Analysis Of Relationships In What's Eating Gilbert Grape '

The compelling novel, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges, incorporates many complex relationships. This novel is narrated by the main character, 24-year old Gilbert Grape. Gilbert is the main caregiver to his dysfunctional family. He works to keep the roof over his obese mother, ungrateful younger sister, Ellen, overly stressed older sister, Amy, and mentally challenged younger brother, Arnie. With all of this unwanted responsibility, Gilbert does not have many relationships. The ones that he does have, do not seem to be very meaningful and sturdy. The most interesting of these relationships is with Mrs. Carver and Becky. These relationships, though they can be looked upon skeptically, are widely different in respect to what they mean to Gilbert and what

The relationship between Mrs. Carver and Gilbert is physical. They started the affair when Gilbert was only seventeen. As the story progresses, the audience realizes Gilbert feels stuck in the affair and wants a way out. This is especially prominent when Becky comes to Endora which encourages Gilbert to want more out of his life. Since their relationship started when Gilbert was fairly young, he does not understand what a true romantic relationship should look like. She is the only woman he has had a romantic relationship with and therefore, he does show to a degree, some attachment to her. This is why he kept the soda can she used for her cigarette when she came by the store before Mr. Carver’s funeral, “In my room, I dust off a corner on my lowest shelf. I look in the can and see that her cigarette butt has her lipstick on it. I remember the feel of her lips….I set the can in its new home…”(Hedges 213), and why he watches her moving van drive away. Even with the attachment, Mrs. Carver does not present Gilbert with many possibilities except an escape. She is a catalyst from his terrible life. When he is with her, he does not have to dread going home to