Thematic Analysis and Analysis

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. 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 puzzle. The person then begins to find joy in the journey knowing that every step taken takes him or her closer to the finish line and that every step is important. No puzzle is complete where the last piece hasn't been put in place. Recovering is therefore like putting the pieces together and moving in the direction of acceptance (Wild: In Search of a Lost Soul).

Theories/ Frameworks

Representation from Media Studies -- Culture and its Relevance

Culture is one concept that has been extensively discussed. The discussions have yielded varied approaches in various fields of study. As culture as a concept increased in prominence, it was questioned more. Scholars from various disciplines have argued as to whether or not the concept of culture should be abandoned. Culture is utilized in contrasting academic disciplines and analytical tools such as economics and politics while cultures is utilized when evaluating different kinds of culture and are so more solid (e.g. hipster culture, regional culture). One other concept that has impacted the study of culture is our comprehension of culture as a system of symbols and meanings or practice (Sommier).

Post Modernism Literature

A lot of attention has been directed at the term 'postmodernism' lately. It has spearheaded several trends in the fields of music, literature, architecture, technology, communications, sociology, medicine, film, philosophy and the fine arts. Postmodernism's effect on writers has been evidenced by its effects on literature. Literature has been enriched by the concept. Postmodernism refers to artistic, intellectual and cultural state lacking a definite single veracity or thought, central hierarchy or organizing principle. It is complex and challenges conventional wisdom and mixes several styles, non-linear thinking, temporal disorder, fiction, contradiction, with ambiguity and reality. Language, in consonance with the characters' thoughts is experimented with heavily. It also embraces change and innovation through an emphasis on interconnectedness and reality. It looks at and evaluates culture and the society by making critical theories better, interpreting history and studying culture and law. The mid-1980s saw the acceptance of post modernism as an academic discipline (Bhuvaneshwari).

Literature -- Thematic Analysis

The thrust of data analysis in any given field of study that yield tangible results is called a 'theme'. The similarities, definitions as well as differences of thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis has in the past been clarified and defined. Several similarities exist between thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis, for example, philosophical background, attentiveness in both describing and interpreting data, considering the context of data and cutting across data. While a thematic analyst will consider both theme and latent content when analyzing data, a content analyst will choose one of the two before he or she proceeds to analyze the data further. Both methods heavily employ coding in data analysis. Thematic analysis and analytical interventions use similar analytical interventions. Further, both methods rely heavily on the researcher's creativity as pertains to data analysis and presentation (Vaimoradi, Jones and Turunen).

Importance of Culture in Analysis

The main goal of utilizing a critical intercultural framework is not to discover the true nature of culture but to discover culture representations that seem real, and the processes through which they do so. The focus of studies therefore tends to be primarily on how the webs can be navigated and seek to understand how they are empowered and interrelated. The framework's main asset is its emphasis on the problematization of culture which help reduce the risk of ignoring it entirely. This explains why intercultural communication between researchers with different cultural and academic backgrounds is good. It helps a researcher understand the extent to which their knowledge is pegged on their situation and so make them more aware of their biases and prejudices and the reasons for the nature of their constructions and representations. Intercultural communication increases a researcher's tolerance of researchers from other cultures. Such tolerance and mutual respect is very important today where people from all walks of life work together and communication from and to other cultures is easier, faster and more common (Sommier).

Theory and Methodology

Thematic Analysis -- Framework

Qualitative data collection depends on data interpretation. This is to say that several explanations on the data is required as the quantity of qualitative data collected is usually very high. Further, no clear distinction exists between data collection and the analysis of the data. The process of reaching a conclusion from the data following analysis and the interpretation of the data therefore overlap. In a qualitative analysis, the following principles should be followed.

• First, bring together diverse and extensive data to form one succinct and solid structure. This can be achieved through the organization of oral and written data by way of table and charts. This gave the researcher a good chance to identify, compare and contrast and also identify the data which deserves his or her focus.

• Second, the relationship that exists between the summary and research objectives should be made clear. This can easily be done when a qualitative study identifies early on the key drivers that would be responsible for the methodologies adopted in both the actual research and analysis.

• Third, conclusion should be arrived at by coming up with a model to help guide the process or by improving the research's conceptual basis.

Some researchers use programming to prepare and instruct data while others choose to utilize manual methods. In a number of cases, it can be a good idea to use computer methods instead of more traditional methods. Software can be more efficient and effective in analyzing qualitative data especially when there are several similar ideas or themes. To this end, making use of software for analysis can be very valuable as related to improving the rigor of the steps of analysis and also in the validation of the researcher's view and understanding of the data. Further, data can help the researcher carry out an analysis with greater specificity (Mohd. Ibrahim).

Thematic analysis is appropriate for the following situations

Data Interpretation

Qualitative research should strive to have interpretations that are consistent with collected data. Having this in mind, thematic analysis is able to spot the variables or factors that might have an influence on the issues generated by participants. It therefore implies that the interpretations of participants are critical in according the best explanations and justifications thoughts, behaviors and actions. This is compatible with Thematic Analysis' process features.

Detective and inductive approaches

Thematic Analysis' flexibility enables it to be used in deductive and inductive methodologies. For instance, in utilizing inductive approach, most of the collected data starts with a specific content and then advances to broader and greater generalizations and then theories. This helps in the linking of data with themes. Such flexibility allows a researcher to use the collected observational data throughout the course of the study. Here, several options need to be available to describe the analysis using specific words or explanations as gathering varied data tends to give explanations for all the proceedings of the study. Further, to compare the collected data with the participant's perceptions, the researcher has to employ other strategies such as the use of questionnaires.

Analysis of two different phased of data

Towards evaluating the influence of variables, participants can use practical approaches to investigate and spot the way prevailing situations and circumstances influence them. Such an approach fits well with the analysis of different data collection phases. Furthermore, it is more effective when the researcher seeks to evaluate what impact the attitudes of participants influence their use of resources. Thematic analysis involves linking the associations between the data in a research. It is therefore helpful in highlighting the flexibility of the approach and this allows it to better cope in situations where data is gathered at different times or separately.

Figure 1: Model for the thematic analysis process. It consists of three link stages or 'streams', i.e. data reduction, data display and data conclusion-drawing/verifying

Thematic Process

There are certain points and ideas that are worth mentioning that show the importance of any adaptation of thematic analysis to any given work of research. The exercise brings to light the goal of validation to establish the fundamental view underlying the analysis. This helps researchers figuring out details and the sequence of the utilization of raw data. If data collection is based on observation, for instance, a method that can be greatly influenced by the researcher's attitudes and feelings, then Thematic Analysis combines data generating and investigation-theory with the associated analytical elements. This can be very helpful in situations where the researcher wants to examine the data to uncover common thoughts and themes from many participants. It can be beneficial to assign the expansive data a narrative to get a logical and clearer comprehension of the thoughts of the participant and to communicate their experiences. In the same vein of thought, having a better comprehension of the attitudes and reflections of the participant on various issues can be best measured from their diverse statements. Using Thematic Analysis allows the researcher to go beyond the calculation of unambiguous statements or words or the expression of ideas. The identification of themes makes the development of clues easier. The clues can then be adapted to the raw data and then used in subsequent analyses (Mohd Ibrahim).

A Thematic Analysis process carries out an analysis on the data without employing pre-existing themes and this implies that it can be easily adapted to any given research that heavily relies on the clarifications given by a participant. This is to say that each idea or statement contributes towards a better comprehension of the issues in question and a better appreciation of the bigger picture. The reason for this is the validity of every statement and the roles they play in understanding the concepts discussed. The participant's perspectives therefore guide the construction of concepts. Any researcher using a thematic process should definitely use these guiding principles when doing data analysis (Mohd Ibrahim).

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

There are at least four different literary history models:

There exist process models such as tri-partite divisions (birth-death-rebirth, birth-maturation-death) and fall cycles;

There exist Romantic and optimistic organic models that base literature on arbitrary timelines and so avoiding period concepts of the past decades and centuries that would weaken literature's quality; and There exist models that are guided by historical periods grounded on factual political leaders and events like wars to mark an ending or beginning of a literary work.

A period is essentially a long duration and covers several years. General models have been used to subdivide periods. The use of models has been popular in literary works that work synchronically or diachronically. Information is divided for the purpose of practicality and appear to entail period concepts such as art history, archeology and music history. Oftentimes, the same classroom anthology, or monograph might use two or more models and sometimes all the four models are utilized to give coherence and structure to the work in spite of the illogical arrangement of overlapping boundaries and taxonomies (Orr).

Taking the example of modernism, a familiar example presents itself with David Lodge offering some of the characteristics and techniques of modernism as real objective happenings and events that are critical to traditional narration are diminished in both scale and scope to give way for introspection, reverie, reflection and analysis. There is no real and actual beginning to a 'modernist' novel as they plunge the reader into doubt as pertains to what destiny holds for the characters. Modernist fiction exemplifies the straight and apparent chronological arrangement of its contents and the utilization of a reliable, intrusive, and omniscient narrator (Orr).

Post Modernism Writers

Many post modernism philosophers and authors argue that deconstruction happens in the actual text. Deconstruction can be used as a way to enable several interpretations of one text. A text is an ambiguous and complex entity by nature and so completely interpreting it is almost impossible. This line of thinking is very relevant to the beliefs of post modernism. Jacques Derrida, the person who coined the term 'Poststructuralism', states that poststructuralism and modernism are associated as poststructuralism rejects elitist and bourgeois culture. The two, have at times, been used interchangeably. Postmodernism has pushed with great conviction the thinking that change is the only factor in all fields. When considering the changes in experiences and circumstances, it is an established understanding that facts will be interpreted differently given the varied perspectives of the participants. Myths have therefore been studied again with divergent and innovative sketches because of historical events. 'Deconstruction' theory gives a platform that allows historically established facts and modern thinking to be revisited and therefore reinterpreted to allow for the identification of weak points and faults (Bhuvaneshwari).

The above conditions have therefore made it necessary to re-observe the classical and grand narratives to identify the bigger qualities and inconsistencies that exist in them. Derrida therefore restudied writing fundamentals and the influences the fundamentals have had and continue to have on writing. Post modernism as a way to express oneself allows a writer to ignore traditional structures as the use of plots and standard themes to allow more leeway for expression. The writers may choose to or not to use features such as a definite climax, developed characters and a unified plot. Postmodernism is mainly characterized by a lack of structural elements and three unities. Postmodernists favor manipulating their story as is required by the specific needs of the work and in a way, that allows the reader have their own unique understanding. The works include themes such as search for meaning, veracity, and identity (Bhuvaneshwari).