The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self

At this stage of the story, Dante is faced with an ascent up purgatory’s mountain. Beck uses this transition to move her readers from inward reflection to the first steps of outward action: “Our own purgatory requires […] adjusting our outward behavior to match new inner truths” (180).

The main course of action Beck recommends is simple: “Stop lying” (181). Rather than going along with the rules or expectations of familial or social cultures that might impinge on your pursuit of your own values and desires, Beck advises her audience to refuse to play along with the culture’s priorities. We are lying when we pretend that onerous cultural expectations are actually what we want to follow, and to live in integrity, we should abandon such duplicity. This is difficult to do, because most people will experience significant pushback from their social circles for breaking the culture’s unwritten rules. This difficulty matches Dante’s experience of purgatory, where the climb is steepest at the start.

Beck shares more of her own story, relating the difficulties she encountered when she reported her father’s abuse and took action to leave Mormonism. Using an image from Dante’s journey, in which he is able to ascend the steep slope by using his desire to fly upwards, Beck tells her readers that the only way through is to desire their freedom above all else: “In other words, the only reason Dante gets past the lowest reaches of purgatory is that he just wants it so damn much” (186, emphasis in original).