What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is an intriguing film which teaches a very valuable lesson about life. The film does a very good job with expressing the importance of roles within the family, responsibilities and breaking down barriers. This film does well with educating its audience about accepting themselves and others in many different aspects of life. The symbolism in this movie has had a very positive affect throughout my life and my coming of age transition. In the film, the character named Gilbert Grape withholds a lot of responsibility in his family. Gilbert is often seen as the father figure throughout his house hold because his mother is very obese and immobile. Gilbert is the second oldest and most responsible out of all of his siblings,