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MOVIE REVIEW: Eat Pray Love By Qiara McCain “I” in it because the whole purpose for the trip is for her to focus on herself. For instance, while in Italy, Liz’s land lady notices that she isn’t wearing a wedding ring, and makes her promise not to bring men back into the apartment. The old lady made a comment about the two things that American females want to do while in Italy, which is to “eat pasta and play with sausage”. The film does a great job of overtly expressing how there is a generational shift in terms of the value of marriage, and how little society accepts female emancipation and female autonomy overall. For the older generation, marriage was expected, and the couple often had little to say in the matter. However, within today’s society, the main difference is that there’s no societal pressure to get married because common-law marriages exist, and divorce is becoming more prevalent. Similarly, the sausage reference that the old woman uses not only stereotypes all American women as promiscuous creatures, but it represents the close minded thinking that society has towards the independent female who can provide for, take care of and think for herself without the the male species. The film really promotes female autonomy because usually it’s the man that’s unhappy in the marriage, wants the divorce and leaves the family behind. Instead the film twists the regular scenario to where the female wants to break free from the marriage and male dominancy to reestablish herself psychologically and emotionally. _______________________________

MOVIES

Eat Pray Love, directed by Ryan Murphy and based on the memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, is about a newly divorced woman, named Liz (Julia Roberts), who takes a year off in order to find herself. During this one year that she has designated for herself, she’s going to travel to Italy, India and Bali with the hope of reclaiming her “appetite for life”. However, during her quest to find herself, Liz frequently finds that her European counterparts are surprised that she’s taking a trip of such magnitude without a male companion. For them, this notion is really hard to grasp, and calls attention to how people view gender and relationships overall and how one can maintain individuality within a monogamous relationship without being consumed by the relationship itself. The main character, Liz, has a successful career, is married and lives in a nice house, but she’s unfulfilled internally and resorts to getting a divorce from her husband. This sense of declining satisfaction with oneself is something many women can relate to, particularly middle-aged women. They’ve often reached a point in their lives where excitement has significantly declined, and they’re just tired of going through the normalcy of life. For example, Liz, keeps a suitcase under her bed filled with cut-out images of places that she wants to visit, activities that she wants to do, and food that she wants to eat. This suitcase serves as an escape from the reality of her restlessness with the inability to find complete happiness. She feels consumed by her marriage primarily because she’s been jumping from one relationship to the next ever since she was a teenager, and has never taken the time out to be alone and concentrate on herself as an individual in order to become one with the self. Hence the significance behind every destination that Liz travels to in the film (Italy, India and Bali) has the letter

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Qiara McCain is majoring in English with a film concentration at North Carolina State University.