Outside Reading - Week 1, Post A

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

VOCAB
-Jehovah(13)- God, especially in Christian translations of the Hebrew Scriptures
-oblong(12)- (of a leaf shape) having a somewhat elongated form with approximately parallel sides deviating from a square or circle or sphere by being elongated in one direction

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
1. "[...] through the back streets of Rome, which meander organically around the ancient buildings like bayou streams snaking around shadowy clumps of cypress groves" (9). This is a simile because she is comparing the streets of Rome to bayou streams.
2. "Giovanni is my Tandem Exchange Partner. That sounds like an innuendo, but unfortunately it's not" (7). This is what appears to be Elizabeth's metaphor for her hook-up, but she goes on to explain that unfortunately she is not doing that with him and he simply teaches her Italian.
3. "('Ambivalent' was the word I used, avoiding the much more accurate description: 'utterly consumed with dread')" (8). This is an example of the imagery behind the word ambivalent, and her description of how she uses it.

QUOTE
"What happened was that I started to pray" (12). This was the time in Elizabeth's life when she was at her lowest, she didn't know what she wanted and if she was doing the right thing. She felt like she had nobody to turn to, especially because she had never had a connection with God before. When she was at her breaking point she turned to God, and prayed, for the first time. It was the instance that triggered her relationship with God.

THEME
You can never make a decision until you are forced to do so.