Outside Reading - Week 3, Post A

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

VOCAB
-paradigm(60)- a standard or typical example
-dilettante(73)- a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement, esp. in a desultory or superficial way; dabbler; a lover of an art or science, esp. of a fine art
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
1. "[...]Eccola, eccola, eccola, mio bravo ragazzo, caro mio, eccola, eccola, ecco-AAAHHHHHHHHH!!! VAFFANCULO!!! [...] Which I can attempt to translate as: [...] There it is, there it is, there it is, my brilliant boy, my dear, there it is, there it is, there-AHHH! GO FUCK YOURSELF!(69)[...]." This is figurative language as imagery. The capitalized words show the emotion and the Italian to English translation is a way of showing how intense the words are. This was spoken by an Italian man at a soccer game who treated the players as if he was their coach, father, and best friend.
2. "Depression and Lonliness track me down after about ten days in Italy (46)." Gilbert is personifying depression and lonliness as men that have a mission to follow her wherever she goes. She later describes Depression as sitting on the couch and lighting a smoky cigar whil Lonliness climbs into her bed without even taking his shoes off.
3. "I peeled the eggs and arranged them on a plate beside the seven stalks of the asparagus (which were so slim and snappy they didn't need to be cooked at all). I put some olives on the plate, too, and the four knobs of goat cheese I'd picked up yesterday from the formaggeria down the street, and two slices of pink, oily salmon. For dessert-a lovely peach, which the woman at the market had given me for free and which was still warm from the Roman sunlight(64)." This figurative language is imagery. The reader can envision what all of the food looked like and how it must have tasted.
QUOTE
"I think maybe you always look like your men (65)." This was said to Elizabeth by one of her gut friends at a party. He was saying that dog owners look like their dogs and Elizabeth looks like her men. This makes her realize that when she is in a realtionship she gives everything to the man she is with. By traveling abroad for a year, Elizabeth is trying to get away from all that has been depressing her, including her troubles with men. She is exhausted from sacfrificing everything she has to her lovers, so Italy is a way for her to relieve stress, and abandon bad habits.
THEME
The theme that I see emerging is to enjoy yourself, and it is okay to relax, have fun, and do something without a purpose.