Eat, Pray, Love : Confronting and Reconstructing Female Identity

EAT, PRAY, LOVE: CONFRONTING AND RECONSTRUCTING FEMALE IDENTITY
18 
“
The Yogis say that Ham-sa is the most natural mantra, the one we are all given by God 
before birth
…
As long as we live, every time we breathe in or out, we are repeating this 
mantra. I am That. I am divine, I am with God, I am an expression of God, I am not 
separate, I am not alone, I am not this lim
ited illusion of an individual”
(Gilbert, 2006, p. 
141-142). 
As a product of Western culture and the Judeo-Christian tradition, which positions God 
or a “higher power” outside of the self, Gilbert is presented with a somewhat conflicting point of 
view in this concept of the “supreme Self” or universal identity
, and its corresponding meditation 
practice
. In other words, the story she is being told doesn’t exactly “ring true” with her own 
values and beliefs.
But if we look to both Kirkwood’s (1992) and Stroud’s (2002) assertions that 
stories that present new ideas or that conflict with our own values and beliefs can be accepted 
and acted upon even in the absence of narrative fidelity (Fisher, 1987), we can begin to 
understand how Gilbert comes to accept and believe in the possibility of a universal identity that 
is rooted in a higher power and accessible by every living human on the planet.
After her own transcendent experience achieved in meditation, she shares how she comes 
to accept and believe that she can access, and is part of this universal identity: 
“Not only did I feel unhesitating compassion and unity with everything and everybody, it 
was vaguely and amusingly strange for me to wonder how anybody could ever feel 
anything but that. I also felt mildly charmed by all my old ideas about who I am and what 
I’m like. I’m a woman, I come from America, I’m talkative, I’m a writer—
all this felt so 
cute and obsolete. Imagine cramming yourself into such a puny box of identity when you 
could experience your infinitude instead” (Gilbert, 2006, p. 199
-200). 

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EAT, PRAY, LOVE: CONFRONTING AND RECONSTRUCTING FEMALE IDENTITY
19 
Here, we also see how Gilbert both critiques her individual American identity as limiting, and 
finds a solution for her identity crisis by symbolically identifying with the universal, infinite 
identity that we all share, but seldom realize. What is especially powerful about her realization 
and acceptance of this universal identity is the possibility it presents also to the reader. Given the 
universal nature of this identity, all audiences 
–
whether male or female, white or black, 
privileged or not 
–
have the access to identify with it and claim it as their own if they choose; the 
only pre-requisite is being human. Three prominent feminist scholars have also alluded to the 
concept of a universal identity in their discussions of interconnectedness. Segrest (2002) 
asserted that c
onnection with others enables us to be “restored to our lost sense of eternity” (p. 
174).
Walker (2006) explores this process “as if we are dissolving into everything and everyone 
around us and we recognize the illusion of separateness” (Walker, 2006). Elshtain (2003) also 
supports this idea in offering that “we need the possibilities present
ed to us by others 
–
we are 
interdependent” (p. 99). While the concepts of universal identity and interconnectedness are 
central to a multitude of Eastern religions and cultures, feminism can bridge this concept for 
Western women, 
especially. Gilbert’s embracing of these concepts is surely an example of how 
stories 
–
especially those from other cultures 
–
can present us with new ways of thinking and 
being in the world. 
More evidence of this spiritual bridging offered by feminism can be found in Chavez and 
Griffin’s (2009) conceptualization of female power as one “grounded in a profound cognizance 
of the interconnections and interdependencies of people, privilege and social/political/economic 
opportunities” (p. 7
-8). Nissim-Sabat (2
003) also argued that “feminism, philosophy and 
spirituality converge in a vision of the subject, the human person that is inclusive of all persons” 
(p. 279). The power Gilbert drew from throughout her interactions with others came from an 

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