27 new best friend about her trouble
s” p.255. Almost every day she visits her friend to talk about serious problems or just to talk about woman things and need, “so I
was hanging out in Wayan‟s shop again this morning, and she was trying to figure out how to make my hair grow faster and th
icker” p.263 The last person is Felipe, he is also mentioned several times in the novel as
Gilbert‟s new lover. “Now that we‟re together, I get to hear Felipe‟s version of how we
met, a delicious story I never tire of hearing –about how he saw me at
the party that night, standing with my back to him, and how I did not even need to turn my head and show him my face before he had
realized somewhere deep in his gut, “that is my woman. I will do anything to have that woman.” p.310
According to Kennedy and Gioia 2010 in a literary work, the storyteller often gives a particular emphasis to the symbol. It may be repeated throughout the
story or even supply the story with a title. Therefore, those three people are considered as the symbol because they are mentioned and repeated several times
in the novel as mentioned above.
B. The Symbol Reveal the Theme of the Novel
This analysis part consists of the discussion about how the symbols reveal the theme of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Based on the theoretical
framework presented, there is a relation between symbols and themes. Symbol can be one of the literary features that can help the reader to understand the story.
Thus, theme is the central idea and unifying concept of a story and it should cover all details in the story.
In addition, uniting the meaning of the symbols which are found in the novel help the writer to find the theme of the story. The complete idea of the story
28 which is presented through every meaning of the symbols will help the writer to
find the theme of the novel. The meanings of the symbols are explained as follows.
1. Meaning of Eating
In Italy, Gilbert spends so much time to eat many kinds of Italian food. She really enjoys every detail of her meal and her eating activities when she stays in
Italy. In this study, eating is symbolizes Gilbert‟s happiness, satisfaction and
contentment. It is showed in the quotations below. When she enjoys e
verything about Italian food as she says “everything became . . . delicious” p.62. Besides looking for food in Rome, she also makes
her own meal by the ingredient that she buys on her own in a market near her apartment. She successfully buys it by her own by having a conversation with the
seller with Italian language. Even she laughs together with the seller and her son. She feels really happy. She describes her meal as something pretty and enjoys
every bite of the meal that she ate while reading Italian newspaper. “For the longest time I couldn‟t even touch this food because it was
such a masterpiece of lunch, a true expression of the art of making something out of nothing. 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 m
y every molecule.”p.64 The quotation above shows her happiness when she eat many kinds of food
in Italy. Gilbert is experiencing the state of being contended or satisfied. The contentment feeling she had after enjoying some meals in Italy. Gilbert finds out
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
