VILLAFLOR, Frances Louise R.

BS7A

“Life as an Autism Sibling in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”

SUMMARY
Gilbert Grape lives in a small town called Endora. Nothing ever happens there. The only thing
they have to look forward to is the annual pilgrimage of travel trailers that comes to their town to
camp and go fishing nearby. The Grape family consists of Momma, two sisters, Gilbert, and his
mentally challenged brother Arnie. Taking care of Arnie has largely fallen to Gilbert, while
Momma who was grown to huge proportions can't get up off the couch. The two girls are too
self-absorbed to help. The rest of the story winds around Gilbert's struggles to keep his brother
out of trouble, the family's planning for Arnie's 18th birthday, and Gilbert's yearn to find a girl.
When he starts to abandon his responsibilities toward his brother in order to pursue the girl, his
brother gets into trouble every time. His favorite prank is to climb to the top of the city's water
tower, bringing out the police, firemen, and the whole town to watch the spectacle. If they're not
gawking at Arnie, they're gawking at Momma, who is huge. The three-story lines nicely tie
together by the end when Arnie is out of trouble long enough to attend his own birthday party
and Gilbert finds the girl. After Arnie’s 18th birthday celebration, Momma get upstairs for the
first time in seven years since his husband committed suicide. With great astonishment, her two
children, Amy and Gilbert follow her upstairs told her to rest and have a good sleep. Momma
told Gilbert to call Arnie. Momma’s sudden death failed Arnie to see her awake and thought at
first that she was just sleeping. To avoid their mother being the joke of the town by carrying her
corpse by a crane, the children decided to get all the furniture and burn the house. A year later,
they live again peacefully in the same ordinary life in Endora.

THE CHARACTER OF ARNIE

What are the personality traits of this Character?
Arnie is a 17-year-old boy and is close to turning 18 who is childish, joyful and clumsy. he is
over-friendly even with strangers, honest (makes honest observations but sometimes
inappropriate), very boisterous and very talkative about one or two topics. Likes to repeat
unusual actions and imitating conversations.
What are his underlying needs and motives?
He just likes attention, somebody that listens to him while he is telling something again and
again. He also needs someone that takes care of him dearly, protects him and somebody who
knows what to do to get him down if he climbs on the tree or the top of the city’s water tower
and that person is his older brother Gilbert who understands him the most of what he needs. He
needed to be surrounded by positive and patient people because he likes to imitate the people
around him.
VILLAFLOR, Frances Louise R.
BS7A

What are his relationships like with friends, family, people in general, etc.
He is very cheerful in every people that he meets but seems difficult to understand other’s
feelings like when Gilbert said the word “Dad’s dead”, Arnie likes to repeat that word again and
again that he feels happy doing it without knowing the meaning of it. While he keeps doing it,
he’s mother lose her emotion and shouts at Arnie which made him also to shout and laugh at
first, but cried out loud in the end. Arnie can respond to social interaction but his comments have
no connection to the current conversation. he is also a very friendly person especially to children
younger than him. He is playful, likes to count numbers, talks excessively of a certain topic that
interests him and unaware or disinterested in what is going on around them.
How does he change during the course of the movie?
Arnie is very cheerful and friendly by nature, but when there is any event that is very traumatic,
it will affect his perception on the person or the place where the event happened that will result
for him to be traumatized, hysterical and avoid that place or people. This shows the scene where
Gilbert forgot to guide Arnie on his bath that lead Arnie stayed on the bathtub overnight
shivering. After that incident, Arnie don’t want to take a bath anymore and he becomes
hysterical when forced to. Becky, Gilbert’s girlfriend helped Arnie to encourage not to be afraid
of the water by just patiently teaching him to swim and play on the river. The other scene is
where he saw his mother on the bed. He doesn’t know that she’s dead and thought that she was
just sleeping. But when he realized she’s not waking up, he had difficulty understanding it and he
feels so confused why he feels the sorrow and as a result he keeps punching his head and crying
out loud. The last scene is where Arnie’s sense of smell became overly sensitive after smelling
his spaghetti for breakfast.
What Psychological Disorder the character is suffering from? Include the symptoms.
Based on my observations of he’s behavior and with my knowledge about Abnormal
Psychology, Arnie is suffering from Autistic Disorder. Arnie shows some symptoms include:
Social Communication:
 Having difficulties with the back and forth of conversation
 Often talking at length about a favorite subject without noticing that others are not
interested or without giving others a chance to respond
 Having facial expressions, movements, and gestures that do not match what is being said
 Having an unusual tone of voice that may sound sing-song or flat and robot-like
 Having trouble understanding another person’s point of view or being unable to predict
or understand other people’s actions
Repetitive Behaviors:
 Repeating certain behaviors or having unusual behaviors. For example, repeating words
or phrases, a behavior called echolalia
 Having a lasting intense interest in certain topics, such as numbers, details, or facts
 Having overly focused interests, such as with moving objects or parts of objects
 Getting upset by slight changes in a routine
VILLAFLOR, Frances Louise R.
BS7A

 Being more or less sensitive than other people to sensory input, such as light, noise,
clothing, or temperature

SCENE ANALYSIS

Grasshopper Scene
This is the scene where Arnie kills a grasshopper by cutting its head off in the mailbox and a
little while after he kills it he gets very upset at himself and is sad that the grasshopper died. I
chose this scene because it accurately shows the characteristics of people with Autistic Disorder
when they are in an uncomfortable situation like when Arnie realized that he killed a grasshopper
and gets very upset because he thinks it is wrong, he does certain hand movements, stereotyped
and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-
body movements). He has eye twitches and he blinks quite often. Arnie have unusually intense
and prolonged emotional reactions on things that excites or upsets him. After the scene of him
feeling guilty of killing a grasshopper, the next scene shows Arnie always carrying a jar of
grasshoppers in it and taking care of it reveals that he has an unusual interest in objects which is
another symptom of a child with Autistic Disorder.

Climbing and Bathtub scene

Arnie is always running off and hiding from Gilbert or climbing the water tower. Gilbert knows
where Arnie is hiding but plays a game and pretends that he does not know Arnie is up in the tree
and he thinks Gilbert has no idea where he is. When other people get hurt or when Arnie says
mean things to others he thinks that it is very funny and usually laughs hysterically. He is
arrested for climbing the water tower and when they put him in the cop car, all he is worried
about is the cops turning on the lights and sirens. He is not able to take care of himself. For
example, Gilbert puts Arnie in the bath and tells him that he is a big boy and can wash himself.
Gilbert leaves and comes back the next morning to find Arnie still in the bathtub. Arnie repeats
everything that people tell him to do and what they say in general. After the bathtub incident,
Arnie is afraid of any kind of body of water.
VILLAFLOR, Frances Louise R.
BS7A
VILLAFLOR, Frances Louise R.
BS7A

What This Movie Means to Me:

This movie almost explains my life and my relationship with my family. The character that I
related the most is Gilbert because we both have the same struggles in life. We are always
craving for freedom. Just like Gilbert, my family never notice how tired I am to be a shock
absorber, a peacemaker on our house. I am the only one who is calm and patient. I rarely argue
with them because I understand them that sometimes it’s not them who expresses that behavior.
I'm thanking the higher source which is God that he leads me to the right direction to shift a
course that fits with my personality and experiences in life which is Psychology. Since I became
a psychology student, I can now understand the behaviors of my family and I know now the
reason why there was a conflict, fights and misunderstandings from my relatives when I was a
child. I can also relate to the character of Becky who help Gilbert to be free and change his
outlook in life, which is to give time and love to himself not just on his family. I change as much
as possible the way our system works in the family. From negative to a positive one. I always
balance and help to ease out the situation without them noticing it. But just like Gilbert, I am
craving for freedom, to be myself as a daughter, as a student and to feel young while I am still
young.