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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (Hallström et al, 1993) is an emotional movie about a family who lives in a small town. Gilbert takes care of his younger brother, Arnie, who is mentally challenged. Gilbert’s mother, Bonnie, is obese; so his older sister, Amy, has taken over caring for the house and his younger sister, Ellen. Gilbert has a few friends in town, but things start to change when a new girl named Becky arrives. Gilbert’s family system consists of four other people including himself; his mother, Bonnie, sister, Amy, brother Arnie, and sister, Ellen. A role is a part or position that someone has in the family system. Gilbert is in the role of caretaker over the house and Arnie. Amy has also stepped into …show more content…
According to Becvar and Becvar (1982) a closed system is when there is not room from outside systems to influence the family system. Multiple times throughout the movie there are allusions to the idea that “we aren’t going anywhere” (Hallström et al, 1993), because nothing ever changes in the sleepy town that Gilbert’s family lives in. The hierarchy or position of each family member goes as such; Bonnie is the mother and makes the final decision about things around the house, but she does not actually implement anything, she is heavily influence by what Arnie needs and wants. Amy is the actual head of the household, advising everyone what should be done and taking care of Bonnie and Ellen. Gilbert is third on the hierarchy, because he takes care of Arnie and works with Amy to maintain the house. Ellen is ranked fourth, because she does not have much say on what goes on around the house, but has more power than her brother Arnie. Arnie is hard to rank, because his needs are what generally comes first, but he does not have authority to make key decisions around the house. Gilbert is often placed in a double bind, where he is damned if he does and damned if he does not. For example, Gilbert is always in charge of Arnie’s well-being. If Gilbert is always present Arnie sometimes still gets in trouble. If Gilbert leaves Arnie alone, then Arnie will get in to trouble. No matter if he is with Arnie or not Gilbert …show more content…
Bonnie is severely obese and will not leave the house. During a scene Amy tries to get Bonnie to change and maybe sleep in her own bed, but Bonnie just keeps saying she is perfectly happy where she is at. The concept of mystification or disconfirming Bonnie’s experience of being perfectly fine where she is sitting is used by Amy, when she mentions that maybe Bonnie would be more comfortable if she got up to change and go to bed (Laing, 1965). Amy is not trying to mystify her mother deliberately, but believes that is what is best for her mother at the time and wants her to change without outright telling her what to do. Utopian Syndrome can be defined in three different ways, but for the purpose of applying the term to the movie we will use the projective term that describes someone as not being able to fulfill their full potential due to society or their parents are holding them back (Watzlawick et al., 2011). I believe that Gilbert holds this view at some points in the movie, when he mentions how his brother was able to get out of town. Gilbert seems to feel that because of his mothers’ embarrassing condition as well as having to take care of his brother he was not able to escape the mundane town that he lives in to fulfill his potential. Constructivism or the idea
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, is a movie directed by Lasse Hallstrom in 1993. Leonardo Dicaprio and Johnny Depp, play Arnie and Gilbert, two brothers who have a bond unlike any other. Arnie is autistic and it is Gilbert’s role in the family to lead him through each step in his life, whether it be the simplest of tasks or the most complex process, Gilbert is there. The title itself is a question that is not rhetorical, but rather a question the viewer must answer themselves. Gilbert appears to have the burden of being the father figure in Arnie’s life. Gilbert must keep Arnie in line and perform standards up to Arnie deserves. With a father that has passed away and an absent mother, Gilbert
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.
In chronicling how the family structure has changed in America, it is important to understanding how family was actually defined. When referencing Leave it to Beaver (further referred to as LITB) times, family took on a substantive definition, or the idea that family was equivalent to relative, or related by blood or law. While this definition of family served the time period, it failed to evolve with society. For that reason, sociologists set out to determine a “more inclusive functionalist definition,” that focuses on what families do. “A functionalist definition of families focuses on how families provide for the physical, social, and emotional needs of individuals and of society as a whole” (Witt). With that, the functionalist perspective identifies six primary functions, which include reproduction, socialization, protection, regulation of sexual behavior, affection and companionship, and...
To help my peers and I become a more culturally competent we chose to watch the movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” in hopes to become more aware and knowledgeable about the differences of values and beliefs in our society. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape; a film produced in 1993, address many issues everyday people face in society such as socioeconomic struggle and mental or physical discrimination.
1. The Hickam family can be described through several different concepts based on the family systems approach. The first is through boundaries. Boundaries are defined as open or closed a system is (lecture). These boundaries in the system can be within the family itself or can occur between various systems as well (textbook). Boundaries are unhealthy when the boundary is extremely closed or extremely open (lecture). Boundaries seen in the movie October Sky were the Hickam family as a family system, but within the family, boundaries were between the parents and the kids, Homer and his father and Homer’s mom with Homer’s dad. The Hickam family also had boundaries with Miss Riley, the coal mine, Coalwood, college, and rocket science.
Taylor and Lou Ann demonstrate a symbiotic relationship between the roles and characteristics in a family. Edna Poppy and Virgie Mae replaces the missing physical and emotional traits in a stable household. The examples tie into the fact that not all families in this book match “the norms” and expectations, but are equally valued, blood or
Everyone in the world belongs to a subculture. Each subculture has its own sets of traditions, relics, and artifacts. Relics and artifacts are symbolic, material possessions important to one's subculture. Relics are from the past; artifacts are from the present. These traditions, relics, and artifacts help shape the personalities of individuals and how they relate with others. Individuals know about these items through storytelling in the subculture. Families are good examples of subcultures. My family, a middle-class suburban Detroit family of Eastern European heritage, has helped shape who I am through story telling about traditions, artifacts, and relics.
Gilbert Grape or the protagonist in the movie, is a young man who works in a grocery store to provide for his family and attempts to be the main caretaker of his 17 years old handicapped brother Arnie. The movie begins with Gilbert, standing with his autistic brother Arnie, while they look at the people who are camping by their caravans in the town. One of the campers’ lorry breaks down and a girl named Becky is stuck in the town with her grandmother. Grape’s family consists of a mother, which suffers from depression, was one of the prettiest women in the town. But when her husband committed suicide, she lets herself go and turns into the most obese person. Gilbert has two sisters, Amy is the oldest girl who undertakes the motherly role in the family by cooking for the rest of the family and Ellen is the youngest girl who suffers from self-admiration.
The Grapes is a dysfunctional family who is living in the underprivileged rural area. The household consists of mother, Bonnie Grapes, who is a 54 year old jobless widow; Amy Grapes, the 34 year old eldest daughter among children, who is also still unemployed; Gilbert Grapes, the 24 year old eldest son who works at a nearby grocery shop; Arnie Grape, the younger brother of Gilbert Grapes who is autistic; and Ellen Grape, the youngest child, who is 16 years old and works at an ice-cream parlor. The two members of the family are no longer living with it including Larry Grapes who has left the family and is doing the job of a flight attendant, and Albert Grapes, who is the deceased father of the children; he committed suicide 14 years earlier.
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.
THOSE OF US WHO grew up in the 1950s got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be—but the way things were
In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.
Becvar, D. S., & Becvar, R. J. (1999). Systems theory and family systems (2 ed.). Lanham, NY: University Press of America.
According to Simons et al. (2004), “the family is considered to be the most significant social system in which all individual function” (p. 96). The family consists of many synergistic and intricate parts creating a unified working system. Within the family system, each individual plays an important role in its healthy or unhealthy development, needs, desire, and specific family type, and overall success. “From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesian 4:16). The family system is influenced by all elements ranging from spiritual, culture, traditions and genetic
To thoroughly elaborate on the institution of family we most look at the family as it was before and how much it has changed over time. Throughout the years we are recognizing that the family is slowly being replaced by other agents of socialization. Families in the past consisted of a mother and a father and most times children. We are, as many societies a patriarchal society; men are usually the head of the households. This has always been considered the norm.