The film, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape provides a glimpse into the lives of one family living with disabilities. The two people in the film easiest to identify as people with disabilities are Arnie, who is a boy who has an intellectual disability and his mother who suffers from depression resulting in obesity and mobility impairments. It is important to note that the story of the Grape family takes place in a very specific set of circumstances and therefore cannot be universally applied as the experience of all people who have intellectual disabilities, depression, or are morbidly obese. Although the story is not useful as a documentary about disability; it is a valuable tool for people new to the study of disabilities as well as those familiar with disabilities to enter into meaningful reflection regarding disabilities. The movie, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, invites the viewer to consider the impact of disability on families, communities and people with disabilities themselves and it is in this way that the film provides an invaluable contribution to the field of disability studies.
When the word impact is used in relation to disability there is a tendency to assume that all impacts are negative. This assumption can be quickly dispelled by pairing the word impact with other phrases as in: “the impact of winning the lottery”, the impact of quitting smoking” and so on. In the same way, the impact that Mamma and Arnie’s disabilities have on their community, their family, and their own lives were both positive and negative. Let us first examine the way that disability and its associated impacts were portrayed positively in this film.
Both Mamma and Arnie served as a rallying point for their family. Throughout the movie it is clear that there are negative tensions between Gilbert and his sisters. This tension is most evident in Gilbert’s sister’s vocal belief that Gilbert “needs to do better” in his assumed care provider duties for Arnie. Both Gilbert and his sisters are able to overcome their strife on the basis of their mutual love for Arnie and Momma at several points throughout the film. This overcoming is evidenced by them working together to eat at the table with Momma and to prepare and implement the community birthday party for Arnie, despite Gilbert assaulting Arnie and consequently running away for a short period of time.
The film also portrays Arnie as being fairly independent and integrated. Arnie is not institutionalized or in a home. Instead, Arnie lives with his family, participates in the community, and even helps his brother with his job. This is significant as it portrays Arnie as an accepted part of his community. Although we see Arnie being teased by children at one point the majority of the movie portrays him as a person that the community has welcomed in with love. This love is evidenced by people greeting him by name, helping him feed his grasshoppers in a jar, clapping when he is rescued from the water tower even though it’s a too frequent event etc.
Both Mamma and Arnie teach Gilbert valuable lessons throughout the movie as well. Gilbert is portrayed as the main care provider and protector of his brother in the film but he is also shown making fun of his mother and displaying her as an object of ridicule to children. Gilbert does not see his mother’s illness the same way that he sees Arnie’s disability. This is common in real life as people tend to have difficulty accepting that Mental Illness can be disabling and out of the control of the person affected by it. Mamma engages in a powerful display of self-advocacy when she confronts Gilbert about his shame regarding her condition. This encounter helps Gilbert to see his bigotry and he shows himself to be a changed man by introducing his girlfriend to Mamma with pride and by burning the house down to prevent Mamma from becoming a joke.
Arnie also acts as a teacher to Gilbert following Gilbert’s assault on Arnie. When Gilbert returns to Arnie’s birthday party he is ashamed to confront his brother but Arnie offers him a safe way in by engaging in a familiar hide and seek ritual with Gilbert. This portion of the film was especially insightful as Arnie obviously forgives his brother but not in a naïve or childlike way. Arnie slaps his brother hard in the cheek twice while making a serious expression as if to say “I forgive you but I expect it not to happen again”. In this way Arnie is able to show forgiveness and humility to Gilbert while teaching him that Arnie may not be as defensless as he once assumed.
Although the movie does well to show people with disabilities in the valued roles of community members, teachers, brothers, and respected individuals (in the case of Mamma who is verbally respected by several people throughout the film including the police officer who release’s Arnie), the film also portrays a significant negative side to disability.
In answer to the question, “what is eating Gilbert Grape?” several answers can be posed. Gilbert is experiencing significant pressure from his family, and the police to “do a better job” caring for Arnie. He is expected to provide personal care, financial assistance, and daily supervision for his brother. He is also expected to maintain the family home which is in poor repair, he is involved in an affair that he fears is known to the husband, and he acts as social support to his friends and his boss in a town that appears to be dying. All of these things add up to a near nervous breakdown for Gilbert that culminates with him hitting Arnie in a state of frustration.
The care providers in this film are portrayed as being overburdened and burnt out. The sisters seem to take the primary role in caring for Mamma as they prepare meals, make up her bed, and interact socially with her. Gilbert is the primary care provider for Arnie and this responsibility has significant impact on him for the majority of the film. The negative connotations of care provision are most pronounced in the character of Gilbert.
Because Gilbert is charged with the majority of Gilberts care he is limited in a number of ways. Firstly, his social life is significantly regulated by Arnie’s care needs. Gilbert tries to get around this issue several times in the movie and the consequences are grave as Arnie is arrested when Gilbert should have been watching him and Arnie is left in the tub for a significant amount of time. Gilbert is also financially and geographically bound by his responsibilities with Arnie.
He confesses to his new girlfriend Becky at one point that he had to pick up extra shifts just to put food on the table. It is also evident that Gilbert needs to stay at his current grocery job as it facilitates care for Arnie. In the conclusion of the film Gilbert is relieved of some of his responsibilities by Mamma’s death, the burning of the family home by finding Becky and her Grandmother who are willing to welcome him and Arnie into their lives.
One assumes that this turn of events provides relief for Gilbert. If fate had not provided for this relief one can easily see the need for greater support for Gilbert in the form of his sisters taking greater responsibility for Arnie, some sort of respite being established and life skills training for Arnie who is obviously capable of greater self-care and independence.
In conclusion, this film provided a glimpse into the lives of a family and a community significantly impacted by disability. As a disability service worker it was easy to identify ways to manage some of the glaring issues in the film (like installing a barrier over the water tower latter). The films strength lies partially in its flaws as it leaves room for conversation about community support, family support, disability and family dynamics. The characters with visible disabilities in the film offered a fair representation of real people living regular lives impacted by disability. Arnie in particular portrayed a balanced view of someone who faced challenges but also displayed great strengths. He was a human character with many aspects common to all people including, the full range of emotions, a need for social relationships, and a variety of strengths and weaknesses.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is an excellent film to be used as a springboard into exploration of a number of issues surrounding disability and social dynamics and as such I would recommend it for use by all people concerned with these issues and the spread of disability education.
FILM: LOST IN YONKERS (1993)
The movie, Lost in Yonkers, is a drama about two young boys who are forced to spend ten months living with their stern German grandmother and their Aunt Bella in a small town called Yonkers. The involuntary union is tense from the beginning as the Grandmother is manipulated into boarding the boys by Aunt Bella so that their father can travel the country selling scrap metal in order to pay off a significant debt. The story is colored by an unusual location above a candy shop, the presence of a gangster uncle, and the fact that Aunt Bella has either a learning disability or a very mild intellectual disability.
Lost in Yonkers has several characters in it who have disabilities. The Grandmother uses a cane, Bella’s love interest has an intellectual disability, her sister has a communication disability and Bella either has a learning disability or an extremely mild intellectual disability. All of these characters offer opportunities to discuss disability from helpful vantage points but this paper will focus on Bella as she was the central figure with a disability.
It is interesting to note that the character of Aunt Bella displays some confusing inconsistencies throughout the movie. In the beginning of the film Bella is spoken of by her brother Eddie to his sons Arty and Jay as though she is profoundly disabled. He warns the boys not to make fun of their aunt and the boys spend some time in the candy shop discussing her as though she is significantly intellectually disabled. Aunt Bella confirms this negative talk when she nearly walks past her house and gets unreasonably angry with the boys after they reject her ice cream treat, even going so far as to run outside to cry against the brick wall of the candy shop. As the movie progresses Aunt Bella’s character almost completely ceases to display these behaviors.
Aunt Bella is shown to be so competent throughout the movie that the viewer is forced to ask whether she is in fact a person with a disability at all. Bella operates the candy shop including the till, customer service, and food preparation without any assistance. She is also completely independent in her daily routine which includes caring for her grandmother through daily food preparation and house cleaning. Bella dresses and behaves appropriately for a woman of her age although she is eccentric. She also displays sensitivity and maturity in her social relationships. This sensitivity is best displayed when she tells Johnny that, “he does not have to do anything that he does not want to do” after he tells her that he does not want to pursue a relationship with her. Bella also formulates several complex speeches about the social dynamics in her family that would require substantial intellectual proficiency.
It is this viewer’s opinion that Bella is not a person with an intellectual disability in any observable sense. The only reason that Bella is perceived as a disabled woman is because she is identified as such by her family and herself. That being said this film may serve as an example of a woman struggling against a label that does not accurately describe her. However, as a whole, I would not suggest this movie as a tool to educate people about individuals with intellectual disabilities because it does not accurately portray anyone with that label. I mention intellectual disabilities, specifically, because it appears that “person with an intellectual disability” is the label Bella holds. The main evidence for this would be when Bella’s mother says that the doctors said she will always be “a child” which is not something typically said concerning learning disabilities.
Although I would not recommend the movie in its entirety as a learning tool I would support the use of several scenes within the film. The two most impactful scenes in the film with application in the world of disability studies are the family meeting when Bella announces her wedding and the conversation that Bella’s has with her mother about her disability and her perpetual childlikeness.
In the family meeting scene, Bella acts as a strong self-advocate for her desire to have a family and to be loved. This scene is a powerful example of the desire that families sometimes display to shelter their family members who have disabilities. It also demonstrates some of the negative perceptions that are sometimes cast on people with disabilities.
When Bella raises her voices her brother attempts to run out and blames her emotional display on her “disability”. This type of dismissal is common for people with intellectual disabilities in my experience. An appropriate display of emotion that would be taken seriously if it came from someone without a disability is often dismissed as a symptom of the disability when displayed by a person with an intellectual disability.
The discussion between Bella and her mother about Bella’s disability is also a powerful scene, rich with discussion points surrounding several key issues in disability studies. In this scene Bella’s mother states that the doctors told her that Bella will always be a child and that is how the mother should treat her. Bella retorts with the fact that she looks and feels like a woman. She also reveals that she has been sexually active for a number of years. This portrait opens up fertile ground for discussing sexuality and disability, labelling, misdiagnosis, and the importance of family education about disability. It should be noted here that Bella’s response is very well thought out, mature, and indicative of a well-educated and eloquent speaker. Although Bella’s character fails to accurately portray a woman with an intellectual disability in this scene the content of the scene still remains useful.
In conclusion, Lost in Yonkers has several scenes in it that are useful for exploring the social consequences of intellectual disabilities but it fails in its portrayal of Bella as a woman with an intellectual disability. Aunt Bella may have had a mild learning disability but at her particular stage in life it was not acting as a significant barrier to her success. Furthermore, the portrayal of Bella was inconsistent throughout the film as Bella displays inappropriate behavior (running out crying over ice-cream, almost walking past her home etc.) in the opening scenes of the movie but seems to shed this aspect of her character almost completely by the end of the movie.
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