Elizabeth Gilbert 5 Stages Of Grief

Grief can be defined as a deep sorrow caused by loss or trouble; remorse for something done, or sorrow for mishap to oneself or others. Once there is an onset of grief, there are five stages that usually follow, including denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, according Kübler-Ross. These can be onset by death, divorce, a breakup, or any sort of loss in one’s life. Divorce is not what people plan on, “when life sends you events that most people would consider tragic, it’s hard to imagine that there would be any reason- let alone a good reason – for the tragedy to have happened” (Gaduoa). But this event happened so that Elizabeth would go on a year-long journey to find herself. In the novel Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

Prigerson and Maciejewski claim that their graph shows “after about 4 months, the constellation of grief indicators declines through 23 months... importantly, as grief falls, acceptance of the loss rises.” That means that this point in her journey is crucial because her grief is finally declining and she is rapidly moving towards the acceptance stage. In India, Elizabeth finds a lot of solitude during meditation in an Ashram, which strengthens her spirituality. When people come to the lowest point in their lives, this being Gilbert’s, they tend to turn to a higher being to find comfort and a purpose for their lives. As Elizabeth arrives in India, she is overwhelmed and is unable to clear her mind during meditation until she meets a man named Richard, from Texas who “becomes [her] great and amusing sense of security” in the Ashram (139). Richard convinces Elizabeth to stay in the Ashram all four months after discovering she only wanted to stay for a short period of time and then travel throughout India because he believes she will not be able to find God anywhere but in the Ashram. She was not going to find Him in the Taj Mahal, the Qutb Minar or any other tourist trap in India; the best place for her to heal was right in the Ashram because that is where God is most present. Richard communicates to Elizabeth that, “someday [she’s] gonna look back on this moment of [her] life as such a sweet time of grieving. [She] will see that [she was] in mourning and [her] heart was broken, but [her] life was changing and [she was] in the best possible place in the world for it - in a place of worship, surrounded by grace” (149). Even on Elizabeth’s worst nights in the Ashram where the men in her life haunted her dreams, she is able to calm herself by journaling more and talking to God, who, just like Richard, shows her comfort in faith. The purpose of Richard, the purpose of India was for Elizabeth to realize that both