Eat, Pray, Love: Is Julia Roberts Grendel?

So I just finished watching the movie Eat, Pray, Love for the first time (no literally......like five minutes ago) and I'm happy to say that I believe I've found a new favorite movie, or really a new favorite story that clearly highlights a person's transition from innocence to experience. If I was to watch the movie as a basic viewer, I would've gawked at the beautiful scenery, array of languages, and overall world experience Julia Robert's character engaged into. However, being the AP Lit student that I am *hair flip* I couldn't help but watch the movie through a lens that connected the numerous transition periods that occur throughout the movie to a much deeper meaning, or a novel that goes by the name of Grendel. At the beginning of this movie, Julia Robert's appears as if she is stuck in a stage that is caught in between innocence and experience; she's experienced numerous downfalls in her life that have led to her becoming dreary and lost in her own world, while at the same time is so vulnerable to her emotions that she acts frantically and decides to embark on a year long journey the hopes of finding herself. To me this was all too similar to Grendel; sure, when the novel starts off Grendel isn't as experienced as Julia Robert's character is, however, once he gains experience and knowledge of the truth of the reality of the world that’s around him, it's as if he becomes vulnerable to everything that could possibly influence his decisions, actions, and emotions. That's exactly what goes on in this movie: experience drives the main character into a state of innocence. She's lost, vulnerable, and unable to make decisions for herself in order to find what's best in the end all due to the fact that the knowledge she has gained about the world around her has led to her crashing all together. All of this leads to the question of why? Is too much experience actually the problem? Should people hold onto their state of innocence for as long as they can? Or were the downfalls these characters experienced as a result to the over abundance of experience they gained throughout their lifetimes just a coincidence? Think about it, before Grendel became experienced he was happy and hopeful, which is similar to how Julia Robert's character was after she took herself out of her overly experienced situation in an attempt to empty her mind and start all over, almost as if she was trying to revert back to a period in her life where the knowledge of the harsh realities of the world wasn't something she was burdened with. Is experience a bad thing? According to the stories of these two characters the answer would appear to be yes; experience broke them down to a point of no return, to a point where they craved for the days or feelings they once had when they were naïve and blind. The stories of these two characters makes me wonder, is the shift from innocence to experience simply a cycle? Are we supposed to blossom from an innocent state to an experienced state only to empty our minds of heavy amounts of knowledge to become innocent again? Is that balance needed? Who knows. What’s seen in these stories makes one believe that experience isn’t the best thing for one in life, and that living in a state where one is filled with young hope and untainted realities is what’s best for everyone. But then again, little experience could lead to problems in the end. So which is better: being innocent or being experienced? Maybe one day the universe will figure it out. Ya feel me?