Influences of Fear in What's Eating Away At Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges

the novel the Lord of the Flies, fear is the root of the trouble that

Becky becomes involved with the Grape family and helps Gilbert to realize that he is entitled to his own life, wants and needs. Gilbert Grape will be the focus of this paper and what can be done to implement changes in his life. These changes will benefit Gilbert and the entire Grape family, by focusing on a strengths prospective.

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 boys in the book, The Lord of the Flies, are controlled by their fear of the beast.  This fear is not of the beast itself, but of the unknown. It comes from not knowing whether or not a beast exists.

Gilbert has unresolved feelings about his life and his responsibility to his family, and he makes it clear that he has become disgusted with his mother’s appearance. Gilbert is currently engaging in a sexual relationship with one of his married customers, Mrs. Carver. Mrs. Carver is significantly older than Gilbert, which may insinuate that Gilbert is suffering from an attachment disorder due to the lack of attention and affection from his parents.

overcome their fears. Through the actions and decisions of the characters the themes of fear and

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.

“What’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape” directed by Lasse Hallstrom delves into elucidating the various effects of three development concepts: genetics, the effects of environmental influences on an individual’s development, and the effects of developmental influences on young adults and adolescents. Michael Rutter, in his article, “The Interplay of Nature, Nurture and Developmental Influences,” further emphasizes the interplays between nature, nurture and developmental influences to elaborate the multifactorial connections between the effects of different influences on childhood development. In “What’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape,” Hallstrom demonstrates how not only are genetics environment and developmental influences intertwined with one another; but

When a family is put in tough situations, it is natural to want to escape from it all. As a man surrounded by things that seem beyond his control, the main character of the film, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, shows the psychological emotional detachment that can occur when the realization of such an escape is impossible. Gilbert Grape is a man often thinking carefully about his situation and making an effort to filter his feelings. His family life is depressing, and his emotional response to his living arrangement is an overall rejection of everything around him. Gilbert often shows contempt for his family by having cynical thoughts of them whenever he speaks inwardly about them in his mind. Gilbert appears to be on autopilot through life, only speaking enough to keep things peaceful with friends and the people of Endora. Gilbert has a general lack of interest in most relationships outside of his family, and often turns a blind eye towards the town of Endora as a whole. His severance extends even to himself, as he is not emotionally honest with himself. As the film progresses, Gilbert's emotional state begins to readjust as he comes back into contact with his feelings. The emotional detachment is extreme for Gilbert, and Johnny Depp does an excellent job at depicting the psychological effects of a broken home and the difficulty one faces in overcoming it.

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.

The first fear to arise in Lord of the Flies is a fear of abandonment, for a group of young English school boys that were in a plane crash while in the process of fleeing the war. The boys may feel like the have no home or place they belong. When they are on an uninhabited island and stuck with no one older then thirteen to lead them. When Piggy and Ralph meet, Piggy shows his sense of abandonment when he says “They’re all dead,’ said piggy an this is an island. Nobody don’t know we’re here.” (Goulding 9) This feeling of being abandoned ignites the fear in the young boys, and paves the path for the fear grow like fire. As if abandonment is not enough piggy shortly after brings up an even scarier topic, “We may stay here till we die.” (10). Being abandoned is a harsh feeling, but an even scarier feeling is dying, dying

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a motion picture drama that follows the life of the Grape family in the small, lackluster town of Endora (Hallstrom, 1993). Gilbert Grape, played by a young Johnny Depp, is the film’s predominant character and apparent man of the family after his father’s death. Throughout the movie, Gilbert narrates his thoughts as he attempts to navigate his familial responsibilities, his work, and his personal life. Gilbert struggles to take care of Bonnie, his morbidly obese mother, his new love interest, Becky, and his autistic brother, Arnie. Arnie is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and for the purpose of this assignment, will be the focus of this analysis.

We all think children are all innocent and cute, but is that really true? We always give excuses for children’s misconduct, distracting ourselves from the real truth. Kids are capable of terrible things that adults quickly ignore. Children can be very scary because of their capabilities that most adults believe to be innocent mistakes. One story that explores this fear is Ray Bradbury’s “The Man Upstairs.”

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is an incredible movie that was released in 1993 with two amazing actors, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Gilbert Grape, acted by Johnny Depp, lives in a small town with his five siblings and his mother. Gilbert has several responsibilities considering that his mother, acted by Darlene Cates, is very overweight and is not able to leave her home. He also has a younger brother Arnie, acted by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is mentally impaired. As the story begins, you learn about Gilbert’s father who committed suicide in the basement of the house when Gilbert was very young. This left his mother hopeless and depressed spending most of her time sitting on the couch watching TV and eating. Being unable to properly care for her family due to her obesity forces Gilbert to take on the responsibilities of repairing the house and taking care of Arnie while his sisters help as much as they can. Keep in mind that Arnie who has a mental illness has a tendency of getting into things he should not be in, as well as having a habit of climbing the water tower in town. Gilbert works at a small Grocery store in town where he often