29 and realizes that eating is a pleasure for her. It means that eating becomes her
source of happiness. “The amount of pleasure this eating and speaking brought me was
inestimable, and yet so simple. I passed a few hours once in the middle of an October that might look like nothing much to the
outside observer, but which I will always count amongst the happiest of my life
.” p.63 The happiness feeling while enjoying every meal makes Gilbert loves the
meal; I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair ” p.79. The
quotation proves that eating is one of her source of happiness. She also expresses her happiness after she eats the pizza in Naples.
“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
.” p.81 The way Gilbert delivers her idea about the foods that she ate is a proof
that she is happy enjoying the foods that she had. 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 seen before
–big, fresh, sheets of pasta folded ravioli-like into 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, al swimming in
a olivey, oceany broth. Followed by the rabbit, stewed in thyme” p.149
As mentioned before, eating italian food is the source of happiness for Gilbert. The first major of Gilbert‟s happiness lays on her activity of eating. No
matter how slight the happiness is, at least Gilberts makes her way to find it. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
30 Finally, she gets it. Gilberts finds out her happiness through her eating journey in
Italy. “But I felt a glimmer of happiness when 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 high.”p.115
2. Meaning of Praying
Praying is the second symbol found in the novel. Gilbert has two different ways of pray; she prays through writing on her journal and through Yoga
meditation. Mostly, she prays through yoga meditation, especially when she stays in India. In this novel, prayer sym
bolizes Gilbert‟s happiness. At the very first time, she felt that Yoga Meditation was difficult when. She often lost focus and
could not stay still in her meditation. There are always some debates between her and her mind when she wanted to meditate. It is happened because she could not
control her thinking. Therefore, she felt frustrated because she cannot meditate silently and peacefully. Her friend from Texas says that she has serious control
issue. “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 “p.178.
After experiencing some weeks to learn meditation, she can focus on her meditation and also peacefully stays still. She can control her mind and put aside
31 the negative thoughts. She is able to change the hatred, anger and depressed in her
mind into love. She is able to accept the negative side of her life in the past and changes it into positive thoughts. It helps her to free her mind. She tries to build a
positive thought to put aside her negative though instead of blaming others or environment about her own limit or her negative side. Besides, she also improves
her meditation skill and she feels like she can communicate with God well through meditation
“My prayers are becoming more deliberate and specific. It has occurred to me that it‟s not much use to send prayers out to the
universe that are lazy. Every morning before meditation, I kneel in the temple and talk for few minutes to God
” p.176. Besides accept the negative side of her, she is also able to forgive her past
through meditation and the learning process of it. It is happened when she meditates on the rooftop of one of the building in the Ashram in India.
“Still in meditation, I watched those two blue souls circle each other, merge, divide again and regard each other‟s perfection and similarity.
They knew everything. They knew everything long ago and they will always know everything. They didn‟t need to forgive each other; they
were born forgiving each other.”p.187 At the moment, she invites her husband to ask forgiveness and to solve and
end everything in their past related to her relationship and divorce process which make them depressed and suffer. After she experiences this meditation, she feels
better. “Much later I opened my eyes, and I knew it was over. Not just my
marriage and not just my divorce, but all the unfinished bleak hollow sadness of it . . . it was over
.”p.287 She is able to forgive and accept her past through medication. She accepts
everything that happened to her in the past and be able to see her past positively. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
