Jane Eyre Introduction

1) Society vastly influences my decisions, even when I am not consciously aware of the influences. It is something that I am exposed to everyday and I have grown up with the understanding that society is basically a judgement system, which I have personally responded to by trying to avoid negative judgement by blending in. While I would love to be able to honestly say that I do the things I do solely because I want to do them, society does play a role in it.

2) An author's gender does not play a role in my selection of books, although I tend to like/relate better to books written by women (based on the books I consider to be my favorites.) I do not think it is an intentional bias because it tends to be women who write more of the style of books I read. I loved reading "Running With Scissors," It's Kind of a Funny Story," and "Getting Things Done" but I do not necessarily feel as much of a "connection" to the characters as I do with "Prozac Nation," "More, Now, Again," and "White Oleander." However, with regard to my selection of books, I typically base my selection on the appeal of the plot.

3) Personally, it does not bother me if an author uses a pseudonym or not. I do not choose books based on the author so it does not really matter. However, I think the author should do whatever it is that they want and feel most comfortable with. Pseudonyms have their advantages and disadvantages and have proved necessary at different time periods throughout history.

4) It is definitely possible to be in love with someone and still maintain your independence! Being in love means truly caring for that person and wanting to do whatever you can to make them happy. If someone wants to become completely dependent upon their partner, so be it, but the important part is that it does not HAVE to be that way. In a relationship, the people involved obviously have to compromise but that does not mean that they should EVER lose who they are, including their independence, if that is something they desire.

5) To an extent, someone's social status does affect the decision to marry that person. People marry people they know, or whoever is fixing them up knows, and typically people stay within their own demographics, or one that is similar to theirs, so the likelihood that they would be in a position of marrying someone in a VASTLY different social status is very little. However, someone's opinion of a future spouse is influenced by the social status, or reputation, of the future spouse and that does have a heavy impact on the decision. If someone is known as being very rude and lacking in their manners, it is likely that their social status would be affected by that, possibly deterring someone else from wanting to even associate with them.

6) I am not exactly sure about my beliefs of the supernatural.

7) I believe in coincidences.

8) No, I do not. I think that if I did have an encounter, it might change my opinion of the supernatural to something more concrete.

9) Nature definitely plays a role in my daily actions, starting the minute I wake up. The first thing I think about is what am I going to do today, which is often influenced by the weather. Then, if I decide I am going to do something out of the house, I get dressed, again based on the weather. I also tend to be more willing to help others avoid bad weather and would be more understanding if something changed as a result of the weather.