17 were many problems that impeded her divorce process; it took few months and
her husband could not cooperate with her. Then, she began to have a new relationship with a man named David. At first, she thought that he was perfect; he
was the best and made her happy. However, her relationship with David also did not run well. It made her become more and more stressed. After a few moments,
she came on an idea to get somewhere to find balance and pleasure in her life. Therefore, she went to Italy, India and Indonesia. She stayed four months in each
country and had many meaningful experiences there. The writer found that the novel Eat, Pray, Love contains symbols. There
are main symbols which are related to the theme of the novel. In such a way, the symbols contribute to reveal the theme of the novel.
B. Approach of the Study
In this study, the writer chose formalistic approach as the approach of the study. According to Kennedy
Gioia 2010 “Formalist criticism regards literature as a unique form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its
own terms ” p. 679. Another idea which is expressed by Wellek and Warren
1958 says “the natural and sensible point for work in literary scholarship is the
interpretation and analysis of the works of literary themselves.”as cited in Kennedy Gioia, 2010, p.679 Moreover, Kennedy and Gioia2010 explain
that “To a formalist, a story is not a primarily a social, historical or
biographical document; it is a literary work that can be understood PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18 only by reference to its intrinsic literary features which are the
element found in the text itself. Therefore, to analyze a story the formalist criticism focuses on the words of the text rather than facts
about author‟s life or the historical milieu in which the text was written.” p. 679
Formalist critics also believe that the various elements of a literary work influence each other; formalist criticism pays special attention to the formal
features of the text, namely the style, structure, imagery, et cetera. However, these features are usually not examined in isolation, because formalist critics believe
that giving a literary text its special status as it is how all its elements work together to create readers
‟ total experience Kennedy Gioia, 2010. Therefore, the most appropriate approach in this study is formalist approach. The formalist
approach is used to analyze two intrinsic elements in the novel entitled Eat, Pray, Love which are symbol and theme. The writer wanted to examine how the
symbols in the novel contribute to reveal the theme of the novel.
C. Meth
o
d of the Study
In analyzing Eat, Pray, Love novel by Elizabeth Gilbert, the writer applied library study as the method of the study. In order to answer each question in the
problem formulation, the writer took several steps to complete the study. The first step, the writer chose a literary work for this study. Eat, Pray,
Love novel by Elizabeth Gilbert was chosen to be the object of the study to be analyzed. The writer chose this novel because Eat, Pray, Love is a novel which
contains some symbols. After conducting a close reading of the novel, the writer decided to focus on the contribution of symbols in revealing the theme of the
19 novel. The purpose of close reading is to understand how various elements in a
literary text work together to shape its effect on the reader. Kennedy Gioia, 2010
The second step, the writer tried to find the references for the analysis process on the topic selected. The references were the theories on symbol, theme
and approach related to the topic discussed. The theories were the theories of symbol, theme and formalist approach. Those were considered as the secondary
data which was taken from some books. The third step, the writer formulated the problems in order to make the
study systematic and easy to be analyzed. Then, the writer examined the novel as the primary data by applying the secondary data to answer the problems.
In examining the novel to answer the problems, the writer tried to find symbols which are used in Eat, Pray, Love novel. The theories on symbol were
used as a guidance to look for any words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs in the novel that can be used as a symbol. The process of examining the novel was
conducted by close reading of the whole Eat, Pray, Love novel. After finding the symbols, it was analyzed by using the theories of symbol. The theories were also
used to know how the particular word, phrase, sentence or paragraph could be used as a symbol.
Next, the symbols which had been found were analyzed further to answer the second problem formulation and also to reveal how they contributed in
revealing the theme of the story. The process was done by finding and relating the meaning of each symbol which had been discussed in order to answer the first
