13 nurturing talents, building interest and honing skills. Individuals who experience
flow are expected to be more productive and achieve higher levels of success. Some preliminary evidence supports that people who often experience persistent
flow on tasks, achieve better results. 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 some
one‟s life is an important determinant of psychological well- being. Seligman 2002 states
“meaning allows someone to overcome the problem in their life through raising the positive social relationships or connecting to a
higher power or purpose ” p.255. An individual achieves meaning in life when he
or she experienced purposeful, significant and understandable life. Purpose in life provides individuals with goals that guide their action and increase the sense of
well-being.
4. Theme
Kennedy Gioia, 2010 states “The theme of a story is whatever general
idea or insight the entire story reveals .” p.183. Theme is an important intrinsic
element because it is the point of a story and it keeps a story focus on one general idea.
Knowing the definition of theme is not enough to find a theme in a literary work. Therefore, there are some questions which can be the guide to find a theme
which are provided by Kennedy and Gioia 2010 in their book An Introduction to Fiction Eleventh Edition. The first is the readers need to look back once more at
14 the title of the story. After the readers read the story they can state whether or not
the title indicates something. The title of the story may indicate something which is important to the whole story. Second, the readers need to pay attention to the
main character of the story. The character may change in any way over story. It may indicate something important related to the idea of a story. Understanding the
changes that happen or are made by the character may help the readers to find the idea of a story. Characters are possible to utter opinions with which the readers are
not supposed to agree. Third, a story may contain any special suspicious object, mysterious flat characters, significant animal, repeated names, song titles or
anything which can has meaning more than its literal meaning. In a literary work, symbols may point to the central idea or themes of the story. In formulating
theme, the readers should formulate it in a statement not a summary to make it easier to understand. The last is readers need to make sure their formulated theme
hold all details of the whole story, not just part of the story. Besides, Kennedy and Gioia 2010 also provide some statements to clarify
the vague sense of theme into a sharp and intriguing thesis. “Start by making a list of all the story‟s possible themes. Next,
Determine which points seem most important; then formulate a single sentence in which you combine them and try to capture the
story
‟s essence in a single sentence.”p.221 There are also some checklists that can help the reader to write or
formulate a theme of a literary work. “First, lists as many possible themes as you can. Second, circle the
two or three most important points and try to combine them into a sentence. Third, relate particular details of the story to the theme you
have spelled out. Consider plot details, dialogue, setting, point of view, title or any elements that seem especially pertinent. Forth,
