Method of the Study
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.
B esides 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 drapi ng 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
that, but it‘s true. The mushrooms here are like big thick sexy tongues, and the prosciutto drap
es 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
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 c ontentment. ―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