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HAPPINESS AS SEEN THROUGH THE SYMBOLS OF EATING, PRAYER, AND LOVE IN ELIZABETH GILBERT’S EAT PRAY LOVE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By Felisia Fanny Kirana Student Number: 114214112
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2016 PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI
HAPPINESS AS SEEN THROUGH THE SYMBOLS OF EATING, PRAYER, AND LOVE IN ELIZABET GILBERT’S EAT PRAY LOVE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By Felisia Fanny Kirana Student Number: 114214112
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2016
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“Happiness is choice, choose it
everyday.”– Anonymous
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FOR MY GOD WHO GIVES ME THE GREATEST FAMILY AND THE EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL F R I E N D S
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my greatest God for His blessings in my entire life. My deepest gratitude also goes to my advisor, Mr. Hirmawan
Wijanarka, for guiding me from the start to the end in finishing this thesis. I thank him for always giving me the best advices while I got confused working on my thesis.
To my co-advisor, Mr. Siswadi, I would like to express my gratitude for rechecking and improving this thesis in order to make it better. I also wish to express my gratitude to all the lecturers in English Letters Department for all the knowledge given during the last four years.
To my greatest family, my father who calls himself Mr.Mid, I thank him for always being here when I desperately need for help and for never rushing me to finish this thesis, but always says ―You are beautiful, but you will be more beautiful if you graduate soon.‖ I thank him for his kind words, those supports me so much. I thank my mother, Angela Lies, who is never absent sending me her prayer to stay strong and texting me with her spiritual words. My one and only sister, Irene Dina, thank her for being mature enough to give me advices when I am in trouble.
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I am also grateful to my best high school mates: Ajeng, Khanza, Novi, Evelyne,
Rara, Titis, and Intan who are always being here through ups and downs. To my crazy friend, Ayut, who always asks me to send my thesis progress to her email, I thank her for always checking my life, making sure that I am fine. To my college friend, Vava, the one who gives me this Eat Pray Love novel, I thank her for introducing me to this novel. To Amanda, Ester, Dita, Jere, those who are struggling in thesis, I thank them for always accompanying me to finish this thesis together in our favorite coffee shop. My ‗Sarjana Sastra‘ friends, Monika, Nonon, Regina, Alind,
Anita and all class D members, thank for encouraging me to finish this thesis soon.
My biggest thanks also go to my boyfriend, Claudius Barly, who can be my best friend at the same time.
Finally, I realize that it is not the end. This is only the beginning. I‘m just getting started to the real world and I would like to say, ―Hello, I‘m ready!‖
Felisia Fanny Kirana
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………… ii APPROVAL PAGE…………………………………………………………. iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE……………………………………………………… iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH.. v STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY………………………………………... vi MOTTO PAGE...... vii DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………………... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………… ix TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………… xi LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………….. xii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….. xiii ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………………. xiv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study …………………………………………….. 1 B. Problem Formulation ………………………………………………… 5 C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………………….... 5 D. Definition of Term ……………………………………………………. 5
CHAPTER II: REVIEW LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………………….... 8 B. Review of Related Theories …………………………………………… 10 C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………. 15
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study …………………………………………………… 17 B. Approach of the Study ………………………………………………... 18 C. Method of the Study ………………………………………………….. 20
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. The Analysis of Symbols ………….……………………………….. 22 1. Eating ……………………………………………………………….. 23 2. Prayer …………..…………………...……………………………… 28
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3. Love ….……………………………………………………………. 31 B. The Analysis of Happiness ………………………………………….... 35 1. Pleasure ………………………………………………………………. 36 a. Pleasure in Italy ..………………………………………………… 36 b. Pleasure in India .…………………………………………………. 38 c. Pleasure in Indonesia ….…………………………………………. 40 2. Engagement ………………………………………………………….. 42 a. Engagement in Italy ……………………………………………... 42 b. Engagement in India ………………………………...…………… 44 c. Engagement in Indonesia ……………………………………… 45 3. Meaning ……………………………………………………………… 45 a. Meaning in Italy …………………...…….……………………….. 46 b. Meaning in India …………..…….……………………………... 48 c. Meaning in Indonesia …………….……………………………... 50
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION …………………………………………… 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………... 56
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ABSTRACT
KIRANA, FELISIA FANNY. Happiness as Seen through the Symbols of Eating, Prayer, and Love in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
The object of the thesis is the novel Eat Pray Love. It was written by Elizabeth Gilbert in 2006 as a book of her spiritual journey. Eat Pray Love consists of 108 chapters and 445 pages.
There are two objectives of this study. The first objective is to reveal the symbols of eating, prayer, and love in this novel. The second objective is to find how the symbols of eating, prayer, and love reflect happiness.
The method utilized by the writer in analyzing this novel is library research. The primary source is the novel Eat Pray Love. The secondary sources are taken from books and articles related to the theory that the thesis uses which are theory about structuralism and theory about happiness. The other sources are taken from some websites that discuss several studies related with this thesis.
The result of the analysis is that the symbols found which are eating, prayer, and love in this novel reflect happiness for Gilbert. Happiness is seen in the activities that Gilbert has done; eating, praying, and loving. Those three activities are related with Seligman‘s authentic happiness theory which is pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Thus, through the symbols of eating, prayer, and love during Gilbert‘s journey in the three countries; Italy, India, and Indonesia, happiness are found.
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ABSTRAK
KIRANA, FELISIA FANNY. Happiness as Seen through the Symbols of Eating, Prayer, and Love in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016.
Objek dari skripsi ini adalah novel berjudul Eat Pray Love. Novel ini ditulis oleh Elizabeth Gilbert pada tahun 2006 sebagai buku dari perjalanan spiritualnya. Eat Pray Love terdiri dari 108 bab dan 445 halaman.
Ada dua tujuan dalam penulisan skripsi ini. Tujuan yang pertama adalah untuk menunjukan simbol eating, prayer, dan love dalam novel ini. Tujuan yang kedua adalah menemukan bagaimana simbol-simbol eating, prayer, dan love mencerminkan kebahagiaan.
Metode yang digunakan penulis dalam menganalisis novel ini adalah studi pustaka. Sumber primer yang digunakan adalah novel Eat Pray Love. Sumber-sumber sekunder yang digunakan diperoleh dari buku-buku dan artikel-artikel terkait dengan teori yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini yaitu teori mengenai strukturalis dan teori mengenai kebahagiaan. Sumber-sumber lain yang digunakan diperoleh dari halaman web yang membahas tentang studi-studi yang terkait dengan skripsi ini.
Hasil dari skripsi ini adalah simbol-simbol eating, prayer, dan love mencerminkan kebahagiaan bagi Gilbert. Kebahagiaan terlihat pada aktivitas yang Gilbert lakukan, yaitu makan, doa, dan cinta. Tiga kegiatan tersebut berkesinambungan dengan teori kebahagiaan oleh Seligman yaitu pleasure, engagement, dan meaning. Maka, melalui simbol eating, prayer, dan love selama perjalanan Gilbert di tiga negara; Itali, India, dan Indonesia, kebahagiaan tersebut ditemukan.
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Happiness in our culture is commonly believed that it is achieved when we become rich, powerful, or popular. In fact the rich, powerful, and popular people still have problems in their life that makes them unhappy. One reason that makes them unhappy is people have so much trouble attaining happiness, people have no idea about what happiness is. Thus people often seek happiness by removing all stress, sadness, and irritations.
The happiness seeker often makes so many efforts to feel the well being life.
As in the novel Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Gilbert as the main character in the novel searches her happiness by travelling across the three countries: Italy,
India, Indonesia. Liz Gilbert in this novel is very interesting to be analyzed because in general, women are not brave and even too scared to take the risks. But in this novel the main character, Liz, gives a different picture. Liz proved that she has a right to express her freedom in looking for her happiness. According to that, this research wants to reveal the happiness perspectives from Gilbert‘s experiences through the symbols eating that she got in Italy, symbol prayer in
India, and symbol love in Indonesia.
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Each of the country that she visited symbolizes happiness for her. When living in Italy she defines it as pleasure. She comes to Italy in order to experience pleasure and to pursue her own happiness. She finds her happiness there in food, in simple preparation of ordinary meals and yet so simple amount of pleasure:
How do I define pleasure?‖… Everything changed. Everything became... delicious... I found that all I really wanted was to eat beautiful food… That was it. I passed a few hours once in the middle of October that might look like nothing much to the outside observer, but which I will always count amongst the happiest of my life… Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule (Gilbert,2010:82). Liz Gilbert finds out her simply happiness by eating the food that she found out in Italy. It is clearly stated in the novel about the food that she ate. Those were pasta, gelato, and pizza when she visited Naples. All about foods that give her pleasure, it is about eating. Pursuing pleasure, therefore, is a viable option for increasing long-term well-being (Seligman, 2010:254). So she finds out her pleasure there.
Next when she is in India, she feels peaceful with meditation and inner peace through acceptance, that is all about prayer that she got from India. ―…We don‘t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace‖ (Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006:161). It shows an inner peace which is actually on herself then she finally finds out the meaning of her life. The meaning in life is an indicator of well being life and happiness. Based on Seligman, the final pathway suggested pursuing happiness through meaning. Theorists and researchers have often proposed that finding meaning in one‘s life is an important determinant of psychological well being.
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In Indonesia, the final destination of Liz is to find out the engagement of life, her lover there.
One by one, the thoughts and memories of sadness raised their hands, stood up to identify themselves. I looked at each thought, at each unit of sorrow, and I acknowledge its existence and felt its horrible pain. And then I would tell that sorrow ―It‘s ok. I love you. I accept you. Come into my heart now. It‘s over.‖ I would actually feel the sorrow (Gilbert, 2010:436).
It is about how Liz finally deals with herself which is for a long time she has problems in her life. She just worries too much and runs away from the reality.
Now she finally ends up finding balance in her life. That balance is to be with a man, Felipe. It is a sign that Liz makes an alternative route to well being through engaging in activities that are engrossing and absorbing. It is state that has deemed flow, that flow leads to long term well being. That flow to be with a man that she loves.
A further reason to conduct this research is another interesting fact about this novel that it was created based on real life experiences of the writer, Elisabeth
Gilbert. She wrote this novel due to the life problems that she faced. Even though
Gilbert could get what she wanted in life including a husband, a good career, and a good health. But instead of feeling content and happy, she did not feel any joy inside of herself. She went through a divorce, and then it is followed by Gilbert‘s affair with another guy, another failed love, and she felt depressed and unhappy about her life. Then all those problems lead her to travel around the three countries as the effort to unleash her burden, search for happiness.
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The happiness is achieved in the three countries that Gilbert visited. The three countries above indicates the pathway for Liz to pursue her happiness because in those three countries contain a symbolic meaning for Liz Gilbert‘s happiness. The symbolic meaning in Eat Pray Love novel is studied to find the happiness with the paths to achieve it. The paths that indicate the happiness life are found in
Seligman theory about authentic happiness which is pleasure, engagement, and meaning.
Seligman (2002) noted three distinct pathways to well-being:pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Behaviors that fall under each pathway contribute to individual‘s well-being, but often people must make trade-offs between activities (e.g., the most meaningful activity may not be the most pleasurable) or rely on one pathway and neglect another. Seligman (2002) argues that the pursuit of all the three pathways is important to live the ‗full life‘ (Seligman, 2010:253).
As seen in Seligman theory, the action that is done by the main character of
Eat Pray Love indicates the behavior to pursue the happiness. In glance, the title itself Eat Pray Love symbolizes each country where the main character, Gilbert, stays and finds out the happiness in each country. Eating, prayer, and love symbolize happiness because they contain the three indicators of authentic happiness that is proposed by Seligman; pleasure, engagement, and meaning.
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B. Problem Formulation
In order to analyze the orientation of happiness in Liz Gilbert‘s novel, here are the research questions:
1. How are the symbols eating, prayer, and love in Eat Pray Love
presented?
2. How do the symbols of eating, prayer, and love reflect happiness?
C. Objectives of the Study
This research aims to find the relation between the symbols in the novel with the happiness which is contained in the symbols. The purpose of this research is to explain and give answers of the two problem formulation that are stated above.
The first objective is to reveal the symbols eating, prayer, and love in this novel.
The researcher can find how the symbols eating, prayer, and love presented through the action; eat, pray, and love in this novel which holds more meaning.
The second objective is to find how the symbols eating, prayer, and love reflect happiness. The researcher analyses the symbols showing happiness.
D. Definition of Terms
This part contains some definitions of key terms related to this study. They are the explanations of some terms to avoid misunderstanding on certain terms and to make this study more understandable. The first term used in this research is happiness. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines happiness as a state
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of well being or contentment, a pleasurable or satisfying experience. The philosophers often define happiness in terms of living a good life. Happiness has also been defined as a state of well-being, characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy (http://www.islamreligion.com).
The second term is symbol. Symbol, in the broadest use of the term, is anything which signifies something else; in this sense, all words are symbols. As commonly used in criticism, however, "symbol" is applied only to a word or phrase signifying an object which itself has significance; that is, the object referred to have a range of meaning beyond itself. Some symbols are
"conventional," or "public"; thus "the Cross," "the Red, White, and Blue," "the
Good Shepherd" are terms which signify objects of which the symbolic meanings are widely known (Rinehart, 1957: 18).
The third term discusses the definition of eating, prayer, love. The definition of eating while reading Purge: Rehab Diaries by Nicole Johns, about the author‘s experiences in an eating disorder center. It came across the following definition of normal eating. It was created by Ellyn Satter, an expert on eating and feeding.
Satter writes:
Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful (http://psychcentral.com).
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In short, the eating definition is related with pleasure in the novel when the main character takes her food, ―…because they taste so wonderful.‖ Like Satter said.
Next is the term prayer. According to Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha
Thera:
If prayer is necessary, it should be to strengthen the mind and not to beg for gains. The following prayer of a well-known poet, teaches us how to pray, Buddhists will regard this as meditation to cultivate the mind: Let me not pray to be sheltered from danger, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but for the patience to win my freedom (http://www.budsas.org).
It emphasizes that prayer gives strength to face all the problems like Gilbert done in this novel.
The last term is love. A more modern philosopher, Michael Boylan, discusses his idea of love in his book The Good, The True and The Beautiful. He states that love is an action, and the concept leads us to change and grow as human beings.
―Love is a powerful motivator for being good. The affective part of the good will is no poor sister to the rational. It can be an effective guide to good action‖
(Chapman, 2011:23).
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
A novel by Elizabeth Gilbert Eat Pray Love is a contemporary novel, published in 2006 as the first edition. Eat Pray Love has ever been researched on feminism approach. It was conducted by Natalia Herawati Sitorus. In her thesis entitled The Pursuit of Self Identity Using Feminism in The Movie of ―EAT
PRAY LOVE‖ by Ryan Murphy. The problems which are analyzed are the process of Liz Gilbert in finding her self identity and what Liz got after the process. The analysis is based on the feminism theory by Simone De Beauvoir about sex and identity. Natalia Herawati Sitorus using the qualitative method in her research to find the result of the analysis. It is formed through her travel around the world in three places, Italy, India and Bali. Therefore, Liz Gilbert in
Natalia Herawati‘s thesis is reflected a feminist character by Simone De Beauvoir
(http://eprints.binus.ac.id/).
Another study about this novel was conducted by Mahirana Siti Zenab entitled Self-Actualization of The Main Character in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray
Love. In her thesis she made psychology analysis especially on needs theory by
Abraham Maslow which consists of D-needs (Deficit needs) and B-needs (Being needs) or self-actualization. In the novel, the researcher finds the psychological symptoms experienced by Elizabeth in the process of finding her life balance.
That is the process of achieving self-actualization level. The four basic needs (D- needs) that she has completes are physiological needs, safety needs, belonging
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needs, and esteem needs. Those four stages that make Liz can find what actually she wants, the balance of pleasure and solemnity in her life
(http://digilib.unimus.ac.id/).
Another thesis that is relevant to this study was written by Senja Pratiwi in
Eat Pray Love (2010) which covers the analysis of semantic features in the translation of negative emotion lexicon by applying the NSM. Realizing the importance of transferring emotion in translation, her study is focused on the translation of the English emotion lexicon in Eat, Pray, Love into Makan, Doa,
Cinta by applying the natural semantic metalanguage approach (NSM) proposed by Wierzbicka (1996). The discussion includes the identification of the category of emotion concepts and the semantic features of the emotion lexicon. This study also discusses the techniques of translation applied by the translator in translating emotion concepts in Eat, Pray, Love into Makan, Doa, Cinta. The theory of translation techniques used in this study was proposed by Molina and Albir (2002)
(http://www.pps.unud.ac.id).
Compared to those three previous studies, it can be known that the strength of this study is in terms of the scope of structuralism which covers all explanation of the symbols from the beginning until the end of story that is related with her struggle in searching for happiness. The structuralism analysis of Eat Pray Love makes this research different from Natalia Herawati Sitorus‘ research. By conducting this research, the researcher offers a different view that the novel entitled Eat Pray Love can be studied by structuralism approach. This analysis focuses on symbols where all the symbols are found during her journey in looking
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for happiness. Gilbert‘s journey to new places symbolizes happiness in her real life. Another different theory that is used is the indicator of authentic happiness that is proposed by Seligman (2010:253–263).
B. Review of Related Theories
On this analysis, the writes provides some theories in order to answer the problem formulation. There are two theories, the first theory is about the intrinsic element of the novel which is symbol and the second one is theory about authentic happiness by Seligman.
1. Theory of Symbol
The symbols in this novel represents the title itself Eat, Pray, Love. Eating refers to Italy where Gilbert found out delicious foods there. Prayer refers to India where she found out the inner peace and spiritual teacher. Last the word love refers to Indonesia, the place where she met her lover. Thus the symbols of this novel affect the orientation of the main character due to the main character‘s searching for happiness across the three countries.
Based on Arp and Johnson in the explanation on Symbol, Allegory, and
Fantasy, symbol is one of many techniques available to authors to compress their works yet still leave resounding effect to the readers. He noted the increase of
―emotional force‖ and ―resonance of a story‖ being accomplished by the use of the aforementioned techniques (2006: 274). According to Arp and Johnson, a literary symbol is something that means more than what it suggests on the surface.
It may be an object, a person, a situation, an action, or some other element that has literal meaning in the story but that suggests or represents other meaning as well
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(2006: 274). Thus, it may be inferred that it is not an arbitrary or random task to determine certain things as symbols, as Arp and Johnson puts it, ―the ability to recognize and identify symbols requires perception and tact‖ (2006: 279).
The ability to interpret symbols is essential for a full understanding on literature. Realizing this, he provides some guideline for readers to follow in attempt to identify symbols used in a literary text. The followings are the cautions
Arp and Johnson suggested the readers to pay attention to:
a. ―Symbols nearly always signal their existence by emphasis, repetition, and position” (Arp and Johnson, 2006: 280). What are meant by ―emphasis and repetition‖ is clear through the sense they give, which is numerous or continual mentions of an item may suggest that it is symbolic. The same goes for ―position‖, it means that for an item to be called a symbol, it might be ―given prominence at the beginning of the story, the climax, or the end of the story‖ (Arp and Johnson,
2006: 280).
b. ―The meaning of a literary symbol must be established and supported by the entire context of the story‖ (Arp and Johnson, 2006: 280). Therefore, if the alleged symbols do not have meaning inside instead of outside of the story, one should be reluctant to say them as symbols.
Unlike the other three essays in the Anatomy, Frye's theory of symbols is oriented toward an analysis of criticism. "Phases" are contexts within which literature can be interpreted; they are primarily meant to describe critical procedures rather than literary types; in short, they represent methods for analyzing symbolic meaning. "Symbol" is the first of three basic categories Frye
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uses to differentiate the five phases. Here we encounter the breadth of reference and unconventional usage so often found in Frye's work; for in the Second Essay
"symbol" is used to mean "any unit of literary structure which can be isolated for critical attention". This broad definition permits Frye to associate the appropriate kind of symbolism with each phase, and thereby define the phase at the highest level of generality. The symbol used as a sign results in the descriptive phase; as motif, in the literal phase; as image, in the formal phase; as archetype, in the mythical phase; and as monad, in the anagogic phase (Robert D. Denham, 64).
The pointers above suggest that in order for a detail to be taken symbolically, readers must render it by clues provided by the text itself. Thus, finding symbols that are nonexistence is the same as perverting the meaning of a text. Both overstating and understating a significant detail are not suggested in the attempt of symbol identification and analysis.
2. Theory of Happiness
Second the theory of happiness is needed to support this study. That theory is connected with the search for happiness of the main character which is symbolized in the words eating, prayer, and love. By studying the indicators of happiness from Seligman‘s theory then relating what happiness is from Gilbert‘s perspective.
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Seligman‘s (2002) authentic happiness theory posits three distinct pathways to well-being: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Each pathway is neither sufficient nor redundant; therefore necessitating cultivation of each to achieve the full life. Empirical work has demonstrated that these pathways are indeed distinct, as each pathway is a unique predictor of life satisfaction, and that the presence of all the three is associated with the highest levels of life satisfaction (Seligman,
2007). This supports Seligman‘s (2002) notion that a ‗full life‘ consists of experiencing positive emotions, pursuing engagement, and obtaining meaning.
Here are each of these pathways and how they may contribute to happiness.
a. Pleasure
The link between pursuing pleasure and well-being is clear using a definition of well-being. More experienced pleasure is equivalent to higher well-being.
Experiencing frequent positive emotions is related to long-term levels of positive emotions as well as other aspects of well-being. Daily experiences of positive emotions correlate strongly with reflections of how much positive emotion was experienced during that time period. Indeed, the relationship between mean state positive affect and general mood positive affect are large. Frequent experience of positive emotions is also related to higher levels of life satisfaction. Pursuing pleasure, therefore, is a viable option for increasing long-term well-being.
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b. Engagement
An alternative route to well-being is through engaging in activities that are engrossing and absorbing, a state that has deemed ‗flow‘. Although the subjective experience during these states is void of emotion, on reflection, people report that these situations are enjoyable. Flow also transforms important yet mundane tasks into interesting activities. For example, creating a game from one‘s math homework by seeing how many problems one could solve in 30 min makes the assignment feel less bothersome and increases intrinsic motivation. Flow states, therefore, may lead to long-term well-being through promoting positive resources, such as nurturing talents, cultivating interest, and honing skills. We would therefore expect that individuals who endorse frequently entering flow are more productive and achieve higher levels of success. Some preliminary evidence supports this as those who frequently experience flow persistent longer on tasks and there-fore achieve better outcomes.
c. Meaning
The final pathway suggested by Seligman (2002) is to pursue happiness through meaning. Theorists and researchers have often proposed that finding meaning in one‘s life is an important determinant of psychological well-being.
Meaning allows one to transcend oneself, either through promoting positive social relationships or connecting to a higher power or purpose (Seligman, 2002). An individual achieves meaning in life when his or her life is experienced as
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purposeful, significant, and understandable. This sense of purpose provides individuals with goals that guide action and promote well-being.
C. Theoretical Framework In order to answer the research questions that are stated in the previous chapter, some theories are needed. They are the theory of symbol and the theory of happiness by Seligman in Pursuit of Pleasure, Engagement, and Meaning.
First, to answer the first of the research question, theory of symbol is used to know what are the symbols in the story that becomes important part in this study.
In Eat Pray Love, the researcher finds out that the three countries reveal the symbolic meaning to the story. Thus, theory of symbols is needed. Arp and
Johnson‘s theory on Symbols is chosen since the theory provides the pointers to find the symbols employed in a novel. After identifying the so called ―alleged‖ symbols, one needs to observe if their meanings are ―established and supported by the entire context of the story‖ (Arp and Johnson, 2006: 280). If the alleged symbols do not have meaning inside instead of outside of the story, one should be reluctant to say them as symbols.
Second, in answering the research question number two, the writer needs the theory of happiness that is proposed by Seligman to relate the connection between the symbol of eating, prayer, and, love with the three indicators of happiness.
According to Seligman, this supports his notion that a ‗full life‘ consists of experiencing positive emotions, pursuing engagement, and obtaining meaning
(Seligman, 2002; 253).
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Moreover the theory of happiness that is indicated with the three pathways helps the writer to examine the symbols in the novel that reflects happiness. The three pathways of happiness are proposed by Seligman. They are revealed in the words eating, prayer, and love that the main character got while doing a journey across the three countries.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
Eat Pray Love is a novel written by Elizabeth Gilbert, published by the Penguin
Group in February 2006 as its first edition. Gilbert wrote this novel during her journey across the three countries; Italy, India, and Indonesia. Eat Pray Love as a
New York Times best seller novel for over 200 weeks, is also made into a film by the same name Eat Pray Love (http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/).
In 2010, the film adaption by Columbia Pictures was directed by Ryan Murphy and starred Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, Javier Bardem as Felipe, James Franco as David Piccolo, Richard Jenkins as Richard from Texas, and Billy Crudup as
Steven. The success of Eat Pray Love brought the novel into over ten million copies and got the first position on the Booksense Paperback Nonfiction List for over a year
(http://www.imdb.com/title).
This novel is about a woman‘s search for everything across Italy, India, and
Indonesia. The main character in the novel, Elizabeth Gilbert, tells how she made the difficult choices to leave modern American success including marriage, house, and a successful career as a writer and find out what she truly wanted in life by doing the journey across the three countries. The countries that Gilbert visited are symbolized through the title of the novel Eat Pray Love. Gilbert spent four months in Italy, eating
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and enjoying life, so eating represents Italy. Then she spent three months in India finding her spirituality through praying, the word praying in the title symbolize activity she has done in India. Gilbert ended the year in Indonesia looking for balance in life and felt in love with a Brazilian businessman, thus love is found in Indonesia.
Elizabeth Gilbert‘s Eat Pray Love reflects the way of Gilbert in searching her happiness from life through the eating activity, the prayer, and the love. Those three things symbolize happiness for Gilbert based on Seligman‘s theory of authentic happiness. Seligman‘s theory reveals that happiness is achieved when the three indicators are found; pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Thus, the writer concludes that Gilbert finds her happiness by examining the three indicators in her eating activity, prayer, and love.
B. Approach of the Study
After knowing the object of the study, the writer needs to determine the approach of the study to answer the formulated research questions. The approach that is used in this study is structuralism which is focused on the content of the symbolic meaning in the novel. The reason for the appropriateness of structuralism as the approach lies in the Saussure‘s statement. According to Saussure, a key figure in the development of modern approaches to language study, the meanings of words are relational. That is to say, no word can be defined in isolation from other words. The definition of any
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given word depends upon its relation with other adjoining words. This relational aspect of language gave rise to a famous remark of Saussure‘s: ‗In a language there are only differences, without fixed terms‘. For Saussure, language constitutes our world; it does not just record it or label it. Meaning is always attributed to the object or idea by the human mind, and constructed by and expressed through language: it is not already contained within the thing (Barry, 2002:41-43).
So structuralist‘s thinking stressed on the structuralist‘s comments on structure, symbol, and design, become paramount, and are the main focus of the commentary
(Barry, 2002:52). Based on that reason, structuralism is the most suitable approach for this study since it attempts to see the object of the study through the symbolic meaning. The symbolic meaning in this novel leads to observe the words eating, prayer, and love as the indicators of happiness, correlated with the theory of happiness by Seligman.
Seligman defines the happiness is reached as seen in the Eat Pray Love’s symbols, thus structuralism becomes the most suitable tool in this study correlated with Saussure‘s statement in structuralism ―Language constitutes the world‖ (Barry,
2002:43). Language that is used in Eat Pray Love constitutes the deeper meaning about happiness that has been through by Gilbert. The appropriateness of structuralism as the approach also lies in the Selden‘s statement that ―At the heart of structuralism is the scientific ambition to discover the codes, the rule, the systems, which underlie all human social and cultural practices‖ (Selden, 2005: 90). The codes
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discovered in the novel gives the larger meaning for the main character‘s life in searching happiness. That larger meaning for the main character is found through cultural practices that are done in the three countries. Selden‘s statement is also restated by Barry saying that structuralists regard the containing structure as the most important activity than the close analysis of the literary work itself since they believed that one must see a literary text ―in the context of the larger structure they are part of‖ to understand the text (Barry, 2002: 39-40). For those reasons, structuralism is the most suitable approach for this research because it attempts to see the object of the study through the symbols in this novel which contains some indicators of the happiness‘ theory.
C. Method of the Study
This research is a library research because the writer uses the sources or references based on some printed or electronic sources without going to the field and collecting data using questionnaires. The primary source that the writer uses is Eat
Pray Love novel by Elizabeth Gilbert and the secondary sources that are used are some books and websites related to this study based on the same topic of this research.
There were five steps taken by the writer in this research. The first step was reading the novel as the object of the study in order to understand the novel deeply.
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The second step was finding out the symbols in Eat Pray Love novel from the first place Italy, India, and ended in Indonesia to examine the symbol of eating, prayer, and love. The third step was studying some related studies having Eat Pray Love as their object. This step was done to know which areas of study had been taken and which had not, thus the writer can emphasize on the new area which had not been studied before. The fourth step was collecting some theories about symbols from some books and websites that related to this study. Symbolism is used in this research to answer the first problem formulation stated above. After the theories of symbols were collected, this study needs to be completed with theories of happiness purposed by Seligman. The happiness theory was needed to answer the second problem formulation in this research. That theory was related with the symbols in the novel as the indicators of happiness. Each symbol in this novel was a sign of happiness life that is achieved by the main character. The fifth step was making the conclusion from the analysis of the two research question in the previous chapter.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this part of study, the writer wants to analyze the answers for the two problem formulation mentioned above. The analysis is divided into two parts based on each problem to answer each of them. In the first part, structuralism which is focused on the content of the symbolic meaning in the novel is needed because in the first part of analysis is to answer how the symbols eating, prayer, and love in Eat Pray Love are presented while the second part is to answer the second problem formulation which is how the symbols of eating, prayer, and love reflect happiness.
A. Analysis of Symbols
According to Robert and Jacobs, a symbol is a person, thing, place, action, situation, or even thought. It possesses its own reality and meaning and may function at the normal level of reality within story (Robert and Jacobs, 1987:279). In this first analysis, the symbol found; eating, prayer, and love through the place, action, or even thought that is stated by Robert and Jacobs. That theory is supported by Saussure in the scope of structuralism that language is arbitrary, relational, and constitutive.
This study only focuses on the language that is constitutive. It means to say that no word can be defined in isolation from other words. The definition of any given word depends upon its relation with other adjoining words. This relational aspect of language gave rise to a famous remark of Saussure‘s: ‗In a language there are only
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differences, without fixed terms‘. For Saussure, language constitutes our world; it does not just record it or label it. Meaning is always attributed to the object or idea by the human mind, and constructed by and expressed through language: it is not already contained within the thing (Barry, 2002:41-43) Saussure‘s statement suits to the symbols in the novel that has meaning in constituting Gilbert‘s world. Hence, the first analysis goes to the first country Gilbert visited which is Italy.
I. Eating
The first place that Gilbert visited is Italy. In Italy she found out the things that symbolizes happiness for her. Those ―the things‖ of happiness that Gilbert got in Italy are classified into two major, language and food. Food comes along with the action that is done by Gilbert, which is eating. As mentioned above in the first problem formulation, the word eating as a symbol found for Gilbert and here is the explanation.
Gilbert‘s feeling of contentment since a few weeks she was living in Italy after having meal she ate in Rome. ―After the spaghetti, I tried the veal. Oh, and also I drank a bottle of house red, just for me. And ate some warm bread, with olive oil and salt. Tiramisu for dessert (Gilbert, 2006:45).
In a few weeks after living in Italy and eating some food in Italy, Gilbert is experiencing the state of being contented or satisfied. The contentment feeling she had after enjoying some meals in Italy. Then Gilbert finds out and realizes that Italy is a pleasure for her, meaning to say that Italy is a place that provides a source of
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happiness through eating. Everything that she experienced in Italy turns into something delicious; it is the word for Italy in Gilbert‘s opinion. ―Everything became
. . . delicious‖ (Gilbert, 2006:82).
Every meal that Gilbert ate is giving her happiness. She described her meal as something pretty and enjoyed every bite of the meal that she ate while reading Italian newspaper.
Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule (Gilbert, 2006:84).
The happiness feeling while enjoying meal makes Gilbert love the meal so much.
Besides spaghetti, she also loves pizza as she said ―I am having a relationship with this pizza‖ (Gilbert, 2006:105). It proves her love to the Italian food so much.
Happiness really inhabited Gilbert‘s molecule, it sees when she was in the best pizzeria in Naples, she looked herself in the mirror and saw a happy face of her. ―I see a bright-eyed, clear-skinned, happy and healthy face. I haven‘t seen a face like that on me for a long time‖ (Gilbert, 2006:107).
Moreover happiness always comes when Gilbert sees another Italian food and describes them in a delicate way. She describes the gelato in Bologna that is better than in Rome, also the pizzas with mushrooms that are like big thick sexy tongues and prosciutto that drapes over it like a fine lace veil draping over a fancy lady‘s hat.
In addition the Bolognese sauce there is the best in Italy.
The food is definitely better here than in Rome, or maybe they just use more butter. Even the gelato in Bologna is better (and I feel somewhat disloyal saying
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that, but it‘s true). The mushrooms here are like big thick sexy tongues, and the prosciutto drapes over pizzas like a fine lace veil draping over a fancy lady‘s hat. And of course there is the Bolognese sauce, which laughs disdainfully at any other idea of a ragù (Gilbert, 2006:130-131).
The way Gilbert delivers her idea about the foods that she ate in Bologna is a proof that she is happy enjoying the foods that she had in Italy. Adding by some explanation of Gilbert while eating pasta in Italy shows that the meal she has eaten is amazing.
I am busily eating the hands-down most amazing meal I‘ve eaten yet in all of Italy. It‘s pasta, but a shape of pasta I‘ve never before seen—big, fresh, sheets of pasta folded ravioli-like into the shape (if not exactly the size) of the pope‘s hat, stuffed with a hot, aromatic puree of crustaceans and octopus and squid, served tossed like a hot salad with fresh cockles and strips of julienned vegetables, all swimming in an olivey, oceany broth. Followed by the rabbit, stewed in thyme (Gilbert, 2006:149).
As mentioned above that eating Italian food is the source of happiness for Gilbert and learning Italian language either is the source of happiness for her. Gilbert finds out that Italian language is interesting to learn. She enjoys every detail about Italian language by learning Italian dictionary. The new words that she got makes her feeling a brand new and successfully give happiness, she finally laughs, leaves her sorrow of bad divorce.
But I loved it. Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me. I would slosh home through the rain after class, draw a hot bath, and lie there in the bubbles reading the Italian dictionary aloud to myself, taking my mind off my divorce pressures and my heartache. The words made me laugh in delight (Gilbert, 2006:30).
Italian language is such a symbol of happiness for Gilbert when she was in Italy.
She finds out that Italian language gives her pleasure like she said that every word
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was a singing sparrow. The words bring her happiness because she can laugh after reading the Italian dictionary.
Gilbert expresses her happiness by learning Italian language. She enjoys learning the words that what makes her feeling happy, as she said ―Just speaking these words made me feel sexy and happy‖ (Gilbert, 2006:30).
Italian language also makes Gilbert feeling sexy. It seems giving her courage and confident of herself thus bring happiness to her by speaking those Italian words.
Before leaving for Italy, Gilbert usually cried and worried while laying down in her bed, but now she feels fine. She feels happiness, the felling of contentment. ―I felt fine. I felt the early symptoms of contentment‖ (Gilbert, 2006:46).
The feeling of contentment that she experiences after learning Italian language because she thinks that Italian language is beautiful. ―As I will find out over the next few months, there are actually some good reasons that Italian is the most seductively beautiful language in the world‖ (Gilbert, 2006:57).
Gilbert considers Italian language is a beautiful language, in the way Italian language makes her happy. She emphasizes on how Italian language is beautiful:
Everybody, even the uptight German engineer, shares what I thought was my own personal motive: we all want to speak Italian because we love the way it makes us feel. A sad-faced Russian woman tells us she‘s treating herself to Italian lessons because ―I think I deserve something beautiful.‖ The German engineer says, ―I want Italian because I love the dolce vita‖—the sweet life (Gilbert, 2006:57).
Both German engineer and Russian woman loves Italian language, inevitably
Italian language is beautiful like Gilbert have said. How Italian language makes them
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feel the sweet life. Even Gilbert is alone in Italy, she feels the sweet and romantic scene in Italy. She feels contented by hearing the sweet expression in Italian language; Bel far niente means ―the beauty of doing nothing.‖ There‘s another wonderful Italian expression: l‘arte d‘arrangiarsi—the art of making something out of nothing. Those two expressions emphasize that we don‘t need to be rich to experience those expression, we just need to be happy for that. ―Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich.‖ (Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006:80-81) Besides those two expression, Gilbert also loves the word ―attraversiamo‖ that means ―let‘s cross the street‖. She just loves this word because to her ear, this word is just the perfect combination of Italian language. ―The wistful ah of introduction, the rolling trill, the soothing s, that lingering ―ee-ah-moh‖ combo at the end. I love this word‖
(Gilbert, 2006:95).
Those Italian languages give Gilbert happiness. She counts the months when she is in Italy as the happiest time in her life because she can experience both eating and learning Italian language which are the source of her happiness.
So I declared a double major, really—in speaking and in eating. The amount of pleasure this eating and speaking brought to me was inestimable, and yet so simple. I passed a few hours once in the middle of October that might look like nothing much to the outside observer, but which I will always count amongst the happiest of my life (Gilbert, 2006:83).
Gilbert had a correlation between eating and speaking based on Italian. ―Parla come magni.‖ It means, ―Speak the way you eat,‖ or, in her personal translation: ―Say it like you eat it.‖ It gives her reminder to keep her language as simple and direct as
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Roman food. ―Don‘t make a big production out of it. Just lay it on the table‖ (Gilbert,
2006:115).
The first major of Gilbert‘s happiness lays on the Italian food and it is supported by Italian language. She finds out something beautiful in studying Italian language.
Both food and language are what she is searching for: happiness.
But I felt a glimmer of happiness when I started studying Italian, and when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt—this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight (Gilbert, 2006:154).
No matter how slight the happiness is, at least Gilbert makes her way to find it.
Finally she gets it, Gilbert finds out her happiness through her eating journey in Italy.
2. Prayer
The second place that Gilbert visited is India where she was doing meditation through yoga in Ashram. Ashram is such a sacred place in India where she found out happiness. Happiness can be found through the yoga activity because in that case
Gilbert can meet God in meditation or silence. That is one of her contentment in
India.
But Yoga can also mean trying to find God through meditation, through scholarly study, through the practice of silence, through devotional service or through mantra—the repetition of sacred words in Sanskrit (Gilbert, 2006:160).
Through meditation in yoga, Gilbert can find God and feel the state of being united between her mind and body and the most important thing she can finally be united with her God.
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And the task at hand in Yoga is to find union—between mind and body, between the individual and her God, between our thoughts and the source of our thoughts, between teacher and student, and even between ourselves and our sometimes hard-to-bend neighbors (Gilbert, 2006:160).
Gilbert also meets her Guru, a spiritual teacher in Ashram, that gives her enlighten about life.
My Guru always says that only one thing will happen when you come to the Ashram—that you will discover who you really are. So if you‘re hovering on the brink of madness already, she‘d really rather you didn‘t come at all. Because, frankly, nobody wants to have to carry you out of this place with a wooden spoon clenched between your teeth (Gilbert, 2006:170).
Gilbert discovers who she really is, ―You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions‖
(Gilbert, 2006:175). It means to say that she realizes the problem of herself, the problem of thinking. Gilbert should master her thinking like her Guru said that ―You should never give yourself a chance to fall apart because, when you do, it becomes a tendency and it happens over and over again. You must practice staying strong, instead‖ (Gilbert, 2006:181). Thus Gilbert practices it that she should come with the positive though to produce the positive vibes of the life and never let the negativity affect her life. It is the key to stay strong no matter what happens, it is in the way of thinking.
Gilbert learns many things in India especially in controlling her thinking. She meets Richard in India who calls her ―Groceries‖ and also teaches her to master her thinking in order to achieve a happy life.
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Groceries, you need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you‘re gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That‘s the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you can‘t learn to master your thinking, you‘re in deep trouble forever (Gilbert, 2006:236).
Learning to control her thinking is a way that Gilbert has done in India. ―Instead of trying to forcefully take thoughts out of your mind, give your mind something better to play with. Something healthier‖ (Gilbert, 2006:186).
Well, Gilbert gives her mind something healthier through both meditation and prayer.
Meditation is the way. There‘s a difference between meditation and prayer, though both practices seek communion with the divine. I‘ve heard it said that prayer is the act of talking to God, while meditation is the act of listening (Gilbert, 2006:174).
Both talking and listening to God is something that Gilbert searching for in India
―I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water‖ (Gilbert, 2006:233). And she gets what she has been searching for in India, finding the God and she feels physically and mentally strong. ―I felt my own strength and balance‖ (Gilbert, 2006:250).
Gilbert realizes after had a long day in India that happiness she has been searching for is already in herself. Where ever you go to find happiness, you will never find it if you don‘t create it by yourself. Happiness is a choice and Gilbert decided to choose it.
We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy‘s fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, begging for pennies from every
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passerby, unaware that his fortune was right under him the whole time. Your treasure—your perfection—is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. The kundalini shakti—the supreme energy of the divine—will take you there (Gilbert, 2006:262).
The activities that she was doing in India; yoga, gurugita activity, meditation, eating healthy foods, and the bedtimes bring her to contentment and happy feeling that she has been hoping for all these months of seeking happiness.
My body felt so alive and healthy from all these months of Yoga and vegetarian food and early bedtimes. I felt so deeply, terribly happy. I thought to myself, ―Whatever this feeling is—this is what I have been praying for. And this is also what I have been praying to‖ (Gilbert, 2006:270).
And in the last night in Ashram, Gilbert feels something changes in herself. She believes the strength of prayer that she has never done before leaving for India.
Prayer changes her spiritual life. She does something good that never she has done before, the exclusive prayer for expressing her gratitude.
I‘m not a late-night person by nature, but something in me wants to stay awake for these last hours at the Ashram. There are many things in my life I‘ve stayed up all night to do—to make love, to argue with someone, to drive long distances, to dance, to cry, to worry (and sometimes all those things, in fact, in the course of one night)—but I‘ve never sacrificed sleep for a night of exclusive prayer. Why not now? (Gilbert, 2006:278).
Through prayer, Gilbert finds herself. Prayer in that case exactly symbolizes happiness for Gilbert. She changes the negative energy in her life with the positive one through prayer. She finds herself by finding God in her spiritual experiences in
India.
3. Love
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The last country goes to Indonesia where Gilbert finally found her love, her happiness for her. At the first, Gilbert comes to Bali, Indonesia, in order to see a medicine man that she met two years ago. ―But I‘m Liz. I came here asking for your help once because I wanted to get closer to God. You drew me a magic picture‖
(Gilbert, 2006:293). The medicine man named Ketut had ever made a magic picture to Gilbert. That magic picture gave Gilbert guidance in living her life.
So I describe the picture he had made for me, the figure with the four legs and the missing head and the face in the heart and he listens to me politely, with modest interest, like we‘re discussing somebody else‘s life entirely (Gilbert, 2006:293-294).
The picture with the four legs means it is so grounded on earth and the missing head means it is not looking at the world through the intellect but looking at the world through the heart as the description of the face in the heart. That picture teaches
Gilbert to live in the way Ketut described the figure he made. Be a low profile person that is still grounded on the earth and seeing the world nowadays through the heart.
Meeting the medicine man makes Gilbert get some happiness in Bali. The medicine man also teaches Gilbert about meditation.
Purpose of meditation is only happiness and peace—very easy. Today I will teach a new meditation, make you even better person. Is called Four Brothers Meditation (Gilbert, 2006:333).
Then Gilbert always practices Four Brothers Meditation that is taught by Ketut.
Every morning, I meditate while the sun comes up over the rice fields, and before bedtime I speak to my four spirit brothers and ask them to watch over me while I sleep (Gilbert, 2006:344).
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The meditation makes Gilbert feel secure because she is always watched by the spirit of four brothers who will protect her. She makes some efforts to achieve her contentment by the meditation.
Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don‘t, you will leak away your innate contentment (Gilbert, 2006:345).
She also got happiness from all people she met when she was in Bali, Indonesia.
While searching for Ketut‘s house, Gilbert rode her rented bicycle and got accident in the road. Ending up she came to the medicine woman who is famous at that place for helping Gilbert cure her wounds, named Wayan. After having a long conversation with Wayan, Gilbert realized her love to help Wayan‘s family; Wayan and Tutty who is Wayan‘s daughter. She wanted to help Wayan lives in her own house, not renting a house that does not appropriate for her and her daughter.
In short, Gilbert collected donation from all her friends all around the world through internet and she got enough money to help Wayan buying a new house for her and her daughter, Tutti. Wayan is extremely happy knowing the good news from
Gilbert. ―How can I thank you, Liz? I would give you anything. If I had husband I loved, and you needed a man, I would give you my husband‖ (Gilbert, 2006:373).
Those expression from Wayan shows how happy she is. Her Wayan‘s happiness is also happiness for Gilbert. She helped Wayan sincerely. ―Keep your husband, Wayan.
Just make sure Tutti goes to university‖ (Gilbert, 2006:373).
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Happiness really inhabited Gilbert‘s life in Bali. Her birthday was an unforgettable since Wayan and her family makes a birthday party for Gilbert in
Balinese tradition. It was the best birthday party that Gilbert had ever experienced in her whole life as she said.
My traditional Balinese clothing was squeezing me like an ardent hug, and I was feeling like this was definitely the strangest—but maybe the happiest—birthday party I‘d ever experienced in my whole life (Gilbert, 2006:407).
Ketut and Wayan, are the people that give happiness for Gilbert since she was in
Indonesia. Besides them, Gilbert also found her true love in Indonesia, the Brazilian man named Felipe. ―I am falling in love with this man. Then I fell asleep beside him and had two memorable dreams‖ (Gilbert, 2006:417).
Having a broken relationship with many men not makes Gilbert want to be involved anymore, but not with this man. The feeling for this Brazilian man comes in unexpected way when she was attending a party with Karmen, Gilbert‘s friend that also comes from Brazil.
Meeting Felipe teaches Gilbert to accept the pains that she has ever experienced with the previous relationship. She is not afraid anymore to be in love, both to be loved and loves someone. Felipe brings a new love for her.
I looked at each thought, at each unit of sorrow, and I acknowledged its existence and felt (without trying to protect myself from it) its horrible pain. And then I would tell that sorrow, ―It‘s OK. I love you. I accept you. Come into my heart now. It‘s over‖ (Gilbert, 2006:436).
The misery that ever came to her life is over now. The painful memory that was in her mind is finished now. ―I did this with every sorrowful thought I‘d ever had—
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reaching back into years of memory—until nothing was left‖ (Gilbert, 2006:436).
Felipe is a love that brings her a complete happiness.
I am happy and healthy and balanced. And, yes, I cannot help but notice that I am sailing to this pretty little tropical island with my Brazilian lover. Which is—I admit it!—an almost ludicrously fairy-tale ending to this story, like the page out of some housewife‘s dream (Gilbert, 2006:438).
Gilbert truly finds out happiness by loving all these people that she meets in
Indonesia. Moreover the last one is Felipe that takes her to fairy tale ending. It is not
Felipe that saves her from all the bad memories, but Gilbert‘s choice to choose Felipe as her lover is a kind of Gilbert‘s responsibility for her own happiness. ―I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue‖ (Gilbert, 2006:439).
At last, Italy, India, and Indonesia give Gilbert happiness in each way. Eating and learning Italian language symbolizes happiness in Italy. Prayer and all the stuff of yoga and meditation gave Gilbert contentment. Finally in Indonesia through the people that she meets, Ketut, Wayan, and in the end Felipe as her lover, are the proof of Gilbert finding her happiness.
B. The Analysis of Happiness
Happiness is found in every country that Gilbert visited, in Italy, India, and
Indonesia. Italy reflects the symbol of happiness for Gilbert which is foods and Italian language. India reveals a happiness of Gilbert by praying and meditation activity.
Indonesia shows a symbol of happiness through the love for her lover and people that
Gilbert met there.
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The symbols of happiness are supported by Seligman‘s authentic happiness theory, which are pleasure, engagement, and meaning. They are the pathways for anyone who is on the way to achieve happiness. These three pathways are predictor to get the well-being life.
Three distinct pathways to well-being: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.
Empirical work has demonstrated that these pathways are indeed distinct, as each pathway is a unique predictor of life satisfaction, and that the presence of all the three is associated with the highest levels of life satisfaction (Seligman, 2010:254). Those pathways are reflected in the way Gilbert done to achieve her happiness.
1. Pleasure
The link between pursuing pleasure and well-being is clear using a definition of well-being. More experienced pleasure is equivalent to higher well-being.
Experiencing frequent positive emotions is related to long-term levels of positive emotions as well as other aspects of well-being. Daily experiences of positive emotions correlate strongly with reflections of how much positive emotion was experienced during that time period (Seligman, 2010:254). Frequent experience of positive emotions is also related to higher levels of life satisfaction. Pursuing pleasure, therefore, is a viable option for increasing long-term well-being. a. Pleasure in Italy
Daily experiences of positive emotions correlate strongly with reflections of how much positive emotion was experienced during that time period. Thus it is called pleasure. Pleasure is seen in the way Gilbert achieves happiness. In Italy, pleasure is
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reflected through the contentment feeling since a few weeks Gilbert was living there, after having meal she ate in Rome.
After the spaghetti, I tried the veal. Oh, and also I drank a bottle of house red, just for me. And ate some warm bread, with olive oil and salt. Tiramisu for dessert (Gilbert, 2006:45).
Then Gilbert realized she was in country where she can explore how to define pleasure. She explored the pleasure through the foods that she ate because in Italy everything changed. ―Everything became . . . delicious‖ (Gilbert, 2006:82).
Delicious foods are found in every food that she ate in Italy. After having spaghetti in Rome, Gilbert found that pizza in Naples is a pleasure for her.
I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair (Gilbert, 2006:105).
Gilbert‘s statement that she has relationship with pizza shows how she loves her pizza so much and the positive emotion was experienced there, it shows the higher levels of life satisfaction or well being life. That was indicated with a happy face of
Gilbert.
Still, when I look at myself in the mirror of the best pizzeria in Naples, I see a bright-eyed, clear-skinned, happy and healthy face. I haven‘t seen a face like that on me for a long time (Gilbert, 2006:107).
The happy face of Gilbert is stated by her and emphasized that Gilbert has not seen a face like that for a long time and finally in Italy by pursuing pleasure she can see her happy face. It is all because of the positive experienced of food in Italy. All her description about food indicate some pleasure found in Italy, the way she
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describes mushrooms in Bologna as big thick sexy tongues, the pizza, and Bolognese sauce are better in Bologna than in Rome shows the best experienced of foods that brings her satisfaction feeling. ―The food is definitely better here than in Rome‖
(Gilbert, 2006:130-131).
Gilbert is easily pleased by the foods in Italy, it is proved by her way describes the most amazing pasta she has never seen before; big, fresh, sheets of pasta. ―I am busily eating the hands-down most amazing meal I‘ve eaten yet in all of Italy‖
(Gilbert, 2006:149).
Besides the foods, Gilbert also finds that Italian language as a pleasure for her.
―As I will find out over the next few months, there are actually some good reasons that Italian is the most seductively beautiful language in the world‖ (Gilbert,
2006:57). The reason why Italian language is beautiful for her is the way Italian language makes her feel beautiful by speaking Italian language.
A sad-faced Russian woman tells us she‘s treating herself to Italian lessons because ―I think I deserve something beautiful.‖ The German engineer says, ―I want Italian because I love the dolce vita‖—the sweet life (Gilbert, 2006:57).
So Gilbert declares a double major, in eating and speaking, they are valuable because the amount of pleasure in eating and speaking have impacts to her. They give her experience as the happiest moment of her life.
The amount of pleasure this eating and speaking brought to me was inestimable, and yet so simple. I passed a few hours once in the middle of October that might look like nothing much to the outside observer, but which I will always count amongst the happiest of my life (Gilbert, 2006:83).
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b. Pleasure in India
India is the second country Gilbert visited during her journey to pursue happiness. Happiness is found during her spiritual journey, in there she could meet her personal spiritual teacher called Guru. Her Guru always said something powerful to encourage Gilbert spirit, as her Guru said when Gilbert was in sadness.
I was full of a hot, powerful sadness and would have loved to burst into the comfort of tears, but tried hard not to, remembering something my Guru once said—that you should never give yourself a chance to fall apart because, when you do, it becomes a tendency and it happens over and over again. You must practice staying strong, instead (Gilbert, 2006:181).
Her Guru motivation supports Gilbert to change the negative mind of herself to positive vibe which is staying strong whenever she feels her life is falling apart.
Gilberts gets positive thought when she is in India through all her daily activities such as gurugita. Back in the very first time Gilbert had difficulty to join the gurugita activity because of the mantra that is not rooted in her mind, but still she pushes herself to do that because in fact gurugita gives positive impact to her. Through gurugita, Gilbert can see her Guru‘s master who is Swamiji.
I‘m finding that all I want is Swamiji. All I feel is Swamiji. The only person I talk to in my prayers and meditations is Swamiji. It‘s the Swamiji channel, round the clock. I am in the furnace of Swamiji here and I can feel him working on me (Gilbert, 2006:221).
Gilbert can feel the strength of Swamiji works on her through gurugita. Besides gurugita, Gilbert experiences the positive activity that takes her to a well being life which is meditation in yoga. Through meditation, she can finally find God inside her.
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That is Gilbert wants in India. ―I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water‖ (Gilbert, 2006:233).
By finding God in herself, Gilbert can feel the pleasure of life that she is looking for.
I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on the palms of my bare feet. This kind of thing—a spontaneous handstand—isn‘t something a disembodied cool blue soul can do, but a human being can do it. We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That‘s our privilege. That‘s the joy of a mortal body. And that‘s why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands (Gilbert, 2006:250).
Gilbert finally can feel her own strength and balance. She realizes she can feel the joy through her hands, through herself, that is because she realizes God inside her.
The joyful life that she is looking for is actually created by herself.
Your treasure—your perfection—is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. The kundalini shakti—the supreme energy of the divine—will take you there (Gilbert, 2006:262).
You have to create your own happiness, not searching for it because happiness is already within you. And Gilbert finds her happiness by creating by herself, she abandons the ego to let the positive vibe enter into her and the supreme energy or kundalini sakti, according to her Guru, will take her to the happiness.
All those activities brings Gilbert to the feeling that she has been praying for; happiness. ―Whatever this feeling is—this is what I have been praying for. And this is also what I have been praying to‖ (Gilbert, 2006:270).
c. Pleasure in Indonesia
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A well being life is achieved by Gilbert visiting the third country during her journey. That was Indonesia, Gilbert went to Bali and she said confidently that Bali is a perfect Eden because only peace, harmony, and balance can be found there. Those were Gilbert looking for, a pleasure for living in a peace.
I‘d been telling people since I first visited Bali two years ago that this small island was the world‘s only true utopia, a place that has known only peace and harmony and balance for all time. A perfect Eden with no history of violence or bloodshed ever. I‘m not sure where I got this grand idea, but I endorsed it with full confidence (Gilbert, 2006:313). By living in Bali, Gilbert meets some people who are Wayan‘s family, a medicine woman who needs help for making her children, Tutti, living in her own house and continuing study in school.
Then she got very sober and serious again. ―How can I thank you, Liz? I would give you anything. If I had husband I loved, and you needed a man, I would give you my husband.‖ ―Keep your husband, Wayan. Just make sure Tutti goes to university‖ (Gilbert, 2006:373). Meeting Wayan‘s family is such a pleasure for Gilbert because she can be thankful for live by helping Wayan collecting money for buying a new house.
Wayan‘s happiness is Gilbert‘s happiness too.
Gilbert also feels a huge of happiness when Wayan‘s family celebrates Gilbert‘s birthday party.
My traditional Balinese clothing was squeezing me like an ardent hug, and I was feeling like this was definitely the strangest—but maybe the happiest—birthday party I‘d ever experienced in my whole life (Gilbert, 2006:407).
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She can feel a pleasure wearing traditional Balinese clothing in her birthday party. She also declares that it was the happiest birthday party she‘d ever experienced.
After meeting Wayan, Gilbert also meets a Brazilian man that she‘d never expected to be in love with, Felipe. ―I am falling in love with this man. Then I fell asleep beside him and had two memorable dreams‖ (Gilbert, 2006:417). Ended up with having a relationship with Felipe makes Gilbert‘s life contented.
I am happy and healthy and balanced. And, yes, I cannot help but notice that I am sailing to this pretty little tropical island with my Brazilian lover. Which is—I admit it!—an almost ludicrously fairy-tale ending to this story, like the page out of some housewife‘s dream (Gilbert, 2006:438). She is happy, healthy, and balanced, and they are the feelings that she is looking for, she finally feels them. By having relationship with Felipe is Gilbert‘s choice and her choice determines her happiness. Thus she creates her happiness by herself because she is the own administrator of her own rescue, she is not rescued by a prince as she said, ―I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue‖
(Gilbert, 2006:439).
2. Engagement
An alternative route to well-being is through engaging in activities that are engrossing and absorbing, a state that has deemed ‗flow‘. Flow also transforms important yet mundane tasks into interesting activities. For example, creating a game from one‘s math homework by seeing how many problems one could solve in 30 min makes the assignment feel less bothersome and increases intrinsic motivation. Flow
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states, therefore, may lead to long-term well-being through promoting positive resources, such as nurturing talents, cultivating interest, and honing skills. We would therefore expect that individuals who endorse frequently entering flow are more productive and achieve higher levels of success (Seligman, 2010:254). a. Engagement in Italy
Engagement theory means doing activity that has benefit for nurturing our well being life, by cultivating our interest can makes our life happier. And that was Gilbert done in her journey to the three countries. First, in Italy, she tries to speak Italian languages because it makes her feeling happy and sexy. ―Just speaking these words made me feel sexy and happy‖ (Gilbert, 2006:30).
Besides trying to speak in Italian, second Gilbert also learns Italian language properly by reading the Italian dictionary. She loves the activity.
But I loved it. Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me. I would slosh home through the rain after class, draw a hot bath, and lie there in the bubbles reading the Italian dictionary aloud to myself, taking my mind off my divorce pressures and my heartache. The words made me laugh in delight (Gilbert, 2006:30).
Reading Italian dictionary can make Gilbert laugh as she said the words made her laugh in delight, it shows how pleasure the language is for Gilbert.
Those two activities are included in Italian language, both learning and speaking the Italian language. Then the third activity is walking around the Villa Borghese that makes Gilbert feel contented, even she is alone by herself but she is happy anyway.
I am walking through the Villa Borghese one evening after a happy day spent in school, and the sun is setting gold over St. Peter‘s Basilica. I am feeling contented in this romantic scene, even if I am all by myself, while everyone else
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in the park is either fondling a lover or playing with a laughing child (Gilbert, 2006:60).
Fourth, the major last activity that makes Gilbert experienced pleasure is eating.
Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule (Gilbert, 2006:84).
Her description of her meal that was pretty and she ate every bite of the meal with her fingers. Then she said that happiness inhabited her every molecule. Those activities engage in her and bring happiness to her. b. Engagement in India
In India, Gilbert lives her life in a discipline habit that she has never been there before.
They want you to come here strong because Ashram life is rigorous. Not just physically, with days that begin at 3:00 AM and end at 9:00 PM, but also psychologically. You‘re going to be spending hours and hours a day in silent meditation and contemplation, with little distraction or relief from the apparatus of your own mind (Gilbert, 2006:170).
By doing that habit to start the days at 3:00 AM and end at 9:00 PM makes
Gilbert‘s life tough and strong. She engages in meditation activity that increases her happiness. By meditation Gilbert learns how to listen to God‘s answer for all the questions she‘s asking for.
Meditation is both the anchor and the wings of Yoga. Meditation is the way. There‘s a difference between meditation and prayer, though both practices seek communion with the divine. I‘ve heard it said that prayer is the act of talking to God, while meditation is the act of listening (Gilbert, 2006:174).
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Engaging in meditation activity is not a big problem for Gilbert because actually she has to deal with gurugita activity that reminds her of Swamiji, her Guru‘s master.
The biggest obstacle in my Ashram experience is not meditation, actually. That‘s difficult, of course, but not murderous. There‘s something even harder for me here. The murderous thing is what we do every morning after meditation and before breakfast (my God, but these mornings are long)—a chant called the Gurugita (Gilbert, 2006:213).
Gilbert had to wake up at 3:00 AM every morning and had meditation and then she had to do gurugita, the activity that was harder for her but finally she could pass it. Hence she found herself by doing those activities in India, she found God.
The last activity that influences Gilbert‘s life in India is prayer. Prayer is never done by her in the late night but at that time in these last hours when she was at the
Ashram India, she has stayed up all night to pray. ―I‘ve never sacrificed sleep for a night of exclusive prayer. Why not now?‖ (Gilbert, 2006:278).
c. Engagement in Indonesia
Meditation was Gilbert‘s part of life when she was in India. Then in Indonesia she still does the meditation to pursue happiness. But this meditation is a little bit different; it is called Four Brothers meditation taught by Ketut Liyer, Gilbert‘s guru in Bali, Indonesia.
―Meditation,‖ he said. ―Purpose of meditation is only happiness and peace—very easy. Today I will teach a new meditation, make you even better person. Is called Four Brothers Meditation‖ (Gilbert, 2006:333).
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Four Brothers are believed to protect us wherever we are and keep eyes on us whatever we do, so we always walk in the right path. And Gilbert did it.
Every morning, I meditate while the sun comes up over the rice fields, and before bedtime I speak to my four spirit brothers and ask them to watch over me while I sleep (Gilbert, 2006:344).
So that is why Gilbert feels secure and contented because she has four brothers who always watch over her.
3. Meaning
The final pathway suggested by Seligman (2002) is to pursue happiness through meaning. Theorists and researchers have often proposed that finding meaning in one‘s life is an important determinant of psychological well-being. Meaning allows one to transcend oneself, either through promoting positive social relationships or connecting to a higher power or purpose (Seligman, 2002). An individual achieves meaning in life when his or her life is experienced as purposeful, significant, and understandable. This sense of purpose provides individuals with goals that guide action and promote well-being (Seligman, 2010:254).
a. Meaning in Italy
An individual achieves meaning in life when his or her life is experienced as purposeful, significant, and understandable.
I waited to start crying or worrying, since that‘s what usually happened to me with the lights off, but I actually felt OK. I felt fine. I felt the early symptoms of contentment (Gilbert, 2006:46).
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The early symptoms of contentment are felt by Gilbert after experiencing many beautiful things in Italy. Gilbert achieves meaning in her life, she feels fine. Gilbert also gets meaning in her life by knowing some Italian expression that is catchy to her ears.
Bel far niente means ―the beauty of doing nothing.‖ The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. You don‘t necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich (Gilbert, 2006:80-81).
This is a sweet expression that means the beauty of doing nothing. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life‘s achievement.
To experience this expression, you just need to be happy because everyone with talent for happiness can do this.
Beside bel far niente, Gilbert also likes the words ‗attraversiamo‘. She does not understand why she likes this words so much, to her it is just a perfect combination of words that means let‘s cross over.
But to my ear, it‘s the perfect combination of Italian sounds. The wistful ah of introduction, the rolling trill, the soothing s, that lingering ―ee-ah-moh‖ combo at the end. I love this word (Gilbert, 2006:95).
Later in the end of Gilbert‘s story, attraversiamo is the word she uses to ask his lover when they are in the journey to across the island, so this word has a memorable story and has meaning for her.
Next Gilbert also gets a new word expression in Roman dialect by her friend,
Giovanni.
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Giovanni smiles and says encouragingly, ―Parla come magni.‖ He knows this is one of my favorite expressions in Roman dialect. It means, ―Speak the way you eat,‖ or, in my personal translation: ―Say it like you eat it.‖ It‘s a reminder— when you‘re making a big deal out of explaining something, when you‘re searching for the right words—to keep your language as simple and direct as Roman food. Don‘t make a big production out of it. Just lay it on the table (Gilbert, 2006:115).
Gilbert just loves the expression ‗parla come magni‘ that means say it like you eat it. This expression has meaning to remind her keeping her language as simple and direct as Roman food when she wants to say something, just say it straight forward.
Through those expressions Gilbert learns how to apply those words into her real life thus her life is meaningful. In the end Gilbert gets the meaning of happiness when she starts studying Italian. She learns here.
But I felt a glimmer of happiness when I started studying Italian, and when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt—this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight (Gilbert, 2006:154).
It is Gilbert obligation to find her own happiness. Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. So happiness is got when Gilbert tries to find her happiness no matter how slight it is.
b. Meaning in India
India gives meaning for Gilbert‘s life through all the spiritual activities there.
One of the spiritual activities is yoga that gives meaning for Gilbert in finding union between herself and her God.
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And the task at hand in Yoga is to find union—between mind and body, between the individual and her God, between our thoughts and the source of our thoughts, between teacher and student, and even between ourselves and our sometimes hard-to-bend neighbors (Gilbert, 2006:160).
Thus yoga is one of ways for Gilbert to find God through meditation. In meditation Gilbert learns how to live her life in union, between mind and body, between her thoughts and the source of her thoughts.
But Yoga can also mean trying to find God through meditation, through scholarly study, through the practice of silence, through devotional service or through mantra (Gilbert, 2006:160).
By meditation, Gilbert discovers who she really is. ―My Guru always says that only one thing will happen when you come to the Ashram—that you will discover who you really are‖ (Gilbert, 2006:170). Thus Gilbert can find who she is because in meditation she can listen to God‘s answer. ―I‘ve heard it said that prayer is the act of talking to God, while meditation is the act of listening‖ (Gilbert, 2006:174). By listening to God‘s answer, Gilbert encounters her thought to be some positive though because she remembers how her Guru said about though. ―You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions‖ (Gilbert, 2006:175).
So Gilbert gives some positive though instead of thinking about the negativity.
She thinks positively, she gives positive vibe to her life. ―Instead of trying to forcefully take thoughts out of your mind, give your mind something better to play with. Something healthier‖ (Gilbert, 2006:186). By controlling her mind, Gilbert now can learn how not to be reactive when she faces some troubles.
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Whenever something happens, I always react. But here I was—disregarding the reflex. I was doing something I‘d never done before. A small thing, granted, but how often do I get to say that? And what will I be able to do tomorrow that I cannot yet do today? (Gilbert, 2006:231-232).
Gilbert learns from her friend she met in Ashram who is Richard from Texas.
Richard gives many lessons to Gilbert about life. He shares about his life experience and it works on Gilbert now. Gilbert has a serious problem in mastering her thinking, so Richard suggests her to master it. If she can not master it, she will be always in trouble.
Groceries, you need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you‘re gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That‘s the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you can‘t learn to master your thinking, you‘re in deep trouble forever (Gilbert, 2006:236).
Richard suggests that she has to work on the mind to control things in her life.
Replacing some negative thoughts with the positive one and dropping the negative ones. That is the key Richard suggests to Gilbert in mastering her thinking.
In the end Gilbert finds that she is an antevasin. It means one who lives at the border. ―A Sanskrit word appeared in the paragraph: ANTEVASIN. It means one who lives at the border‖ (Gilbert, 2006:271) That word describes Gilbert‘s life so much. ―I‘m just a slippery antevasin—betwixt and between—a student on the ever- shifting border near the wonderful, scary forest of the new‖ (Gilbert, 2006:272).
―That scary forest of the new‖ means that in the modern age she still can live there, she lives between her old thinking and her new understanding, in a state of learning.
―You can still live on that shimmering line between your old thinking and your new
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understanding, always in a state of learning‖ (Gilbert, 2006:271). Gilbert gets excited because she finally finds a meaning for herself, an antevasin.
c. Meaning in Indonesia
There are many useful lessons that Gilbert gets during her journey in the two countries: Italy and India. The journey continues to Indonesia. In there, Gilbert also gets lesson of life from her Guru there, Ketut Liyer. Gilbert learns to live her life from a magic picture that is drawn by Ketut. ―But I‘m Liz. I came here asking for your help once because I wanted to get closer to God. You drew me a magic picture‖
(Gilbert, 2006:293). Gilbert gets an interpretation of the figure of that magic picture.
So I describe the picture he had made for me, the figure with the four legs (―so grounded on earth‖) and the missing head (―not looking at the world through the intellect‖) and the face in the heart (―looking at the world through the heart‖) and he listens to me politely, with modest interest, like we‘re discussing somebody else‘s life entirely (Gilbert, 2006:293-294).
That figure tells how Gilbert should live her life, starting from the four legs means that it is grounded on earth or low profile personality, the missing head means
Gilbert should not see the world from the outside or anyone from the appearance but from the hearts that is symbolized by the face in the heart. That is a description that is meaningful for Gilbert‘s guidance in life.
Life guidance that is drawn by Ketut is such Gilbert‘s effort to get her happiness.
Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings (Gilbert, 2006:345).
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Gilbert has done her journey in traveling around the world to achieve her happiness. Gilbert made an effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.
Staying afloat on top her happiness is needed a struggle. It needs good attainments to keep her happy. Thus, Gilbert learns to still make a good effort to keep her happiness. And praying is one of many ways for her to keep her soul contented.
It‘s easy enough to pray when you‘re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments (Gilbert, 2006:345).
She does an effort not only when she wants her happiness, but she also makes an effort to keep her happiness.
Besides all the things above she has done in Bali, Gilbert found herself more patience facing all the sorrow that has ever happened to her. She accepts herself with all her flaws and misery. She tries to love her past and not make it a distraction. She uses her past as lessons to learn in the future.
I looked at each thought, at each unit of sorrow, and I acknowledged its existence and felt (without trying to protect myself from it) its horrible pain. And then I would tell that sorrow, ―It‘s OK. I love you. I accept you. Come into my heart now. It‘s over (Gilbert, 2006:436).
The sorrow is over like she said, now she is ready to face a new journey and find another happiness in life.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
This chapter discusses the conclusion of the analysis in the previous
chapter. There are two objectives of this study. The first objective is to reveal
the symbol found in the novel. According to Robert and Jacobs, a symbol is a
person, thing, place, action, situation, or even thought. It possesses its own
reality and meaning and may function at the normal level of reality within
story (Robert and Jacobs, 1987:279). In the first analysis, the symbol found in
this novel: eating, prayer, and love through the place, action, or even thought
that is stated by Robert and Jacobs.
There are three major symbols analyzed from the three countries:
eating, prayer, and love. In Italy where the symbol of eating is dominant and
the Italian language as a minor symbol found in Italy. In India where the
symbol of prayer becomes the most significant symbol found in the story,
through meditation and yoga activities that Gilbert has done there. And in
Indonesia, with the love that Gilbert found there, it is the love that she met for
people there becomes the important symbol in the story.
The second objective is how the symbols eating, prayer, and love
reflect happiness correlated with authentic happiness theory by Seligman
which are pleasure, engagement, and meaning. First, pleasure is indicated
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with daily experiences of positive emotions. Frequent experience of positive
emotions is also related to higher levels of life satisfaction. In Italy, Gilbert
enjoys a pleasure by eating Italian foods and learning to speak Italian
languages. In India, Gilbert gets positive thought when she does all her daily
activities. The positive though gives pleasure to her because she feels the
happiness. In Indonesia, pleasure is easily got through living in a peace place
like Bali.
Next, engagement means doing activity that has benefit for nurturing
our well being life, by cultivating our interest that can make our life happier.
And that is what Gilbert has done in her journey to the three countries. First,
in Italy. She tries to speak Italian language because it makes her feel happy
and sexy. She also learns the Italian dictionary to know some words in Italian.
Then, in India, Gilbert engages in praying, gurugita, meditation, and yoga
activities for nurturing her well being life. Finally in Indonesia, Gilbert learns
the new meditation taught by Ketut which is Four Brothers meditation to
pursue happiness.
The last theory that is written by Seligman is meaning. An individual
achieves meaning in life when he or she experiences life as purposeful,
significant, and understandable. In Italy, Gilbert achieves meaning in her life
after experiencing many beautiful things in Italy. Gilbert also gets meaning in
her life by knowing some Italian expression that is catchy to her ears. Through
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those expressions Gilbert learns how to apply those words into her real life
thus her life is meaningful.
In India, Gilbert gets meaning through the spiritual activities such as
yoga. Yoga gives meaning for Gilbert‘s life in finding union between herself
and her God. Thus yoga is one of ways for Gilbert to find God through
meditation. In meditation Gilbert learns how to live her life in union, between
mind and body, between her thoughts and the source of her thoughts. By
controlling her mind, Gilbert now can learn how not to be reactive when she
faces some troubles. Gilbert gets excited because she finally finds a meaning
for herself.
In the end, in Indonesia Gilbert also gets a meaning of life from her
Guru there, Ketut Liyer. Gilbert learns to live her life from a magic picture
that is drawn by Ketut. That figure tells how Gilbert should live her life,
starting from the four legs means that it is grounded on earth or low profile
personality, the missing head means Gilbert should not see the world from the
outside or anyone from the appearance but from the hearts that is symbolized
by the face in the heart. That is a meaningful description for Gilbert‘s
guidance in living a happy life. The secret of being happy is accepting where
she is in life and thus Gilbert learns to still make a good effort to keep her
happiness because happiness starts with her, not anyone else.
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