Liz-Love the name, Annoyed with the Character

For years, or at least since the movie came out, my mom has been saying how much she hated this book and I finally understand why. Although Elizabeth Gilbert’s experiences are relatable in the sense that many people feel the need to explore and see other parts of the world in order to truly discover themselves, I still get frustrated with her character and her annoying rationale for most of the events in her life. I must say I do appreciate her writing, it’s witty and fun, which for me made her experiences more relatable. Other than that though her rationale for her adventure to Italy and later Indonesia, seems a bit unrealistic to me. It happens though I guess. One day you just wake up and don’t want to be in your life anymore and would rather start over and be someone new.

Compared to other readings many characters were forced to leave their home due to colonization or other external forces (war, politics, money etc.). Liz leaves for kind of selfish reasons. She didn’t really have a true explanation for leaving her husband and I’m sorry it’s kind of messed up to just decide to leave because she didn’t want to be a wife anymore and have kids. Did she consider him? She fell in love rather quickly after their split to, and still when that fling didn’t work she constantly craved this need to be wanted. And then she continually has affairs throughout the novel too.

Her experiences traveling are quite inspiring, but her annoying need to be wanted is frustrating. I feel you can find yourself and where you belong without constant affection. The fact that her exploration into the world occurred after a breakup says something too. For one I feel like a breakup should not be the event that sparks this exploration. The novel although at parts entertaining because of the witty writing, I still didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to. I guess my mom was right, probably should listen to her more.

Eat, Pray, Love: NYC and Rome

Before going to India and Indonesia, Liz experiences the juxtaposition of two major world cities- NYC and Rome. I found the realizations she draws from this comparison fascinating because it proves the theory that in order to really know something you must look at it from all sides. Liz had to leave New York and live in Rome in order to draw her conclusions about her own home.
Her experience in the Italian capital, although overall positive, forced her to open her eyes and in my opinion, made her grow as a person since she was able to look at both realities objectively. For example, on page 61, she calls America an "entertainment-seeking nation" and Italy a "pleasure-seeking nation". While she is awe at the beauty the Italian country and language hold, she is able to recognize the dangers of solely seeking pleasure as a life-choice. With that said, I found her comment on American stereotypes extremely amusing. She talks about the "overstressed executive who goes on vacation but who cannot relax", which is very sadly familiar to most of us.
Most importantly, from the juxtaposition of the cities' focus and essence, she furthers her understanding about identity. That scene with the locals who consider themselves "Romans first, Romans second and Romans third" shows how each person defines their own cultural identity. These people's generations have lived in Rome for centuries and they have chosen to continue fashioning their lives around that tradition. However, this does not make them any more Roman than the woman "fantastically maintained, jewelry-sodden forty-something dame wearing four-inch heels, a tight skirt with a slit as long as your arm, and those sunglasses that look like race cars". This visual encounter triggers Liz's insecurities about not fitting in, which are answered by Giulio's one-word-system to define cities. I think this passage is extremely important in the development of Liz's character and growth because she begins to understands that she is neither all "sex" nor all "achieving". She belongs to New York, and loves Rome, but her adaptability and insatiable travel-crave, while freeing her in many ways, alienate her from fully belonging to one city or identity.

Wanderlust Politics

I found Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love to be a bit disconcerting. It was an enjoyable read, and truly I do feel that there is a certain charm and glamour in the idea of traveling to different and foreign places. However, I also feel that this is a luxury that not everyone can afford, both financially and just realistically. I found myself thinking bout Nwoye who didn't fit in his own society, or the boy from "Sons of the Return Home," and I can;t help but think that they wouldn't have been able to realize themselves as she did on some worldwide expedition. Or at least, it wouldn't have been some great trying journey that eventually led to some congratulatory self-realization.

I think the feeling that comes across most strongly is Gilbert's feelings of displacement which I feel every reader can relate to, as well as the desire to travel, wanderlust. This is the great american dream, if not, a worldwide celebrated dream. Everyone wants to go to some new and exotic place. I think that one true thing that Gilbert taps into is the reality that every place we visit has something of value to teach us. I think that Gilbert's journey demonstrates an extreme understanding of home as fluid.

Perhaps because Nwoye is forced to leave a home that would otherwise never suit him, and because the boy from "Sons of the Return Home," in my eyes, embarks on an inescaple journey to find home, more so than Gilbert. Perhaps that is why I found it difficult to sympathize with her. One idea that did stick with me particularly strong was the words of the Bhagavad Gita "it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection" (95). She definitely takes these words t heart and asserts that she is living her life, "Imperfect and  clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly" (95). This is a theme I think is useful in thinking about the two other characters that I mentioned.

Gilbert herself is aware that she has achieved the american dream but that it isn't for her; she is daring to extend herself outside of her comfort zone in order to discover herself. Still, a part of me felt that she was belittling the experiences of people who can't just chose to go on a journey as she had. She makes it sound glamorous, but as we now know through some of our readings, that isn't always the case.

Attraversiamo

I've always looked at Liz Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love as a sort of self-help book, about a woman who changes her own life by traveling and finding herself in different places. When I read the book for the first time, I searched for sayings or insights into travel and life and its many meanings, and when I saw the movie, I was in it for the drama, Julia Roberts, the gorgeous scenery, and James Franco. This read through was different, because I was looking at it as a journey to find a place to belong, a home, and oneself. At the very end of the book, Liz uses the Italian word "Attraversiamo", which means let's cross over, as she and Felipe leap into the ocean Indonesia. This is a symbolic joining of the beginning of her journey in Italy, and the end, in Bali. However, I see this word as encompassing her entire journey and her idea of home. We recently read Salman Rushdie's East, West in which a character states that he refuses to choose between his two homes and that he chooses both instead. Like Rushdie's belief that he is a product of two homelands and that he shouldn't have to choose one over the other, Liz finds her home and a piece of herself in every place she visits. She is forever changed in Italy, she writes that she "exist(s) more than she did four months" before and that she gains hope and faith in the world (Gilbert 122). In India, she "chooses" her religion and finds her own inner spirituality and in Bali she finds love and completes her transformation. She "crosses over" all of her experiences and brings them all together to find herself and create her inner home, which means she can be home wherever she is in the world. This is shown when Felipe asks her to build a life in America, Australia, Bali, and Brazil. Liz doesn't think that it's crazy because she knows herself and by being herself she is home wherever she is. The world has become her home.

Eat, Pray, Love

Part 3: Elizabeth Gilbert, by most Western societal standards, should be content, if not overjoyed at the life she finds herself living at the beginning of her book, Eat, Pray, Love. She is a successful writer, married to a good man, and recently purchased a large house in suburbia. She has a large group of friends and strong ties to her family. However, despite these factors working in her favor, Liz is rather miserable. Her displeasure plays a significant role in falling apart of her marriage, as she and her husband “had the eyes of refugees,” as they reached their breaking point (12). After the divorce, Liz decides to travel to Italy, India, and Indonesia in search of the contentment that she has been lacking for years. However, what she learns is that the answers to her troubles are not tangible things that could be found in foreign   lands, but instead, the answer has everything to do with herself and her mindset.

            Liz is lucky enough, especially in India, to meet people who offer great advise as to how she can break out of her depression. She is carrying with her a great deal of guilt over her perceived responsibility for her damaged relationship with her ex-husband and their eventual divorce. Recognizing this weight that constantly bears down on Liz, Richard from Texas stresses that she has “gotta learn how to let go…Otherwise [she’s] gonna make [herself] sick. Never gonna have a good night’s sleep again. [She’ll] just toss and turn forever, beatin’ on [herself] for being such a fiasco in life” (151).  Richard’s simple advise to “just let go” underscores the fact that Liz’s problems have less to do with her surroundings and more to do with her mentality and her approach to life. She forced herself to assume a great deal of responsibility for her separation in order to expedite the divorce process, and as a result she has never quite been able to overcome this sense of culpability. However, getting past this depression does not necessarily require a change of scenery (although this certainly helped Liz in this process). Instead, it required a conscious decision to no longer be upset about her past, and to figuratively drop the weights that have been weighing her down and preventing her from moving on from her heartbreak.

            Richard is not the only person at the Ashram to advise Liz similarly. The plumber/poet from New Zealand shares with her his instructions for the freedom that Liz desperately seeks. There are ten steps to freedom, according to the plumber/poet, all much easier said than done. However, in steps two through eight, a common theme is apparent: just let go. In order to truly be free, Liz must let go of things that were once beautiful in favor of new things to take their place, of need to have control over her life and her existence, of the day as it becomes night, and again, of the overwhelming guilt that she has carried with her for so long (185). Liz’s unhappiness stems from her inability to move on from the negative events in her past. As a result, these memories have simply been perpetuated all the way up to her time in India. In order to be truly happy, Richard and the plumber instruct Liz, she needs to first allow herself to be happy by looking ahead instead of constantly looking to her past and thinking about how things could have been different. Overall, while Liz’s travels allowed her to come in contact with people who were able to help her through difficult times, her happiness ultimately must come from within her rather than from her surroundings, and she is finally able to achieve this freedom thanks to her shift in mindset.

Eat, Pray, Whine

This is my second time reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I have to say, I still find it to be repetitive, dull, and narcissistic. I understand why it was a bestseller, and I very much appreciated the vivid descriptions of various homelands as Gilbert made her way around the world, but this book is missing something. Whereas Rushdie, Achebe, Grace, and the other authors we have read managed to make poignant statements about home and the loss, or gain, of feeling comfortable in one's home, Gilbert focuses solely on her midlife crisis that seemingly appears to spring up from nothing. I can sympathize with Gilbert feeling confused and out of place in a life that she once considered home, but it's the way she handles things that makes me cringe. Almost immediately, I find Gilbert difficult to stomach based on her reactions to her initial circumstances: "I was hiding in the bathroom for something like the forty-seventh consecutive night, and-just as during all those nights before-I was sobbing. Sobbing so hard, in fact, that a great lake of tears and snot was spreading before me on the bathroom tiles, a veritable Lake Inferior (if you will) of all my shame and fear and confusion and grief. I don't want to be married anymore" (Gilbert 10). My question here is, if she doesn't want to be married, then why doesn't she say something instead of hiding out in the bathroom? After eight years of marriage, she owes her husband at least that much. Besides Gilbert's character, I did appreciate the beautiful scenery and the unique way in which Gilbert attempts to find home. For Gilbert, home is not necessarily a place, but rather a journey. From the decadence of Rome to the ashram in India and finally to the balance in Bali, Gilbert takes a different route in her search for a homeland. Though I am not a fan of this memoir, I can see how it relates to our study of home and homelands. From a personal perspective, I had to move from one college to another to finally feel comfortable and the transition was not easy. It took time and I experienced a lengthy internal debate over whether or not I should simply stick it out at Elon or seek out happiness somewhere else. For Gilbert, home finally came when she allowed herself time to heal. She removed herself from any and all relationships following her disastrous rebound with David and took the necessary steps to be her own advocate. In the end, Gilbert found a homeland within herself (as cheesy as that may sound). However, it's true because until Elizabeth Gilbert found peace within, she could never feel happy or satisfied with any type of life. Maybe that's the one thing I can find redeeming about this book: the fact that the author was brave enough to stand up and realize that she wanted something different and taking the time to initiate change. It's a comforting, and somewhat obvious notion, that to feel at home in any relationship or location, we must first feel at home within ourselves.

Two cultures but one "home"

In Rushdie’s East, West two different kinds of home. One home in the East and another in the West. For the first time home is described in a sort of multilayered kind of lens. Instead of the perspective of one home conforming to another, we get this kind of mixed home where multiple cultures collide to simultaneously create this new mixed culture of individuals. The way in which Rushdie does this is fascinating. He has one section of the novel dedicated to the East, another to the West, and then finally the third which is a combination of both. This distinction between cultures makes it seem as if they are separate, but having the third section embody characteristics from both the East and West simplifying his distinction.

In reality, the mesh of different cultural values equal a mixing bowl of cultures where both characteristics are brought together is the actual home which Rushdie wants to portray to his readers. Instead of thinking of the East and West as opposing cultures where one is a threat to the other, instead think of it as one unifying culture where they complement each other. Although the tradition is rich within the East (particularly in the Prophets Hair short story), the West section to offers some interesting tradition mainly pop culture references which somehow is influenced in both ways by the East. The references made to pop culture is also an important part of cultures merging. Since the media is a big factor in society, it plays a necessary role within Rushdie’s short stories. For some stories the government control and media influence is seen as a negative, like in The Free Radio.

 By Rushdie seeing two different “homes” as one is a beautiful attempt at seeing a need to unify but at the same time establish some difference between the two unique cultures. There are both positives and negatives to assimilation. The positives include the cultures ability to of open up and gain a new and improved understanding of the world. The negatives of assimilation include losing a sense of heritage and tradition because of the influence from the other culture. Of course there are many more negatives that one seems to be the biggest, because tradition for some cultures, is everything. However, finding a gap between the negatives and positives is what makes both cultures thrive. Which is why Rushdie chose to have a section dedicated to combining both cultures (East, West).

Simultaneously having the East and West cultures in one section makes the unification of both seem less difficult to understand. Compared to other readings for the first time it isn’t about one or the other but of both influencing each other. This distinction made it possible to see not only two cultures but one new culture where both traditions and ideals from opposing cultures can thrive.