1. Pre-Thesis Statement Brainstorming: All I knew at this point was that I
read Jane Eyre and I loved it enough
to write a paper all about it. Still,
there was one part of the book (the Marsh End section) that didn’t work for
me. And I found out on Goodreads that it
didn’t work for a lot of other people either.
I wanted to try and figure out why for my paper. I used this post and a complimentary
Goodreads discussion (messages 88-103) to work out my hypothesis: The text is
working against itself. In general, the book’s content tears down traditional
gender expectations. But its genre
(gothic romance) creates these very gender expectations within readers. We as readers grow impatient with the Marsh
End section because it breaks with the genre by presenting Jane with new
opportunities for equality with men.
Which makes the book’s “feminist” content all the more relevant to us, in
light of our disappointment.
2. My Tweethis Statements: I used Dr. Burton’s “Better Thesis Statements” presentation to come up with five tweethis statements. I was very willing to experiment and try new
things here. For example, if my idea at
the time was a policy claim, but I couldn’t make it fit well into a definition
claim, I would look around for a new idea rather than settle. I tried to make my claims as different as
possible one from another, without losing sight of my original topic. I thought this was a good exercise because it
got me to consider lots of different possibilities, so that when I did select
one, I could really be happy with it. I
continued to post on the Goodreads discussion. My ideas
sparked some lively conversation. The
Goodreads people liked my ideas, but they didn’t let me get overexcited. They showed me where I might have trouble
backing up my argument, and suggested how I might qualify it.
3. Reflections on my pre-writing process: I took a more careful look at the feedback
that I had received up until now. My 295
classmate Chrys had given me a thorough response to my first post. In it, she assumed that I would be writing a
research paper. As I re-read my first
post, I could see why. I was taking on
some big issues that went outside of the scope of the novel itself. So I came up with a more specific thesis
statement.
4. A Set of Quotations: As I outlined my
paper, I asked exactly what kinds of opportunities for feminine equality
the Marsh End section gave to Jane. As I
looked for quotes, I noticed that Jane’s concept of liberty for women (and her
concept of liberty in general) changes throughout the novel. I became interested, and, after reading other students’ “Say Why You Care” posts, I decided to
follow my interest. (Ironically, I had
chosen my original topic based on the one section of Jane Eyre that did not
interest me, out of some bizarre need to assimilate it into the rest of the
novel.) As an LDS woman, I found
it fascinating that Jane ultimately arrives at a concept of liberty that
embraces being a mother and housewife.
And I wanted to know just how she did it. I tried to trace that journey with my list of
quotes.
5. An Incoherent Close Reading: As I made my
set of useful quotations from Jane Eyre, I
also took note of some of the literary elements. I was not looking for any one element in
particular. I cast a wide net. But since
I did this close reading along with my list of quotes on liberty, I noticed a
pattern. In Jane Eyre, liberty is often discussed in using metaphors of cages,
prisons, and fetters. Ultimately, my
paper took this focus.
6. Preliminary Draft: I went ahead and got
all my ideas down instead of stopping halfway because I wanted to show my paper
to my…relative. (I’m not sure exactly
what he is to me, but his name is Adam and he comes to Sunday dinners at my
grandparents’ house and he studied English and he likes Jane Eyre.) He thought I had
a unique and thought-provoking approach.
He also wrote down some great comments: “Does liberty include love? If so, how?
Is domesticity always a reference to some particular kind of cage—even
when ‘actively’ chosen? Are you
comparing your idea of liberty to slavery?
If so, you could draw on the metaphors of slavery used throughout the
novel as the opposite of liberty—both references include relationships to
the other. You seem to need a strong
conception of liberty that includes other humans and not simply a ‘flight’ into
the expanse of nature.”
7. General Literary Reference Work: When I went to
the library for my 295 class, I took the opportunity to ask the English
librarian how I could find out more about Bridewell in Jane Eyre. He showed me how
to get to the Oxford Reference really quickly and I found exactly what I was
looking for!
8. Draft: Even though I wasn’t ready to
incorporate all of Adam’s suggestions yet, I re-organized and added to my paper
a bit. Kirsten King reviewed my
draft. She appreciated my diction and
sound arguments. She found the draft
interesting and easy to follow, even though she had never read Jane Eyre.
She showed me how I could strengthen my conclusion and get my
in-text citations right.
9. FINAL DRAFT: Ta-da! (The essay content is
1,991 words.)
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