“I did remember, but what my mother didn’t know was that I now knew she had rewritten the ending… I have never since played cards, and I have never since read Jane Eyre.” (Winterson 74)
When reading this paragraph, there are a lot of different interpretations that one can have regarding Jeanette’s life. This moment, where she discovers her mother has manipulated the end of Jane Eyre and she finds her adoption papers, are both defining moments in her life and within her search for an identity. These two pillars are essential to the identity that Jeanette has established with herself. To then find out later in life that not only did her mother rewrite the ending of a book they had read throughout her childhood and that she was not actually her mother’s birth daughter, were devastating losses that made Jeanette question who she was if she did not have both of those elements to define her. This destruction of ideals for Jeanette makes her questions everything she was brought up to believe. She says in the passage after this quote that she no longer knows where to look for the information that she craves (Winterson 75). This is essential to her discovery of who she will become, because Jeanette now realizes that not only is it possible for her to find answers outside of her mother’s word, it is imperative that she looks elsewhere to find her truth.
An important factor that is revealing here is what the real narrative of Jane Eyre teaches Jeanette when she discovers the real ending. This allegory is extremely critical to Jeanette’s mindset changing because when she discovers that Jane does not marry St. John, which her mother had written, Jeanette realizes that all stories do not always in the way that other people deem is right, which is a turning moment in the question of Jeanette’s identity.
I find it interesting that Jeanette states how she never read Jane Erye again. This form of action leads me to believe that Jeanette wants to continue following her mother: what her mother believes is the “truth.” From reading other students blog posts on this Jane Erye topic I found it interesting that we all have this similar, but different perspective. Looking across different posts I see that some students believe that this event has helped Jeanette to branch away from her mother and seek the real truth while others believe that Jeanette has not yet “found the courage to do so” (rvs). It’s interesting how we all interpret the outcome of this event on Jeanette in a different way, but agree on the impact it holds.