Arnie Film Analysis

I would like to point out the parenting style that was reflected in this movie, which was Indifferent. Heath states that Indifferent parents “for several reasons do not spend the necessary time and energy required as their parenting role as well as they seem uninvolved and uninterested in their children’s development” (Heath 2013). This describes the mother perfectly. After her husband’s death she did not care about anything. She went into a depressed state, which forced Gilbert to play the role of a parent especially in Arnie’s eyes. Gilbert did a lot for the family. He tries to repair the house, he does everything for Arnie, and he also provides financially for the family. A lot of responsibility was put on Gilbert and you see throughout the movie how it affects him mentally.
All throughout the movie her weight was brought up often for example, when some of the kids in the neighborhood would try to sneak over in attempt to get a glance at her. Plus, the scene of where she finally leaves the house to bail out Arnie and everyone in town showed up at the courthouse to see how huge she was. I think this took a toll on the children in a significant way. For example, when they decided to burn down the house when she died. Instead of them feeling humiliated by having to get her corpse lifted from the house by a crane they would rather lose all of their belonging and burn the house down. This made me think of the social learning theory by B. F. Skinner. Skinner states, “ that children learn by observing others” (Heath 2013). These children learn to feel a certain way about their mother because of the reaction of the town’s people and how the treated her. It affected them mentally in a way that caused them to react by burning the