What's Eating Gilbert Grape Character Analysis

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is a movie about the life and hardships of Gilbert Grape. Gilbert is a 24 year-old boy, who should be out living his life, but is instead stuck with the responsibility of caring for his family. He took on this job after his father committed suicide to escape from it, and this is where all of his problems stem from. The best way to understand Gilbert’s issues is by taking a look at his relationships with each member of his family. To do so, I will begin with the person who had the least impact on his life, Ellen. Ellen was a young girl, going through her teen years in high school, who really had neither of her parents present to see her maturing. Her mother was still alive, but she didn’t participate much in anyone’s …show more content…
Amy, of course, still depended on Gilbert just as much as the rest of the family did, but she also tried her best to lessen the rest of the weight on his shoulders. She did so by acting as the ‘mother’ to Gilbert’s ‘father’, meaning that she took on the motherly role of the Grape household. After Amy’s father died, her mother gave up on living her life, rather than helping to shoulder some of the responsibility that her husband had left behind, so Amy helped Gilbert by taking care of those household responsibilities while he was out working. In the story, Gilbert also mentions that Amy used to have a job, meaning she was trying even harder to support Gilbert while he took on all of his dad’s old obligations, and she still continued to do so even after losing her job. Amy’s role in the household is to take care of Ellen, to cook, to clean, and to take care of Mama while Gilbert is at work with Arnie. This really helps to make Gilbert’s life easier, as he doesn’t have the time to do everything that Amy does on top of going to work and taking care of …show more content…
In doing so, Gilbert’s father also inadvertently caused a large number of problems within his family, and only really hurt them in the end. Although he was dead, Gilbert’s father still influenced his entire family’s lives throughout the story. Mama quit living her life after he passed, and so Amy was forced to take on her responsibilities. Gilbert had to inherit everything that his father used to do, including taking care of Arnie, and Ellen no longer had either of her parents to be there for her. All of these things missing from their lives are what led to the end of the story, where everyone ends up leaving Endora and going their separate