Fear Eating Away at Gilbert Grape

Fear influences the way humans react and the actions that transpire. Some embrace the feeling of fear; others try to overcome obstacles that fear creates. Sometimes, fear stimulates a strong response of self-isolation to shield one’s mind from accepting emotion. The response, however, can manifest into an extreme nature, creating the personality that Gilbert Grape exhibits. Peter Hedges clearly communicates the fact that Gilbert underwent a transformation and his personality reflects the change. The transformation not only causes Gilbert to become conflicted with expressing feelings, but he fears the guilt of doing so as well. Gilbert struggles with the family controlling the opinions, emotions and actions he makes. Peter Hedges illustrates the crippling nature of fear in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

Gilbert becomes emotionally isolated due to the fear of judgment. The relationship between Gilbert and the family strained by the fear to act and the reality of his life he lives creates the alienated personality readers see. Throughout What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, examples of his fear of judgment crippling him begin to surface. Gilbert says, “Something is not right about all this food going to my house. Something is wrong inside me, I start to think, but I change the subject” (112). Gilbert desperately wants to express on how food negatively affects the whole family, especially himself. However, readers see that Gilbert cannot even argue with himself, demonstrating how fear really plays a role in both his thoughts and actions. Fear extremely hinders Gilbert’s ability to develop some sort of demonstration against his family and himself. The example also proves that Gilbert feels guilt, along with fear. Gilbert tries to hide the fa...

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...91). At that moment, Gilbert’s fear of emotion became intensified because he fears himself when emotions take over. The crippling nature of fear weighs on Gilbert and he runs away from home. Gilbert begins to hate himself and he fears for the family’s safety, due to the surprising actions he made. Therefore, Gilbert begins to question his ability to love someone. The one person that he always had mostly positive feelings towards was the person that he lashed out on due to Gilbert’s frustration. Koper,, writes, “Often in Scripture, the first words spoken in an encounter with God were, “Be not afraid.” Why? Because we cannot love what we are afraid of” (Kopfer, 9). Kopfer explains that love becomes impossible if fear is present. Gilbert needs to embrace what makes him human but he fears the human side of him, creating the idea that emotion only presents consequences.