Whats eating Gilbert Grape

The film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” can be seen as a somewhat of a tragic story because of the death that occurs in it. What the author really wants you to recognize is that sometimes tragedy can create a new opportunity for someone, because that tragedy could have been what was blocking your own identity. This film gives insight to the life of an American family who has their issues, but somehow seem to make it all work in their eyes.

The setting of this film is about a family who lives in a town where nothing really happens or ever changes. The father of the family committed suicide and left the mother to raise five children by herself. The youngest child Arnie is mentally handicapped and is for the most part taken care of by his older brother Gilbert. The other siblings help too, but the primary caregiver of Arnie is Gilbert. Their mother has become severely obese since her husband's suicide and depends on the four kids who are still living at home to take care of her every need since she really can't move from the couch. Gilbert struggles with his identity throughout the film since he's so busy taking care of his brother and being the main provider of the family by working at the local grocery store.

Besides the main problem that is going on in the film as described above there are also two subplots playing out in Gilberts personal life. The first being that he’s having an affair with an older woman who is in fact married with children. The other subplot also is kind of the resolution to the story. A new girl that is Gilberts age comes through town and stays for awhile because the truck that pulls her RV breaks down. Gilbert begins to have feelings for her and put his wants in front of all of the things he is responsible...

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...y began a new chapter in their life.

Gilbert making the decision to move on and go with Becky shows that he is understanding his identity more and is going to live life to the fullest. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself before others because you aren't really taking care of others if you aren't mentally there. The author wants the audience to understand that their can be obligations in life that come first before your own wants, but these obligations should not take over your own life. This film speaks to me on a personal level because recently I had chosen to move out of my mothers house because she is a hoarder. Living with her in that house was taking away some of the normal everyday happiness that everyone needs to function. I had to put my happiness first since the hoarding began to disrupt my own life and there was nothing else I could do to help her.