by Marcus Huber

Created on: June 24, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2008

What's eating Gilbert Grape?

What's eating Gilbert Grape is a film about the dysfunctional grape family and revolves around how Gilbert has to put up with lots of things that anyone else wouldn't be able to put up with like looking after his mentally retarded little brother Arnie. The topics I will be visiting in this essay will be Gilbert having to be the responsible person in his family, Gilbert's relationship with Arnie, gilberts family putting him down about his work load and his affair with Mrs Carver

Gilbert gets annoyed about being the responsible one in his family because he never gets a spare minute of his own time to do what he wants to and is constantly looking after his brother Arnie and if he stops for a day all hell will break loose. Two times during the film Gilbert doesn't stay around Arnie and both times Arnie takes off and climbs the water tower Arnie sees this as an act of freedom and escaping the rut that Endora applies to all of its residents. Gilbert is also annoyed by momma's weight problem because it forces him to be the responsible one and get a job to support his family and constantly look after Arnie.

Gilbert's relationship with Arnie annoys him because Arnie is always around him and he has to help with everything like washing him and apologizing for him if he is rude and corrects him if he says something wrong. Their relationship is very good and there is only one or two bad parts shown in the entire film the worst of them was when Arnie was being a pain and ruining everything in the house out of excitement because the next day was his 18th birthday and Gilbert tried to settle him with a bath Arnie didn't listen and was hit and punched repeatedly by Gilbert in one of the last scenes near the end of the film Arnie forgives Gilbert and everything is back to normal.

Gilbert's entire family annoys him because they don't see the sacrifices he has to live with because his father isn't around and his mother is overweight to the point that the floor is starting to collapse underneath her the points they don't see are that looking after Arnie and keeping him out of trouble is a full time job with no pay or breaks and stacked with his job at the failing lamsons groceries which is on the verge of closing down. An argument about gilberts work load is almost always starts around the table during a family meal and no one ever notices Arnie is always around Gilbert and that Gilbert never has a moment of spare time while he is with him and that he is one of two people in the family with a job that pays for food and everything else in the house.

Mrs Carver annoys Gilbert with a constant need for attention and feeling that Gilbert can't provide she is a big output for Gilberts emotions and a big part of his sociol life he is having an affair with her because she thought she needed more excitement in her life. Mrs Carver says that she chose Gilbert because she thought he would never leave her and is stuck for words when he chooses to leave her in her last scene in the film she says to Gilbert that if her children could be like him then she would be happy.

Lots of the things in the film annoy Gilbert and over half of them stem from his families problems that force more things upon him. Most of the time in the film Gilbert is calm and this shows even when almost everything in his life is falling apart he wont over-react to it and end up hurting someone close to him but it also shows even people who are always calm have limits and twice during the film he looses his temper and shows remorse for what he did and attempts to patch things up with whoever he hurts

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