jaye typically despises having to spend time with her family, though does have several heart-to-heart moments with specific members of her family throughout the short-lived series.

If Jaye made a comment about her family that Sookie perceived as ignorant, Sookie could easily grow to resent Jaye.

At first look, it seems like Jaye and Sookie have enough in common to be ideal friends, but certain aspects of their personalities might make them too similar to actually get along.