Thoughts of Jane Eyre

As I've been reading Jane Eyre, I've been noticing her style and craft, especially in her use of vivid descriptions of the nature around her. In nearly every chapter thus far, Jane pauses her recollection of events to talk about the scenery of where she is; she does this when she's at Gateshall, Lowood, and Thornfield. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 9, for example: 

"April advanced to May: a bright serene May it was; days of blue sky, placid sunshine, and soft western or southern gales filled up its duration. And now vegetation matured with vigour; Lowood shook loose its tresses; it became all green, all flowery; its great elm, ash, and oak skeletons were restored to majestic life; woodland plants sprang up profusely in its recesses; unnumbered varieties of moss filled its hollows, and it made a strange ground-sunshine out of the wealth of its wild primrose plants: I have seen their pale gold gleam in overshadowed spots like scatterings of the sweetest lustre. All this I enjoyed often and fully, free, unwatched, and almost alone: for this unwonted liberty and pleasure there was a cause, to which it now becomes my task to advert."

Here she describes the surroundings of Lowood as Spring was in full bloom. According to sources online, the purpose of her constant recollection of the landscape is to mirror and reveal her inner emotional state, and to show the internal and external restraints she faces. There are a lot of other reasons why as well, but I refrained from looking at them so as to not spoil anything (normally I don't mind spoilers, but it's taken so much time to read this book that I want some satisfaction).

So far, I think the book is pretty good. I especially love the pictures that are in digital versions of books from Project Gutenberg by F. H. TOWNSEND.

 

Money as a Bookmark

    Since I've already started reading for my AP Literature class, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about what I've been using as my bookmark. Yes, I'm aware that this is probably the most trivial thing to focus on, but it's something that actually has a context behind it. 
    When I was in elementary school, I remember going to the Scholastic book fair and immediately skipping past all the literature to divert my attention to the junk-y items. You know, the small trinkets near the register like the phone erasers or themed pens. Admittedly, I think--along with many others--this defeated the point of the book fair by distracting kids from getting books (on the contrary, one could argue that a kid with little money to spend would only be able to buy the trinkets, since books are obviously going to be more expensive). However, the bookmarks near the register were probably the only thing that I wouldn't consider "junk", since it actually aligned well with the whole idea of books and reading. Perhaps a kid would've been encouraged to buy a book if they also got to buy a cool bookmark to use. 
    But of course, I never did that. Even from a 3rd grade perspective, I didn't find the need to spend money on a glorified piece of paper, especially for a tool that merely marked the page I was on. I could literally just dog-ear the page. Further, I barely even read at all (on my own), so these seemed like a total waste of money... right?
    Well, not now! When I saw my friend using a bill of a cuban peso to mark his spot in King Lear, I immediately remembered that I had a 20 Mexican peso bill lying around in my room. 20 Mexican pesos as of now is very close to 1 USD, so honestly if I lose it I don't mind that much. I can't remember how I got it, but I literally haven't had a use for it until now. 
    Ironically, the thing I thought I'd never spend money on became the money itself. Maybe it's better, though, since I doubt (nowadays) the bookmarks would only cost a dollar. 
    Point being, never sleep on a random object becoming a bookmark...