Community In What's Eating Gilbert Grape

In What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993), the Grape family, along with other families in Endora, Iowa, struggle to make the best of life in the impoverished rural town. Some outside factors led to the town becoming what it is in the film. The small store, Lamson’s Grocery, that Gilbert Grape, who is the primary bread winner of the Grape family, works in used to do very well. Along with many other specialty shops in the small town, until a chain supermarket opened up just a short distance away. With the chain supermarket being able to stock most goods, it rendered many of the small town businesses useless to neighboring towns and the people in the town. Which led to many people losing their jobs and therefore causing the small rural town to fall …show more content…
Gilbert has a hard time balancing work, Arnie, and the house. It is shown statistically that people in “rural areas experience more poverty and the negative effects of poverty such as…unsafe housing” (Martha Furman, Counterpoise 9.4). At every turn, there is something new wrong with the house. In one scene, one of Gilbert’s friends points out that Gilbert’s father didn’t build the house up to code. The beams are too far apart and the stress of Bonnie’s added weight is causing the floors to start to give. Thankfully Gilbert’s friend is able and willing to help keep the house in almost decent living condition. Without his help, it would be more money down the drain, when they don’t really have any to spare. By having friends who are ready and willing to assist him, it benefits rather than complicates their situation by making changes to the house without having to spend heaps of money to pay someone to come in and fix …show more content…
When many people think of poverty they picture living conditions that aren’t up to par, and not a lot of money due to financial instability. In the Grape family’s case, they don’t have the best house or a sustainable income that keeps them above the poverty line. The Grape’s really try to make best of the home that they were raised in. The family lives in a decent sized house that their deceased father built them. With him gone it’s hard for the family to be able to sustain it. He was the bread winner of the family, so now Gilbert has had to step up and take that role. Gilbert’s mother, Bonnie (called Momma throughout most of the film), fell into deep depression after her husband’s death, which led to her becoming morbidly obese. She refuses to leave the comforts of her home for fear of being laughed at and made a mockery of. With her unable to maintain the role as a mother, Gilbert has to take care of his whole family. It is hard for many who are able to make minimum wage. He has to take care of his two sisters; Amy and Ellen, his brother Arnie, and his mom. That’s a hard commitment for any guy, none the less a young