Prompt #2

Jumping into the book, I thought it was going to be horrible. These were not my own opinions, obviously, but rather those of others. I heard that the book was bad, and the movie was worse. So, naturally, I thought to myself as I was reading the introduction that this was just another novel about a woman trying to discover her self though certain adventures, and in this case travel and eating and prayer and love. And it is. But as I got going I started feeling what the Gilbert did before her travels and during. I dug deeper into the text to only find out that, in my opinion, it was less of a journey of "self discovery" but more of the escape from her internal pain and self doubt and just a pinch of  her insecure relations with everybody surrounding her. As I read deeper and thought deeper, my vision of the novel suddenly changed from a story about eating, praying and loving, to a book of pleasure, escape, and healing. All senses humans feel, yet some are afraid to admit to. I personally think that Gilbert is getting pleasure, a feeling that was astray in her life back in NY, from her breakfast, lunch and diner. Escape is the praying. Praying is a detailed practice that lets us, the universe of humans, escape from our lives and look upon them from above. And lastly, the feeling of healing from love. In her "old life", Gilbert experienced such emotionally harmful relationships with both her husband and David, so her travels was not only a trip of discovery, but a trip of healing from her wounds previously acquired. Gilbert's writing style is extremely relatable, cynical yet very casual. I love the part where Gilbert writes: "Go back to bed Liz." (16) over and over and over again. In these lines she is slightly admitting her venerability while still acknowledging that something had to change in her life in order to feel happy again, and the first step for her, was going to bed. I can completely relate to the feeling of being so emotionally drained, that the only thing possibly left to do is just sleep and sleep and sleep. And I think a lot of people can as well. So, in conclusion, I am really enjoying the novel. I feel compelled to write even more, however I will stop for now, and I will continue reading.