Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing

Helping to write my group's Jane Eyre dialectic/discussion was a pleasant experience. The thought process was fairly straightforward given the nature of the assignment. Our topic, enlightenment and what happens after, lends itself very nicely to the format as we could easily ascribe certain views and opinions to Bronte and her creation. However, the process became interesting and challenged once we needed to create a philosophy for the Academy student (Deb Ator), which wound up post-dating both of their lives, and relating it to their systems of thought.
Not really doing ourselves any favors, we chose to have the Academite be a Nietzche-based nihilist, providing a strong counterpoint to the idea of enlightenment through religion, god, and loved ones, with enlightenment through selfishness.
Reflecting on the process, I think this was an effective choice to make. Although slightly extreme, it very nicely contextualizes the views and realities of Bronte and Eyre. It often is hard to capture the full implications of anything unless you provide an extreme opposite. I also think that the synthesis of these ideas provided meaningful insight into how we should live our lives- each of the characters were irrevocably devoted to something, which, we discover, is the only way to fulfill ourselves.
I was glad that the group's thinking led us down the path. Although Choi chose and propogated Nietzche (perhaps predictably), I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed my ability to fit in those views with the somewhat more docile ones of Bronte.
The one part of the process I thought could be improved was developing more distinct ideologies between Bronte and Eyre to better illuminate not only why Bronte created Eyre, but also why Eyre has lived on through the centuries.