Happiness In The Film 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape: The Reality of Happiness In 1993 the film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” was released by Paramount Pictures. The movie was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, and starred actors such as Leonardo Dicaprio, Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, John C. Reilly, and many more. This was an award winning film that showed life from a troubled family point of view. The oldest brother Gilbert Grape was living his teenage years taking care of his mentally challenged brother and physically challenged mother. The family had a rough life but still were on the Pursuit of Happiness, and while on this path Gilbert connects better with his family and meets a girl that as he sees it, could potentially change his life forever. Through this all,
Happiness is one of the most difficult things to wrap a mind around, and that is why it is difficult to understand. In the start of the movie Gilbert was fed up with his responsibilities, his family, and basically everything else. Then one day, boom a girl shows up in a beat up camper that Gilbert falls head over heels for. Suddenly his mindset on life changes. He starts to realize that family and friends are what means most. Gilbert struggles in the start in the film because “We do not always confront happiness head on” (Kingwell, 413). Although soon after Beckie shows up he confronts her head on, because she is what truly makes him happy. He didn’t understand his life, his family, or his adversaries. Until Beckie lead him to realize that what he had was special. Gilbert did not understand that what he had should make him a very happy person. From that moment on, Gilbert was happy. He was happy with Arnie, his mother, his job, and most importantly Beckie. What all of this personally tells me is that happiness is a very diverse thing for everyone. No one is going to understand their life fully, but one thing is for sure: true love really