Outside Reading - Week 6, Post A

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

VOCAB
-coagulation(101)- the process of forming semisolid lumps in a liquid
-staid(102)- of settled or sedate character; not flighty or capricious
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
1. "[...] to Messina (a scary and suspicious Sicilian port town that seems to howl from behind barricaded doors, 'It's not my fault I'm ugly! I've been earthquaked and carpet-bombed and raped by the Mafia, too!')" (112). This is personification. The city does not yell itself but a traveler would get the feeling that the city is actually begging for mercy.
2. "Like we have roped it with our music, and now we are hauling it across the night sky like it's a massive fishing net, brimming with all our unknown destinies" (130). This is an example of a simile comparing the Indian New Years' celebration with music and dancing to pulling the New Year as if it were attached to a rope and they were lassoing it.
3. "The seconds drop down to midnight and we sing with our biggest effort yet and in this last brave exertion we finally pull the net of the New Year over us, covering both the sky and ourselves with it" (130). This is an example of a metaphor. The year was not actually tied to a rope that the Indians pulled into the next year, but that is how it felt, it was being pulled pulled pulled then it was covering them.
QUOTE
"'You have got control issues, Groceries. Come on. Nobody ever told you this before?'" (151). This is a major turning point for Liz because she finally realizes and admits to herself her issues and is ready to move on now with a clean slate and no extra baggage from past relationships and bad things that didn't go her way. She admits that she can't always be in control, but the worst is over with and it is time to let it go, stop wondering what could have been, and move on.
THEME
You have to struggle through the bad times to get to the good.