The film, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, is about a young man named Gilbert Grape who takes care of his younger brother Arnie who is autistic – a mental disability. Gilbert takes on several other responsibilities such as caring for his obese mother, working at the local grocery store, and trying to keep things afloat in the house. However, things get complicated for Gilbert when he pursues interest in a young woman named Becky. Gilbert struggles to find time to take care of his brother Arnie while trying to pursue a relationship with Becky.…
Further, while Aunt Aggie obviously never assumes the role as the mother of Frank and his siblings, inhabit maternal qualities and roles. When Eugene and Oliver, Frankie’s younger twin brothers, die of pneumonia she is there to help prepare for the funerals. On a separate occasion, Aunt Aggie takes the McCourt children under her roof and cares for them while their mother was being hospitalized for pneumonia. Prior to living with Aunt Aggie, the McCourt boys and their mother were so plagued with poverty and hunger that the children had been forced to steal bread, lemonade, marmalade, and fuel from wealthier families just to survive. Aunt Aggie’s house was a place where they could always be fed, though they were not indulging in the ham sandwiches and tomatoes, those were only for Aggie and Uncle Pa; instead, Frankie and his younger brothers were given thinly sliced bread and tea. Though Aunt Aggie took her sister’s sons under her wing- housing them, feeding them, clothing them- in a desperate time of need, the way she treated these boys was at times traumatic. Aggie often abuses the children both verbally and physically. She losses her temper and ends up screaming at them, tormenting them, calling Frankie “Scabby eyes” and telling him “[You’re] the spitting image of your father, [you have] the odd manner…” and so on (Page 247). She often beats them, forces them to stand outside naked, cold, and wet, makes them to scrub their bodies until their skin is raw. At one point, Frankie becomes so miserable that he tries to give himself pneumonia so that he can escape Aunt Aggie and live in the hospital. Malachy runs away after being beaten for asking for bread, to which Aggie responded “Well, I suppose he ran away. Good riddance. If he was hungry he’d be here. Let him find comfort in a ditch.”(Page…
Another quote I found interesting was when the mom said “The edges of the grass are turning brown and poor peter (rabbit) is gasping in the heat, but you’re cool and fresh and dancing. This quote is showing the minor responsibilities like looking after a rabbit comes last often when we have “boyfriends” and “friends” That we always tend to put first rather than care for the one that need us the…
Jack refuses to believe that Simon was murdered. Instead, he convinces the boys that it was a “beast [that had] disguised itself” (Golding 161).…
ii. Perhaps not being in control and not being able to bring home money to his family makes him feel like a waste and a failure, for as the story goes on, he drinks more and more until he dies of alcoholism. Katie tries to help her…
Betty, a widowed mother of two fled after the death of her husband. Much like Bonnie, Betty feels that she also played a major role with the death of her husband. “Everybody thinks I killed him, do you?” Her husband, Mr. Carver died drowning, which was caused by the cardiac arrest that led to him falling into the children’s pool. Betty Carver was known to have an affair with Gilbert, this was because she was unhappy with her marriage. Mr. Carver had unsubtlety alluded that he knew what was happening between Betty and Gilbert, often interrogating Gilbert with broad passive-aggressive questions that can often be perceived as a threat. In order for Hallström to emphasise that Gilbert was intimidated by Mr. Caver, he often shot conversation scenes between the two using over the shoulder shots. It showed how tense and uncomfortable Gilbert was during the conversations. Mr. Carver had repeatedly raised doubts about the future of his marriage; how if he were to accuse Betty of cheating, his world would fall apart instantly and the reputation of his business would be tarnished. The idea of not being “good enough” consumed his thought process and soon he became obsessed with the idea, hence why he had the episode with his children about being a “fun” dad. This put him under a great deal of stress to be the “perfect” father and husband. Copious amounts of emotional stress is a major cause to having a cardiac arrest. This event seemed to reflect the situation of the death of Mr. Grape. It shows the ways that Betty and Bonnie dealt with guilt. Betty and Bonnie’s reaction was to flee; Betty fled from town, whereas Bonnie fled from…
The Glass Menagerie was written by Tennessee Williams and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was written by Peter Hedges. The first main difference between these two works is that The Glass Menagerie was a memory play that premiered in 1944 and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was a novel in 1991 that was later adapted into a film in 1993. The main factor in The Glass Menagerie is that the characters and the story mimic the author’s own life, which he includes himself, his mother and sister as the representation of the characters in the play and how his emotions are depicted towards his family. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is separate and not inspired by the author’s life, but instead about a man named Gilbert that has to take care of his disabled brother and his obese mother, which gets in the way when love walks into his life. The similarities and differences that both stories have are the characters and the themes, such as escapism and the interactions between the main character and his family.…
This is the Grape family. Within this family unit there are five people. Bonnie Grape is the mother and she has four children; Gilbert, Amy Ellen and Arnie, who has been classified as autistic. When the family was still quite young, the father, Albert Grape, hung himself in the basement of the family home. In his passing, Gilbert became a substitute father for Arnie, and Amy became a substitute mother as Bonnie, his natural mother, over a period of time became obese and unable to help with him. This placed enormous stress on the family, especially…
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a film, directed by Lasse Hallström it takes place in the monotonous town of Endora, Iowa where there’s not a whole lot to do. Gilbert is a young man who wants nothing more than to leave and pursue something bigger. Gilbert is tied down due to his family who he must help, as they are in quite a struggle as it is. Gilberts brother, Arnie is almost eighteen and suffers from a mental disability. Gilbert must constantly watch Arnie so as to make sure he does not get into any trouble, or cause trouble for anyone else. Arnie’s mother, Bonnie is morbidly obese and has continued to eat her pain away ever since her husband, committed suicide. Gilbert also has two sisters, Amy and Ellen. Amy helps her mother and Arnie as much as she can and is selflessly assisting them in any way she can. Ellen is a fifteen-year-old girl, generally too swept up in her adolescent social life to do next to anything to help out. The film uses a number of film techniques, such as: mise-en-scene, and a variety of long shots and close-ups.…
Of Mice and Men is a novel filled with suprises and tells the tale of George and Lennie, an unlikely pair traveling together in the face of loneliness and alienation. The two find themselves working as lowly farm hands, who must work together to achieve their dream. It seems like an easy task, but Lennies mental condition brings problems that could affect their dream and their lives. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie is the biggest victim of society. This is evident through Lennies role in the development of the themes loneliness and being treated poorly.…
The second personal influence is Mildred. Mildred, his wife of a few years is a negative influence on him. She doesn’t know who she really is and lives in an fantasy world with her…
In today’s world, we have come to see that trial, error, pain, and the striving for living a glamorous life are common; we all know it’s an exhausting task. Everybody seems to “go through the motions” at one point or another; we all seem to have this point in life where everything seems like a black hole that’s going nowhere. In the book, Of Mice and Men, and play Death of a Salesman, we see this is common, among many other similarities. However, no story is ever the same between two people’s lives, and this is also shown in these two works of literature.…
Barriers prevent individuals from transitioning into a “new world” however overcoming these barriers serve compensate the individual in an array of manners. Therefore yes I do agree with this perspective as this is evident in the feature film “Billy Elliot” by Stephen Daldry and the short story “Only Ten” by Allan Baillie. The composers of these texts convey to the audience that moving “into the world” can encompass many benefits.…
Gilbert clearly has no regard for himself when decisions are made surrounding his responsibilities to the family. He complies with the family's needs realizing that that is the only way for the family to "survive and thrive within an American community" (Hepworth et al, 2002). Ellen, the youngest sibling counts everyone but herself "out" when making decisions. She is looking out for her well being and has decided that she will do everything she can to make sure decisions are made in her best…
Gilbert gets bothered 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 .Two times during the film, Gilbert doesn't stay around Arnie and both times Arnie takes off and climbs the water tower. Arnie see this as an act of freedom and escaping from Endora. But after all their relationship is good. " arnie could go anywhere. Some days you want him to live. Some days you don't." suggest Gilbert. Gilbert is also upset by Mamma weight problem because it force him to be responsible on everything bad that happen.…