Introduction Chapter 1: Feminism

Chapter 3: Synthesis
3.1 Spiritualism in Eat, Pray, Love.
The following chapter consists of a close-reading of Eat, Pray, Love, in order to analyze how spiritualism and independence are constructed in the text, and to illustrate the manners in which these terms are both linked to consumerism. Gilbert’s representation of her own spirituality and journey to acquire autonomy show no signs of cultural awaraness or awareness of appriopriation. She treats spiritualism as something than can be consumed instantaneously, rather than treating it as something that requires gradual development. There are various examples of spiritual consumerism in Eat, Pray, Love. However, in order to expand the hypothesis at the heart of this thesis, specific parts will be cited. For the final section of this chapter, a few examples from the text will be used, as they are sufficient to support the claim that Gilbert promotes consumerism, whilst labeling it as spiritualism.
Analogous to the different phases that self-help genres have gone through in the past several decades, Gilbert’s spiritual journey has been one of many contradictions. For example, Gilbert, the white, middle-class thirty something feels she is trapped in a marriage she refuses to stay in. Gilbert’s rejection of marriage can be read as “a direct rebellion against patriarchal social norms that encourage women to cultivate a personality of selflessness” (Williams 618) as she asserts that societal expectations pressure her to the point where she no longer wants “to be this man’s wife anymore” (Gilbert 12). She then starts praying to God, whom she refers to as ‘Him’, which “doesn’t bother [her] because, to [her] mind, it’s just a convenient personalizing pronoun” (Gilbert 14). In her search for answers, she begs: “please tell me what to do” (Gilbert 16). After a long and meditative pause she finds her first answer: Italy.
Consequently, in order to break free from the tragedy of her break-up and to find herself, Gilbert decides to travel for a year. “Though she does not name them as such, Gilbert is clear that her actions—going abroad for a year, generally following her own desires—are acts of female empowerment” (Williams 618). This decision, however, is motivated by a Balinese medicine man she meets very briefly, as she states: “Now, I’m the kind of person who, when a ninth-generation Indonesian medicine man tells you that you’re destined to move to Bali and live with him for four months, thinks you should make every effort do to that” (Gilbert 29). This message, much like the message authors of self-help books in the 1950s were sending out, could be seen as a reaffirmation of women’s lack of power in heteronormative relationships. Gilbert’s decision to travel is motivated by an external factor, a man telling her what to do in order to become more self-sufficient, more than it is her own individual decision, or at least, that is how Gilbert prefers to portray it. Somehow, Gilbert’s attempt to become a self-governing individual is triggered by three male figures, namely, God, David and the Balinese medicine man, who ostensibly hold some form of authority over Gilbert in her quest for independence and self-discovery.
Gilbert states in the beginning of her narrative that women should not feel socially pressured into marriage and having babies, which laid a foundation for her anxieties concerning her own marriage and ultimately functioned as grounds for divorce. However, throughout the text, it is Gilbert, and only Gilbert, who repeatedly equates women’s self-worth with their marital status. For example, when her sister visits Gilbert in Italy, she concludes: “in comparison to my sister’s existence, to her home and to her good marriage and to her children – I’m looking pretty unstable these days” (100). She goes on to list a number of reasons as to why she looks unstable, which include her not having an address and having her belongings stored somewhere else. Gilbert’s constant fear of becoming “crazy aunt Liz” symbolizes her perspective on the matter, namely, being divorced must mean that there is something wrong with you (101). Given this, it is not without significance that girls in Eat, Pray, Love are often described as pretty, innocent, “fluttery little butterflies,” while boys are strong, independent and “serious little autocrats,” reiterating long-established portrayals of gender roles (Gilbert 137-138).
During her stay in India, Gilbert befriends an older man from Texas, Richard, whom she frequently asks for advice. She becomes his “chatty little sidekick,” while his presence at the Ashram becomes her “great and amusing sense of security” (Gilbert 146). More importantly, her friendship with Richard does not appear to be an equal one – Richards’ nicknames for Gilbert are “groceries” and ”baby” – and she repeatedly allows Richard to define her, by asking him questions such as “how long will it be before all this grieving passes?” This refers to the pain she carries with her from her divorce and subsequent break-up with David. Richard, not even slightly wondering why someone he just met is giving him this much authority over her, then continues his analysis by saying that she has “some serious control issues,” to which she replies “you’re totally right” (158). Again, Gilbert portrays herself as the ‘weaker sex’, being an anxious woman in desperate need of a man, any man, to analyze and advise her. She seems unaware of how she denies herself any agency in the matter, assuming that Richard’s opinion is far more true and useful than her own.
Gilbert does not seem to be bothered with her consistent gender stereotyping as she delineates the “apparent differences” between her Guru and the Guru’s master, the Guru being depicted as “feminine,” someone “you could take home to meet mom and dad”, whereas the master is “such a wild card,” whose photograph impressed her so much that she states “I’m just going to stay clear of this character, he’s too big. He makes me nervous” (Gilbert 175).
In addition, heterosexuality in Gilbert’s novel seems to be the norm, whereas lesbians and feminists are placed next to nuns and eighty year olds. Gilbert gives her readers advice on what to answer in Bali, when asked the question whether or not you are married, which should always be “not yet.” She continues: “even if you’re eighty-years-old, or a lesbian, or a strident feminist, or a nun, or an eighty-year-old strident feminist lesbian nun who has never been married and never intends to get married, the politest possible answer is still: ‘Not yet’” (239). Gilbert‘s assumption that lesbians and strident feminists are per definition not married and do not intend to ever get married can be interpreted as her view of lesbians and feminists posing a threat to heteronormativity. This assumption functions as a perfect illustration of very conventional, socially constructed views on gender, and how these problematically diminish many other minorities, by not allowing, or even acknowledging, individual gender expressions.
Further into the relationship, Gilbert prides herself on being graduated from being “his [emphasis added] lovely little darling” to the Portuguese equivalent “his queridinha [emphasis in original]” (309). Felipe exclusively uses the diminutive ‘little’ and possessive pronoun ‘mine’, when referring to Gilbert. Gilbert internalizes this possessive construction, by also referring to herself as his. Again, here, Gilbert and Felipe’s relationship is far from equal, and in many obvious ways, it reinforces a traditional view on male/female relationships. Felipe is the protector, “growing into the role of being [her] attendant knight,” expressing feelings similar to paternal instincts, when he tells her “I feel the same way about you that I felt about my kids when they were small – that it wasn’t their job to love me, it was my job to love them” (326). This, again, is not experienced by Gilbert as being in any way patronizing or unhealthy, and indeed, it helps her come to the realization that a part of her has “always wanted to hear a man say ‘let me take care of you forever’” (327). Given that Gilbert went through a divorce and a subsequent break-up to be free and self-sufficient, this can be seen as rather paradoxical, as it reveals Gilbert’s desire to function within a very conservative relationship.
Gilbert’s need for a divorce is initiated by the need to find herself. She goes to Italy to understand food and learn the language, much like the advice given in 1950s self-help books, namely: to be a good wife you have to perform in the kitchen. Then, she travels to India to find herself, to develop better communicative skills, to learn how to express herself better, which is the focus of self-help books during and after the 1970s. Importantly, all of this soul-searching and newfound passion for food seems to pay off and Gilbert feels more assertive and more in control once she finds herself in Indonesia, at the end of her journey. This does not go unnoticed by the men surrounding her, and it does not take long before she finds herself a devoted lover. By the end of this narrative, once she is in a relationship with Felipe, she concludes that deep down inside, she has always wanted a man to take care of her. If her spiritual journey was not about autonomy and becoming a self-governing individual, then what was it about? How could she have wanted to be a self-governing individual, travel around the world to achieve autonomy, only to, in the end, give it away to become a man’s “lovely little darling” (289)?