Introduction Chapter 1: Feminism

3.2Connecting Independence and Consumption in Eat, Pray, Love.
Isn’t our individual longing for transcendence all just part of this larger human search for divinity? Don’t we each have the right to not stop seeking until we get as close to the source of wonderful as possible? Even if it means coming to India and kissing trees in the moonlight for a while (Gilbert 219).
Gilbert’s spiritual journey begins in Italy, her primary activities in Italy revolving around consumption. Gilbert never neglects to tell the reader just how heavenly all this consumption is, and exclaims in Napels that she is in love with what she promotes as “the best pizza in the world” ironically telling readers that she is “having a relationship with [her] pizza” (83).⁴ As she explains, her purpose in choosing Italy was “to explore the art of pleasure,” (31) the art of pleasure being the consumption of large amounts of food while shopping for new jeans and expensive lingerie, and traveling to various cities in Italy, such as Naples for pizza, Bologna for its famous fresh pastas and Rome for its gelato (Goggin 8-9). According to Gilbert, if you are unhappy and suffering from post-breakup depression, you have to seek your inner self and you have to go to Italy, India, and Indonesia in order to do so. Certainly, some people choose not to travel whilst looking for themselves, which might work for them, but not for Gilbert, although she acknowledges that it might “seem a little drastic for the general populace.” Somehow, one cannot help but wonder, whether she means general populace, or perhaps, those who have little financial stability. Gilbert explains that she did not “[have] much of a choice” in the matter (163). The underlying message being: if you are truly devoted to finding your inner self, you must do whatever it takes. Imperative to this commitment, in this context, is financial commitment, above anything else, since the prerequisites for this quest include multiple plane tickets and residencies in different places.
For Gilbert, before one embarks on a journey to find one’s inner self in an Ashram in India, one must be rested:
And when I think of the mental anguish I was going through right after I left my marriage, I have no doubt that I would have been a great drain on everyone at this Ashram had I come here at that moment. Far better to have rested first in Italy, gotten my strength and health back, and then showed up(135).
At the end of her journey, Gilbert travels to the Gili Meno, a small island she had been to previously, when she had given herself a “ten-day retreat of absolute solitude and absolute silence.” It had been a very emotional and spiritual retreat, and Gili Meno became “one of the most important places in the world to [her]” (399). Gilbert goes on to describe the island in the terms “tiny, pristine, sandy, blue water, palm trees” (340). Upon encountering an eight-year-old local boy, who repeatedly asks Gilbert why she is alone, and why she does not have a boyfriend, she bursts out saying, “I’m not talking because I’m on a friggin’ spiritual journey, you nasty little punk – now go AWAY [emphasis in original]!” (341). This outburst directed at a local child functions as the epitome of “[t]he female neoliberal spiritual subject [who] is not only situated as a consumer who expresses her spirituality through spending, she is also encouraged to adopt a depoliticized outlook that ignores oppressive social realities in favor of a therapeutically tinged focus on herself” (Williams 616). Depoliticized in that the neoliberal spirit, in this case Gilbert, does not cultivate an awareness of the realities that surround her. Gilbert, here, portrays herself as the female neoliberal spiritual subject, whose spiritual journey justifies her outburst at a local, yet how yelling at an eight-year-old boy contributes to this spiritual journey is beyond comprehension. This is to say that she narcissistically places the importance of her spiritual journey far above anything else, feeling entitled to ignore or yell at a local child. This moves her away from social and cultural agency by promoting materialism, sending out a message that appears to say, ‘out of my way, I’m here to consume your island’.
Gilbert’s spiritual consumerist behavior, in some ways, also functions as her justification for cultural appropriation, which goes hand in hand with her white privileged sense of superiority over locals,⁵ hard to ignore throughout the entire text. One example of this is when Gilbert is talking to an Indian girl who tells her that “everybody in India almost has a Guru,” and Gilbert goes on to explain to the reader that what the girl meant to say was “that almost [emphasis in original] everyone in India has a Guru,” but that Gilbert “related more to her unintentional [emphasis added] statement” because she felt like she almost had a Guru. Gilbert refers to her own “intellectual heritage” as that of a “good New Englander.” Qualities ascribed to these are “skepticism and pragmatism,” which make it hard for her to admit that she does not have a Guru yet. Gilbert’s appropriation of Indian culture is not one that is done gracefully, nor humbly, as she goes on to say “[a]nyhow, it’s not like I consciously went shopping for a Guru,” however, she needed one and the Guru “just arrived” and said “[y]ou called for me and now I’m here” (131). Gilbert’s continuous misrepresentation of locals as being naïve, along with the way she ascribes skepticism and pragmatism to her intellectual heritage as a New Englander, function as blatant displays of her internalized white-privilege and her racialized ideas of the other as inferior.⁶
At the end of her text, Gilbert (ab)uses spiritualism again to justify her need to be in a relationship, when she discloses the spiritual dream she had. In her dream, Gilbert’s Guru approves of her love, when Gilbert and Felipe find themselves in a “terrific restaurant” in New York, enjoying a “wonderful meal of lamb chops and artichokes and fine wine,” as they are “talking and laughing happily.” In her dream, Gilbert then notices Swamiji, her Guru’s master, across the room “eating dinner with a group of his friends,” and, when Swamiji finally notices Gilbert, their eyes meet and Swamiji “smile[s] at [her] and raise[s] his wineglass in a toast,” and then mouths the word “enjoy [emphasis in original]” to her (328). Gilbert’s dream functions as the ‘spiritual approval’ that she needed in her decision to stay with Felipe and to start building a life with him, a decision that, even though being a manifestation of her own imagination, finds its roots in the imagined approval of her Guru’s master. This dream is symbolic for the union between consumerism, represented by Gilbert sipping wine and dining in an expensive restaurant, and spirituality, represented by the master Guru and his presence and approval.
Through the enormous industry that has emerged around Eat, Pray, Love, a direct result of the widespread popularity the text obtained, everything connected to the text and Gilbert seems to be designed to promote the commercialization of spiritualism. In turn, this commercialized spiritualism is presented as female empowerment. For women less privileged than Gilbert, the EPL brand invented a smart solution to their problems: if they couldn’t embark on their spiritual journey, they could simply ‘buy the experience’ by reading Gilbert’s book while drinking special EPL tea, before bathing themselves with EPL soap. The Home Shopping Network – also known as HSN – broadcasted EPL products for three days straight in August 2010, a few days prior to the release of the movie.⁷ Gilbert’s opinion on this female targeting industry may not come as a surprise, “Most people don't have the resources to be able to go travel around the world for an entire year,” and “[m]aybe buying a candle that reminds you of that story is as close as they can get to that” (ABC). This statement reveals her dismissive attitude and unwillingness to be critical towards an industry that shamelessly exploits women’s discontent with an unequal position in society. Furthermore, Gilbert reinforces and stimulates that industry by claiming that some part of the experience can indeed be bought.
For the financially privileged, there are tours especially designed for women who want to experience the same journey Gilbert did.⁸ This “produces a subject who feels the need to buy travel as a means for producing the spiritualized consciousness she believes will allow her to share in Gilbert’s enlightened happiness,” thereby creating a subject that is detached from any cultural, political, or social awareness. Aside from that, these tours capitalize on the fact that most women cannot travel for a year, by offering the same experience in one week, and treating countries like products that can be consumed in order to enrichen your life and give you a better sense of self.