Rotting Roots Gilbert Family Analysis

Rotting Roots
Relationships between family members can play important roles in the shaping and outcome of our lives. Caring and loving family members can give each other needed support and be there for one another helping our growth. Families that are disconnected, lack care, and fight, can bring the entire family down, just like Gilbert's family. Gilbert's family was eating away at his life, and causing him to be unhappy.
At the beginning of the film, Gilbert was already experiencing stress and massive responsibilities. It all began with the death of his father. Due to his father's death, Gilbert was left with the responsibility of having to provide for his family, keep his father's “house” standing, and protect his family. In order to do this Gilbert was forced to find a job, which he found at a dead end supermarket. On top of his job Gilbert was making sure that his family's home was safe to live in by having repairs made, and looking for any faults in the house. Furthermore, Gilbert then had to protect his family by letting no one hurt them or make fun of them. In a matter of time Gilbert was already given the weight of being the “ man of the house”, this is
Anytime that Gilbert messed up in something he did, or hasn't done something he's supposed to do, his sisters were there to rub it in, specifically his younger sister Ellen. The relationship between Ellen and Gilbert was very uneasy. Both Ellen and Gilbert would toss remarks towards one another, and sometimes fight and annoy each other. In one instance, Ellen was blowing a trumpet very loud on purpose to annoy Gilbert. In frustration, Gilbert got his truck and almost ran her over. The amount of frustration Gilbert had boiling up inside of him was enough that it caused him to do something as extreme as that, this shows how much all of his responsibilities and family members were taking a toll on his