Elizabeth+Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert __ Synopsis __ Eat, Pray, and Love, Elizabeth Gilbert starts off spending time on her bathroom floor as she crumples into pieces while she pondered about her marriage. After a hard decision, she finally makes the choice to divorce her husband because she wasn’t ready to be a mother and commitment. Still feeling young at age thirty-two, she goes back to her previous travel to Bali. At Bali, she had met a medicine man who promised her that one day, she would come back as a student. After all the divorce mess, she decided to travel to three countries (Italy, India, and Indonesia) as a way to pull herself back together. In Italy, she falls in love with food, in India, she devoted herself in spirituality and in Indonesia, she found someone who she would love. __ Archetype __ Elizabeth Gilbert falls into the archetype of a Flawed Hero. She has many flaws such not being committed and having a high standard for a person. Elizabeth’s major flaw is commitment. She can’t wrap her mind around commitment because she feels like she’s too young for commitment. This leads to her divorce. “I was trying so hard not to know this, but the truth kept insisting itself to me. I don’t want to be married anymore. I don’t want to live in this big house. I don’t want to have a baby” (p 10). The sense of commitment haunts her and instead of trying to overcome by pulling herself back together, she runs away by divorce. Another flaw she has is having a high standard for a person. Her mindset of having big wishes leads her to disappointment. “In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding that they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place” (p 18-19). She was disappointed the fact that her ex-husband didn’t take her serious when it came to her wish to not have a baby. Elizabeth thought that he would understand her wish but, she was wrong. She was also disappointed by her ex-boyfriend, who she was with after the divorce. After checking the list of a perfect man- which had brown, dreamy eyes, and a musician- her ex-boyfriend disappointed her when he starts having an on-off relationship with her. Being in the archetype of a flawed hero, she faces obstacles such loneliness. “They flank me-Depression on my left, loneliness on my right. They dont need to show their badges. I know these guys very well. ...then they frisk me. They empty my pockets of any joy I had been carrying there. Depression even confiscates my identity; but he always does that” (p 47). Elizabeth slips into depression after her divorce and her break-up with her boyfriend, along with loosing herself and the lack of happiness. Elizabeth overcomes the obstacle such as getting over her ex-boyfriend in India by talking herself out of it and a small help from her friend, Richard from Texas. “This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.” (p 297) __ How to talk like Elizabeth Gilbert __ Liz tends to emphasize certain things in her life that she finds happiness in. “Traveling is the great true love of my life... I am loyal and constant in my love of travel. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me.”(p. 32) Elizabeth emphasizes her passion by fragments and repetition such as, “Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me.”
 * __ 1.Emphasize certain things in life that you enjoy. __**

Throughout her journey, Liz runs into many enlightment thoughts as she overcomes obstacles. “So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly." (p. 95) This shows her content with her life and the way it’s heading. It gives a sense of relief and a lesson learnt.
 * __ 2.Enlightment thoughts. __**

Throughout the book, Liz explains her feelings, thoughts, and emotions towards something in complex sentences than simple sentences.“The number 108 is held to be the most auspicious, a perfect three-digit multiple of three, its components adding up to 9, which is three threes. And 3, of course, is the number representing supreme balance.” (p. 8) This shows her thoughts about a number, in which she concludes as representing “supreme balance.”
 * __ 3.Complex sentences. __**


 * __ 4.Create lists. __** To help her to organize her thoughts and put together her lessons, she creates lists.“Instructions for freedom":1. Life's metaphors are God's instructions.2. You have just climbed up and above the roof, there is nothing between you and the Infinite; now, let go.3. The day is ending, it's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, let go.4. Your wish for resolution was a prayer. You are being here is God's response, let go and watch the stars came out, in the inside and in the outside.5. With all your heart ask for Grace and let go. 6. With all your heart forgive him, forgive yourself and let him go.7. Let your intention be freedom from useless suffering then, let go.8. Watch the heat of day pass into the cold night, let go.9. When the Karma of a relationship is done, only Love remains. It's safe, let go.10. When the past has past from you at last, let go.. then, climb down and begin the rest of your life with great joy.” Making lists also shows her recovery through obstacles.
 * __ 5.Quote writers. __** To support Liz’s thoughts, she quotes authors. This helps her thoughts to be completed by giving them more support than her mere thought. “Virginia Wolf wrote, 'Across the broad continent of a woman's life falls the shadow of a sword.' On one side of that sword, she said, there lies convention and tradition and order, where all is correct. But on the other side of that sword, if you're crazy enough to cross it and choose a life that does not follow convention, 'all is confusion.' Nothing follows a regular course. Her argument was that the crossing of the shadow of that sword may bring a more interesting existence to a woman, but you can bet it will be more perilous.”