A Journey from Lost to Found, a Reading of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love and Barbara McNally’s Unbridled.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the theme of self-discovery in the memoirs: Wild  (2012) by Cheryl Strayed, Eat Pray love (2006) by Elizabeth Gilbert and Unbridled (2013) by Barbara McNally respectively. The female protagonists of these novels i.e. Cheryl, Liz and Barbara having faced psychological traumas take upon a series of adventure be it a Pacific Crest Trail or visit to different countries in order to restore their stupor lives. The psychological crisis in their personal lives leaves them shattered. Therefore, they decide to travel in order to find themselves and their identity. In due process, they undergo the process of individuation which gives them an identity of their own. They completely reject the stereotypical notion of the society of hanging into a broken marriage and transgress into a world of freedom. This world provides them a divine strength and happiness from which they were bereft for quite a long time. The journey to their self-discovery has not been an easy one but they remain stubborn to their goals. The quest for a new identity makes them violate their gendered identity.