In Our Time- Logan Reynolds

Pros of the Podcast:

• It helps you understand the novel better by giving you background information on the author that you would otherwise have to research to find out. 
• They talk about some of the themes found in the novel such as, courtship and Gothic which in this case would help us with our paper. 
• They talk about how Bronte's father played a major role in her life growing up and how he was the reason she read as much as she did. 
• They also talked about other books by Charlotte Bronte and how they compare and are similar to Jane Eyre. 

Cons of the podcast:

• Occasionally it was hard to keep up because they talked really fast at times.
• They also jumped from topic to topic which made it kind of confusing.
• There were times they would start talking about something and then never finish. 

One thing I thought was interesting after listening to the podcast was when they talked about how Bronte's father played a roll in her life. Her father was a clergyman, so he had a roll in the church. This meant their family was part of the middle class and Charlotte most likely grew up in a fairly religious home. Her father was a very strong willed and ambitious man. He worked hard in life to accomplish all the things he did. He had a library in which his children read. This is where I think Charlotte could have found some of her ideas for her writing. She often read novels where an older man married a younger woman. This happened later on in her life as well as in her novel Jane Eyre. 

I also thought it was interesting when they talked about Jane and Rochester's relationship. They start out with how they meet. They first met when Rochester fell off his horse and Jane was there to help him. The female broadcaster describes their relation as a very complex relationship because Rochester has the wealth and power and is the employer who is very dark and strong so it looks like the man has the upper hand is this relationship. However this is not true at all. Readers see from the very beginning when they first meet Rochester is lying on the ground and has to be rescued by none other than a woman, a very plain woman. Jane manages and redeems him and it is clear she has the real upper hand in the relationship throughout the whole book despite the stereotypes of the time period. 

Over all the podcast helped explain and gave things a much deeper meaning than I did when reading the book. There are many things you can take from this and it helps you understand the book in a completely new way. I didn't think about how the way Rochester and Jane met could basically paint a picture of their relationship in a nutshell. The podcast, despite he quickness and hard to understand accents was helpful when trying to understand the smaller details of Jane Eyre.