Metacognition: Reading "Jane Eyre"

Reading Jane Eyre was a difficult experience. To get through the book I had to abandon my cultural upbringing and immerse myself in 19th century dialogue. I had to force myself to look at the events of the book through Jane's eyes and not my own ultra-feminist ones.

While reading the book, I would find my thoughts wandering. My eyes were reading the text, but I was hardly reading; it was the worst during the descriptions. Once my brain got enough visual description to form a basic picture my imagination set to work to fill in the rest and blocked out and more of the eloquent 19th century recounting. I wish my focusing abilities while reading dense text were stronger. I feel like I'm missing a lot of the beauty of literature when I am unable to focus on descriptions, but being a child of the 21st century, my brain immediately looks for verbs and actions.

I had relative easy getting through the conversations. I don't know if it was the lighter text, or my general interest in how characters interact, but I got more out of the conversations by far. My brain would work with, instead of against, the characters. My mind would follow their conversations and arguments all the while forming my own opinions and through annotations responding to the questions they posed.

Reading this book was an interesting experience that allowed me to see the society I've been raised in has shaped my world view.