Thematic Analysis and Analysis Research Proposal

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Total Length: 4801 words ( 16 double-spaced pages)

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Eat, Pray, Love

Into the Wild

Motorcycle Diaries

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Theories/ Frameworks

Representation from Media Studies -- Culture and its Relevance

Post Modernism Literature

Thematic Analysis

Importance of Culture in Analysis

Theory and Methodology

Thematic Analysis -- Framework

Thematic analysis is appropriate for the following situations

Detective and inductive approaches

Analysis of two different phased of data

Thematic Process

Analysis and Process of Comparing Literary Works of Post-Modern Period

Post Modernism Writers

Post Modern Literary Theory

A person's personal, work, and family life and how they relate to nature all define how well the person knows himself. This article will explore how one comes of age and life stages by comparing three movies and three novels. The books are Motorcycle Diaries (Che Guevara), Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Cheryl Strayed) and Into the Wild (John Krakauer). The films are 'Hector and the Search for Happiness', 'Silver Linings Playbook', and Eat, Pray, Love'. The paper considers research methodologies and describes several past studies. Attempt is made through the paper at soul searching on the themes mentioned so as to help with tuning into one's own inner knowledge and wisdom to help discover more of about oneself. The activities in this paper will put us on paths of self-discovery but it is important to remember that they are mostly suggestions and do not represent strictly scholarly qualitative research.

Statement of the problem

The research's objective is studying and analyzing the different points-of-view people have on coming-of-age and life stages through a comparison and analysis of three books (Motorcycle Diaries, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and Into the Wild) and three films (Eat, Prey, Love, Silver Linings Playbook and Hector and the Search for Happiness).

Scope of the study

The paper is a qualitative study whose focus is using theories connected to thematic literature analysis, post-modernist readings and representation from media studies. The focus will be detailing the research that has been done on the concepts mentioned.

Objective

The research project will conduct basic studies on the topic in question. Both inductive and deductive reasoning aimed at the creation of hypothesis and subsequent testing of the hypothesis will be used.

Significance

The utilization of modernist theories on soul searching relevant literary pieces can be a foreign concept to researchers. Any outcome that happens to be somehow vital for further focus will be vitally important. The research's results will certainly improve the quality of presently available literature in this relatively small area of study.

Limitation

As hinted on by the discussions on the significance of the study, the study's major limitation is the absence of pre-existing literature on a similar topic. Literature comparisons, whether they be books or films are not easily available. The paper's analysis results are therefore likely to have pre-conditions as well as limitations of proof.

Literature Review

Review on each of the content source

Eat, Pray, Love

In Eat, Pray, Love, the protagonist' spiritual awakening in the "dark night of her soul" is followed by a "carnival" of sorts which is then followed by what represents the Christian practice of Lent. Her journey therefore takes her from taking sensual pleasure in eating food (Eat), to sacrificing spiritually (Pray) and lastly to romantic love (Love). The logic of the sequence of the narration, the researcher argues, is made up of sensuous enjoyment of food which prepares her for what sacrifice really means by committing spiritually. The two phases of the journey become interlaced as commitment finally allows a deeper interpretation of sacrifice and leisure (Oliver).

The book points out that our focus should always be a happiness of pursuit and not the pursuit of happiness. In pursuing a worthy ideal, the book implies, happiness will come unsought. Happiness really should not be a goal in and of itself. It is a state one is in. One's beliefs may not always be consistent with those held by a majority of the population but by staying true to one's own convictions, one is bound to find fulfillment. The society has forgotten these truths and adults have now grown to become over-whelming practical people who lack life's very essence. This explains the rise in cases of depression and other mental problems since people's focus is on their pain making them miss life's beautiful moments (Kim).

While most of the recent works on tragedy in Anglo-American aesthetics has mainly focused on 'problems' arising from tragic pleasure, philosophers have traditionally looked at tragedy as an area of study that was particularly significant both philosophically and politically.

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This paper investigates the tragedies of our time so as to identify which works in the genre have revealed the necessities and near-necessities our society grapples with contemporarily. Since film has always been a mirror of the society and because of its rising popularity, cinematic tragedies will be looked at with interest. Several contemporary films tend to take a tragic structure but are always a bit more melodramatic. There will be a categorization of those films that show the suffering protagonists and the pathos of the tragic genre but tend to paint the tragic ending as a part of the 'silver-lining genre' which is a melodrama subgenre (Shapshay and Wagschal).

Into the Wild

Travel is at times associated with the need to seek an escape from responsibilities or facing life's problems. Throughout time, people have taken journeys so as to contemplate on their lives and find answers to the problems they face. They have also done so to disconnect from their duties or to forge forward with life. So, this paper seeks to explore those existential factors that can prompt one to seek to escape from their reality. 'Into the Wild' traces the tragic experience of Christopher Mccandless who was a young but courageous soul. His experience ended tragically as he died of starvation in Alaska. It could be argued that the idea of living in a place so hostile as Alaska is immature and irresponsible. Maybe Chris Mccandless was not a wise man. Yet, his journeys were driven by intuition and desire. His pursuit nonetheless showed a level of bravery which is not commonly found (Sancho).

Motorcycle Diaries

The hero's development is depicted in greater light and clarity as the book explores the legend of Che. Not apparent to the naked eye is Guevara's bid and struggle to reconcile the armchair radicalism he espoused with real life oppression. The metamorphosis to a guerilla leader really begins in Chuquicamata, as Che slowly realizes that the way Chilean couple using the blanked belonging to Geuvara addressed him had some underlying disdain, for they thought that the nature of their aimless travel was parasitic. Guevara then starts to question his view of radicalism. Che's deeds and words are still alive. His image still adorns Cuba's public squares. How he used guerilla warfare, as per rural peasants, is still a significant concept used by revolutions across the Americas. The Motorcycle Diaries humanizes Che and makes the reader shed the pop culture image they have of him and envision him as someone they can join on a ride with on a motorbike, and so take part in the experience of a journey that shaped the world (Clifford).

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed, in the book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, writes about her experience hiking the lonely and tedious Pacific Crest Trail. There are several meanings to the movie that are artfully shown by way of symbolisms and flashbacks. The movie shows the difficulty of grieving a parent and that going through the Pacific Crest Trail can serve as an effective and calming therapeutic process to reconcile with seemingly insurmountable loss. Loss is all about self-acceptance and discovery. It is all about realizing that self-improvement work that takes place inwards is just as important as the outward projection. There is no way you can just flip a switch and have your problems disappear. It is a systematic process. Having an understanding of the grieving process and the complex components that come with it such as identity issues, can help one unravel the messages the subconscious sends and that are not often noticeable to the uninitiated mind. The film uses very simple symbols and metaphors to explain principles and ideas. Each scene communicates an important concept that can help in therapy. Just like is the case in a puzzle, no clear direction is given and the messages are left scattered for the reader to piece them together. As one patiently moves from the peripheries and allows the process of rebuilding one's life to take a more natural course and its own pace, he or she soon realizes that a person can't succeed at comprehending and rebuilding their life without doing all that is necessary to finish the task. No shortcuts can be taken just as one cannot take a shortcut to putting together a jigsaw….....

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