Analysis Of The Movie ' What 's Eating Gilbert Grape '

The author of this paper will analyze the film, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” This analysis will identify the strengths, weaknesses, and barriers that the family is encountering. The social worker will assist the Grape family with identifying goals to work on as individuals, and as a unit. One way is to implement a Generalist Intervention Model. The GIM can be used as a tool in assessing the family and their environment. When a family is in crisis, there are many agencies and social services that can help with issues. From a Macro level perspective, the Grape family slipped through the cracks in the system. The author will describe what macro social work entails. The National Association of Social Workers has created a Code of

The Grapes are a family living in a rural and economically depressed community. The members of the Grape family presently residing in the familial home consists of biological birth mother Bonnie Grape, who is unemployed and 54 years of age. Amy Grape, the eldest child, Unemployed and currently 34 years of age. Gilbert Grape, the eldest male sibling who is employed at a local grocery store and is currently 24, years of age. Arnie Grape is Gilbert’s younger brother and is presently turning 18 years of age. Arnie reaching his 18th birthday is considered to be somewhat of a triumph by the Grape family, as Arnie suffers from a debilitating medical condition that has not only kept him from achieving age appropriate

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape portrays a family that is dealing with the trials, tribulations, and also great times of having a member with a disability. The Grape family consists of Gilbert, Ellen, Amy, Mama, and of course, Arnie. The Grape family lives in an isolated town of Endora in a house that seems to be in shambles since their father died. In the beginning, Gilbert’s voiceover states that “living in Endora is like dancing to no music,” which one can definitely relate to after viewing this touching film. Gilbert Grape is a young man that has been impeded by more burdens than any man ought to have in an entire lifetime. He stocks shelves and delivers groceries for a local store, Lamson’s Grocery,

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, a motion picture released in 1993 and directed by Lasse Hallström, follows the life of Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) and his younger brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a mentally disabled 17 year old. Their mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates), is morbidly obese and has been home-bound for the past seven years following the suicide of her husband. After their father died, Gilbert became the main caregiver and provider for Arnie, their two sisters Amy and Ellen, and their mother. As they grew up, Gilbert quickly became Arnie’s role-model, and the two now share a special bond. The brothers work together at the local grocery store, are often found playing hide and seek, and have a special tradition where they watch the campers drive through their small town of Endora, Iowa every year. This year while watching the campers, a traveler named Becky (Juliette Lewis) caught Gilbert’s eye, and he has trouble keeping up with a new love interest and Arnie’s constant mischief.

The movie/documentary Food, Inc. came out in 2008, directed and starred by Robert Kenner. Kenners’ goal for this movie was to show the people of America the food they are eating and how there food is being processed, feed, treated, and killed. Kenner uses a very serious and

The Grape family shows clear signs of resiliency in the face of trauma and adversity. The have managed to stay together, as one unit, even after the death of their father. They have maintained their household and held on to their property. They continue to strive to take care of each other. Each family member has gravitated toward adopting responsibilities which strengthens the sense of purpose for each individual member, as well as provide a bit more needed stability for the wholesomeness of the family unit. The Grape family has the capacity to focus on a goal and work together to achieve it. A good example of this is the joint effort to come together

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 American drama film written by Peter Hedges and directed by Lasse Hallstrom. The film’s main characters are Johnny Depp as Gilbert Grape and Leonardo DiCaprio as Arnie Grape. The film depicts the burden of family caretaking and the affect it has on a family both mentally, physically, and financially. Gilbert is the primary caregiver for his mentally and developmentally disabled seventeen-year-old brother Arnie (who has the mental capacity of a young child), his morbidly obese mother Bonnie, known as Mama, and his two sisters Amy and Ellen. Amy, the oldest daughter, shares most of the household chores with Gilbert and helps with Arnie’s care. She plays the mother figure role for Arnie even though Arnie’s mother is alive. Ellen, the youngest daughter, is very negative in her feelings toward her family. She doesn’t help much with the family because she is busy being a teenage girl.

Arnie Grape was referred to this agency by Sheriff Jerry Farrell of the Endora Police Department. He was concerned about Arnie's continued lack of supervision. Sheriff Farrell stated that

In Lasse Hallström’s film, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, the struggles of living with a mental illness is displayed through Arnie Grape, the protagonist’s younger brother. Grape’s disability is never discussed in the movie, as the movie focuses on Gilbert Grape, the principal character, and his struggles with life and family responsibilities. With the use of various resources, such as a psychology textbook (Lilienfeld 2014), credible health associations’ websites, and The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DMS-5), one is capable of analyzing the nature of Arnie’s disorder and make a valid assumption that he is dealing with a mental illness: autism. Autism is a spectrum disorder characterized by “various degrees in difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors” ("Learning About Autism," n.d.). It becomes clear, through Arnie Grape’s social and cognitive impairment, that he has Autism, despite the fact that the film does not clearly state that he has a mental illness.

In Grapes, also, greed brings a terrible cost to all those involved. For example, the Californians, to protect themselves, greedily cover their jobs and attempt to force the migrants to leave, saying, “You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you...Okies settlin’ down.” (Steinbeck, 2006). The cost they pay is a loss of humanity, a loss of conscience, as no longer will the Californians help those in need, allowing for migrants and entire families to die and for them to sadly strike out against those who speak out. Yet the Joad family, at times, portrays their own greed. They take a job as a strikebreaker during a strike lead by one of the family’s best friends, John Casy, only to have Casy die and Tom nearly arrested again for murder. Also, the family shows greed by constantly moving in search of new jobs. As the family leaves the government camp, Tom, Pa and Al all have jobs, yet Ma wants even more money even though the camp supplies entertainment and, to an extent, food. However, the family wants more in their pocket, and so they leave that land of plenty into a dangerous, unknown land of hatred, fear, and anger and pay in many, many ways. Finally, the Joad family uses the dead Grandma to enter California, showing their greed and

In the film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" directed by Lasse Hallstrom in 1993, one of the main ideas is that of struggle and hardship. This idea is significant to the film because it relates to each character in a different way, making the storyline more interesting. Three different techniques used by Lasse Hallstrom to illustrate the idea of struggle and hardship include Gilberts voice over, the extra close-ups of Bonnie as she climbs the stairs and the double up of dialogue, where Mrs Carver is talking to Gilbert, and Mr Carver is heard tying to entertain their children in background.

Leonardo Dicaprio’s talent was noticed at a very young age. At the age of 10 he was already casting in a show called Growing Pains. He has won 47 awards. He also has his own quotes. Leonardo was named after the artist Leonardo da Vinci. Lastly, Leonardo was often offered to change his name to something more American; such as Lenny Williams.

According to Piaget, the development of a child's moral judgment is a shift from a heteronomous to an autonomous mode of thinking. Heteronomy is characterized by egocentrism, unilateral respect (where the child respects the parents' authority but is not respected in return), rigidity of rules (as given by adults and therefore not changed), and objective responsibility (action judged according to consequences (Ruffy, 1981, p. 61). A child is morally autonomous when s/he can establish relationships with others based on mutual respect. Moral autonomy also means the child places more importance on the intention leading to an action than on its consequences (Ruffy, p. 61). In other words, the child does the right thing because s/he understands what is right and makes a conscious decision based on that knowledge, rather than refraining from doing the wrong thing simply to avoid "getting into trouble." Arnie Grape, the younger brother in the film What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, has not attained an age-appropriate level of moral development because he is at the low end of the autism spectrum. He is incapable of understanding others or considering the consequences of his actions.

The movie Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, portrayed a beautiful family dynamic in a small town called Endora. The film is narrated in Gilbert’s perspective of how he understands his family and cares for his brother Arnie, who has a developmental disability. As Gilbert shows many adversaries in his life, he also shows strengths. Thus, the purpose of this essay will illustrate my reflectivity of my personal story to Gilbert’s. Additionally, the lens of a social worker will highlight the Grape family’s issues. In order, to understand the lack of support the family has and how to best support them. Therefore, the importance of reflectivity allows opportunity for clients and social workers to challenge self-awareness and creativity of self-care.

The Grape family experiences dysfunctions just like every family in this world, and when watching the movie this is clearly evident. The family goes through their shares of ups and downs, but they stick together. It is through adversity, and hard times that the family’s resiliency is demonstrated (Roehlkepartain and Syvertsen, 2014, p. 16). Even though their problems are highlighted in this movie, the family also displays strengths. The strengths that will be