Peter Hedges' What's Eating Gilbert Grape
"I would hope that people might view their fellow beings, all beings, with more empathy, more compassion, with a desire to understand. Even if they can't know why people are the way they are, to understand that they're probably that way for a good reason." said Peter Hedges, author of the book What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and the book has helped him realize this wish.
Gilbert Grape, a 24-year-old GenXer, lives in Endora, a dying small town where life is ¡°like dancing to no music.¡± He works at a grocery, whose business is threatened by the newly opened supermarket. Gilbert¡¯s mother, who was once the town sweetheart, has not stopped eating since her husband hanged himself in the basement, and the floor beneath her TV chair is threatening to cave in. His elder sister Amy still mourns the death of Elvis and the fact that her boyfriend dumped her. Ellen, the younger sister who is hooked on makeup and boys, quarrels relentlessly with him. The biggest event on the horizon for all the Grapes is the eighteenth birthday of Gilbert's retarded younger brother, Arnie, who is a living miracle just for having survived so long. When everything in Endora is eating Gilbert Grape and all that he thinks about is leaving, a worldly and beautiful girl Becky rides through town on a bicycle, helping him to have a new vision of his family and himself¡
There is no one specific plot to this novel, though many conflicts do arise. What makes it so good is the interaction between characters and the unique language style.
The family and the characters in What's Eating Gilbert Grape might be strange, but they seem like real characters with real emotions, for the author successfully gives each of them a vivid depiction.
The book takes you day by day through John Wilkes Booth escape after killing Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the book Booth seems to get away with a lot. Many people help him throughout his journey of escaping without knowing what he has done.
George constantly reminds Lennie that he would not be struggling if he wasn’t taking care of him (STEINBECK, 1977). Similarly, in the film What's Eating Gilbert Grapes, Gilbert is a teenager struggling to provide for his family consisting of two sisters, a mentally handicapped brother and an obese mother. Gilbert is held up with responsibilities making him have no time for a social life (DEWIS, 2011).
The Grapes are a family living in a rural and economically depressed community. The members of the Grape family presently residing in the familial home consists of biological birth mother Bonnie Grape, who is unemployed and 54 years of age. Amy Grape, the eldest child, Unemployed and currently 34 years of age. Gilbert Grape, the eldest male sibling who is employed at a local grocery store and is currently 24, years of age. Arnie Grape is Gilbert’s younger brother and is presently turning 18 years of age. Arnie reaching his 18th birthday is considered to be somewhat of a triumph by the Grape family, as Arnie suffers from a debilitating medical condition that has not only kept him from achieving age appropriate developmental milestones but also threatens to shorten his life expectancy considerably. The youngest sibling Ellen Grape is currently employed at a local ice cream parlor and is 16 years of age.
In the great movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, there is a great variety of things eating Gilbert. Gilbert is a young man who feels as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders and feels trapped in a life he can’t escape, no matter how hard he tries. All of Gilbert’s emotional problems are the effects of his mother, she is an overweight-depressed woman who puts a lot of guilt, anger, and sadness on Gilbert, which in return makes Gilbert feel despair, pressured, depressed, and trapped.
Gilbert Grape is the eldest child. He takes on the role of being the head of the family by working a full-time job at the town’s mini-grocery store providing for his siblings, special care for his disabled brother Arnie and homebound mother. Amy Grape is the second eldest and takes on the motherly role in the household while becoming their
2) What is the main conflict in the book? Is it external or internal? How is this conflict resolved throughout the course of the book?
As a reader, I was not satisfied that there was no definitive plot in which I could understand the story. I read the story several times and came up with three different realities;
In the film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" directed by Lasse Hallstrom in 1993, one of the main ideas is that of struggle and hardship. This idea is significant to the film because it relates to each character in a different way, making the storyline more interesting. Three different techniques used by Lasse Hallstrom to illustrate the idea of struggle and hardship include Gilberts voice over, the extra close-ups of Bonnie as she climbs the stairs and the double up of dialogue, where Mrs Carver is talking to Gilbert, and Mr Carver is heard tying to entertain their children in background.
After watching the movie “What’s eating Gilbert Grape” it focuses more on Gilbert Grape than any other characters in the movie. Gilbert Grape is a young man who resides in a small community called Endora. Gilbert at the beginning of the movie states “Describing Endora is like dancing to no music”. Gilbert’s youngest brother Arnie is soon to be 18 years old and has a developmental disability that never was disclosed in the movie. Furthermore, Bonnie Gilbert’s mother has been locked in her own home since her husband committed suicide seven years ago. Moreover, Bonnie is at the stage of stagnation. She is over-weighted and doesn’t think of doing anything for herself or for any of her children. Therefore, leaving Gilbert with the full responsibility of caring for his family especially Arnie.
Nothing much ever happens in Endora, Iowa. The Grape family is one of several that inhabit this town. Gilbert is the eldest brother of 4 children, of whom all but one, still live at home with their Momma. Arnie is 6 days away from being 18 years old. Doctors told the family that they would be lucky if he could live until the age of 10. The movie begins with Arnie and Gilbert watching the trailers pass by, an annual tradition before Arnie’s birthday. After the trailers have all come and gone, they go into town and head to Gilbert’s work. Shortly after arriving, he is called out for a delivery to Mrs. Carver’s. He leaves Arnie alone in the truck, when he exits the home, Gilbert realizes that Arnie is missing. At that same time, the sheriff goes flying by; it can only mean one thing. Upon driving into the middle of town, it is then that Gilbert sees Arnie. He has once again climbed up the water tower. It is at this time you see the true connection between Gilbert and his brother Arnie. As Arnie continues to climb higher, his brother takes the loud speaker and begins singing to him. He is able to coax him down through song, assuring the sheriff it won’t happen again, he is able to then take him home. Being the main caretaker for his brother, Gilbert is responsible for bathing and getting Arnie ready for bed.
The first major plot of the book, Hana’s Suitcase, is of Hana’s childhood, as she grows up in Czechoslovakia. The conflict of this plot is that Hana and her Jewish family must try to survive the holocaust. The second major plot of Hana’s suitcase is Fumiko Ishioka’s mission to learn Hana’s story so that she can teach the Japanese children in the Small Wings club about the holocaust almost fifty years later. The conflict of this plot is that Fumiko cannot find any information about Hana, despite how many museums she contacts.
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.
This includes the historical period of the writing of the novel, the symbolic meaning of the plot and other parts of the narrative, and the characters which help us understand the way we should act in society being just, empathetic and
The plot is about human weakness. Hatred, jealousy, lust can make anyone loses his mind and do the most unthinkable acts. We should understand our human nature and not be motivated by these evil characteristics to do thing to harm others. At the same time, there are many wicked people around, who will use many manipulative skills to persuade us to do evils and we must resist it.
The Grape family wasn't the perfect nuclear family by any means of the word. But they did stand together through hardships and tribulations that the family faced. It wasn't easy for Gilbert to be the primary provider at a young age for his family and not able to explore life. Even Amy gave up a lot of her social life to take over the mother role. The family made it through all the problems that they faced by sticking together and forming a greater bond. Even with the death of Bonnie on Arnie 18th birthday and the burning down of their only house, they still stuck together. The death of their mother open up a door of freedom, even if this does sound wrong in context. But the children where free to navigate their lives and build stronger bonds. The love was their throughout the family and that's what truly matters at the end.