Authors Discussion Podcast- Christa Norton

Within forty-three minutes of discussion, I wondered how much time and effort each person involved had spent researching both the book and the Bronte's family. Each connection within the book was carefully analyzed and debated before this discussion of whether or not it did have any real connections to Charlotte Bronte's life. This podcast was very helpful in several ways: it gave many supports for the book being an autobiography, it went in depth into Charlotte's life, and it had many different insights of book scenes. However, the podcast was quick, giving little time to really interpret what they were discussing, it seemed a little too long and difficult to differentiate the different people speaking, and the discussion was sometimes scattered all over the board. 

From this podcast I found it odd how little they discussed about Charlotte's way of writing her family. The entire podcast was about Charlotte writing scenes from her life, but they only spoke about her family in the beginning. However, they lacked the mention the part in which Jane would give up all her money for the existence of her three other cousins. In Charlotte's family, she lost her two older sisters but had a remaining three. Characters Mary, Daiana, and St. John Rivers play as her remaining siblings, but Mr. Rivers does eventually leave Jane. This exact thing occurs with Charlotte's brother Branwell- in the difference that Branwell dies.

BBC History of The Brontes gives a quick review of what we learned within the podcast regarding the history timeline of the Bronte family.

There are several elements of family written in from Charlotte. Jane Eyre is constantly searching and striving for anything to connect with. She finds comfort with her teachers, which probably is not a coincidence, but Charlotte's father, Patrick was also a bit of a teacher. Then she tries to confide with others she is around- simply just trying to find her place- finally finding her own family, but still returning to the one she had made.

What I would have spoken more about- if making connections of Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte's life- would've been the different family elements in which are faced within both women's lives. There are factors which are clearly stated and many that are more in depth than not. The connections in which are made can be seen from different angles and can be connected differently to Charlotte's life, but in the end there are clear pieces of evidence that Charlotte was not just writing Jane Eyre's story.