Elizabeth Gilbert has achieved a great success as being the writer of Eat, Pray, Love which is a story about a once happily married woman who divorces from her husband and decides to go on a long journey around the world in search of what Bitch Magazine calls ‘’an international safari of self-actualization’’ (qtd.in Eat, Pray, Loathe: Woman’s Travel Memoir as Moving Metaphysical Journey or Narcissistic New-Age Babble?, p.47). She suddenly realizes that ‘’ she doesn’t want to be married, live in this big house and have a baby’’(qtd.in Eat, Pray, Loathe: Woman’s Travel Memoir as Moving Metaphysical Journey or Narcissistic New-Age Babble? ) . This realization suddenly causes considerable problems about her marriage and herself. The fact that ‘’she
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13) and that ‘’there is something wrong with herself’’(Gilbert, Eat ,Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across Italy India and Indonesia, 2006, p. …show more content…
The rebellious and misleading part of her admission of madness is that she does not feel any kinds of guilt as she admits her madness or that she is ‘’exhausting her husband’’(Gilbert, Eat ,Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across Italy India and Indonesia, 2006, p. 13). If Gilbert’s madness is regarded as a sign of rebellion, this supports Ruth Williams’ claim that ‘’Gilbert’s trip is a direct rebellion against patriarchal social norms that encourage women to cultivate a personality of selflessness’’ (Williams, Eat, Pray, Love: Producing the Female Neoliberal Spiritual Subject, p. 618). Gilbert also supports Williams’ claim by implying the effect of social norms and individual expectations into her psychological condition: She writes that she is ‘’tired of being the primary breadwinner, the housekeeper, the social coordinator, the dog walker’’.Even if, she does not state whether she holds these expectation s and norms responsible for her psychological condition, she mentions that they are tiring herself which makes them partially responsible. Even if being the primary breadwinner, the housekeeper, the social
13) and that ‘’there is something wrong with herself’’(Gilbert, Eat ,Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across Italy India and Indonesia, 2006, p. …show more content…
The rebellious and misleading part of her admission of madness is that she does not feel any kinds of guilt as she admits her madness or that she is ‘’exhausting her husband’’(Gilbert, Eat ,Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across Italy India and Indonesia, 2006, p. 13). If Gilbert’s madness is regarded as a sign of rebellion, this supports Ruth Williams’ claim that ‘’Gilbert’s trip is a direct rebellion against patriarchal social norms that encourage women to cultivate a personality of selflessness’’ (Williams, Eat, Pray, Love: Producing the Female Neoliberal Spiritual Subject, p. 618). Gilbert also supports Williams’ claim by implying the effect of social norms and individual expectations into her psychological condition: She writes that she is ‘’tired of being the primary breadwinner, the housekeeper, the social coordinator, the dog walker’’.Even if, she does not state whether she holds these expectation s and norms responsible for her psychological condition, she mentions that they are tiring herself which makes them partially responsible. Even if being the primary breadwinner, the housekeeper, the social