Essay Sample about Jane Eyre’s Perseverance

When someone is deprived of a necessity for a very long time, the requirement to fulfill that need may be less than a viable standard. This is the case for many people around the world. Humans must have needs met and attempts to fulfill those needs can come in many forms. Some forms are sustainable, such as vitamin tablets, which are just supplements for the real thing, however, things such as VR are just a poor replacement meant for the real world or how virtual communication is an attempt for face-to-face. This happens in more serious notions as well. Many of the kids in foster care experience a lack of need when it comes to parents, shelter, proper emotional support, and proper treatment overall. Many of those kids carry that problem into Adulthood seeking out inefficient forms of those needs. This is the same thing that happened that happens to Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte. Jane is constantly harassed and mistreated in her foster home and lies about it, this incidentally translates to the boarding school where those lies follow her and result in further persecution. This translates to her adulthood and to the people she puts her trust into. Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre exemplifies the struggles a modern-day foster kid goes through, in her home life, in her social life, and how it translates to her adult life, and it shows the repercussions of the effects of how one is treated good or bad.

Many foster kids today are coming from a troubled home life filled with abuse and mistreatment. When they transfer from their parent home to their new foster home things don't get that much better. According to psychology today, in an article from 2012, twenty-eight percent of kids in foster care suffer some form of abuse or neglect. This is exactly what happens to Jane Eyre. more often than not, in the foster home, which was run by her aunt, she suffered from that abuse.  Oftentimes she was there to only be a servant doing an excessive amount of labor for how old she was. She was often accused of lying and of dishonesty which then carries over into the boarding school she attends. Some of this abuse comes in the form of a verbal attack, while others are an expression of how much lower in status the Reed family believes Jane is to them. One example is from John Reed when he finds her behind the curtains reading books, “You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do and wear clothes at our mama's expense. Now, I'll teach you to rummage through my bookshelves: for they ARE mine; all the house belongs to me or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows."(18). This quote not only shows the intensive abuse that Jane goes through but also presents problems such as unnecessary control. 

The second facet for Jane is her interactions with her peers at her boarding school. In today's world, the abuse and stress that foster kids face at home usually come to light. Even if they don't have an abusive foster home, oftentimes those kids have a harder time functioning in the school system than those in a supportive household. According to fosterfocusmag.com “As Bowlby’s theory of attachment would suggest, many children might have a difficult time forming relationships with students and teachers because of continuous placement disruptions in their lives. As foster children make up a small percentage of the total makeup of students in a classroom setting, often less than 1%, this may explain why there has not been much research interest in foster care programs as it relates to those foster youths who are enrolled in public schools.”. This can be seen in Jane and her obsession with books. As Jane progresses as a character you can see her struggling to form friendships at first. It is not until she meets Helen, who can give her some sort of stability that Jane can successfully interact with other students and teachers. This shows how much stability and a constant in one's life can bring health out of sickness. It can bring towards a healthy mindset and social interactions overcoming her previous abuse and neglect.

Each situation from Jane’s childhood is reflected onto her adult self through her character and her choices. On the good side of things, her positive interactions with Helen and Mrs. Temple shows her how to act when in the face of confrontation. This ends providing her some solace later in life when she revisits her Aunt Reed. When on her deathbed Mrs. Reed explains the hatred she had for saying,” I hated it the first time I set my eyes on it- a sickly, whining, pining thing!” (444). Jane can handle this situation with grace and perseverance. She does not lose her cool, and she can keep a calm demeanor. This is an example of her growth and maturity, coming from being a small kid to being able to overlook those who stand in her way. However, on the flip side, she does still carry with her issues to adulthood. When she was younger Jane failed to have a positive male presence, and that can lead to many sorts of problems. This comes in the form of her falling in love with Mr. Rochester, and almost marrying him despite the obvious red flags such as a current wife living in the attic. Her choice in men is affected by the lack of positive male role models in her childhood and that causes her to latch on to anyone that would give her positive attention. This shows up at the end of the book when Jane marries Rochester only after he is mauled by a fire and left blind and Bertha dies. However this does leave her with some form of stability and happiness, so in the end, it is worth coming from a home where that was nonexistent.

Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre exemplifies the struggles a modern-day foster kid goes through, in her home life, in her social life, and how it translates to her adult life, and it shows the repercussions of the effects of how one is treated good or bad. Jane Eyre shows the reality of how abuse and neglect affect someone into adulthood. This is the reality for many kids today in foster care. They suffer from the abuse and neglect in their foster homes, and that translates to the social environment, and their school environment. Many times those kids have a hard time establishing themselves as an adult, ultimately feeding back into the system that created them. Jane can overcome this, for the most part, finally establishing a healthy mindset and getting married in the end. She is the example of modern foster kids and the effects of neglect and trauma, but moreover, she is an example of how one can overcome that.