Examining the Stereotypes in Hallstrom's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"

This paper explores the movie, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, that tells the story of Gilbert Grape and his family taking care of his autistic brother after their father died several years before. The movie portrays one way of how society sees people with a communication disorder.He patiently attends to Arnie’s quicksilver moods that can be wild, childlike, or controlling.As a result of his family issues, Gilbert is left to take full responsibility of Arnie while working full time to support his family.Over the years many people have been diagnosed with a disorder but never knew how to work with it. There have been a lot of Hollywood movies have portrayeddifferent communication disorders, but most of the movies do not accurately portray the disorders well.These films often misrepresent disability using stereotypes. These stereotypes reinforce negative and incorrect social perceptions of, and attitudes towards disorders.

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape actively portrays autism in a teenage boy who is being taken care of by his family and it effects his family on many different levels. This film portrays what it like for the kids have to take on full responsibility and be an adult and take care of themselves and their family. The portrayal of autism thtorugh Arnie was very accurate and it shows some of the consequences of his actions.

Message

I think that the one part of the message of the screenwriter by including a communication disorder in this film was how a communication disorder, specifically autism, effects families and how they live. I also think that another part of the message is thatchange is coming, change may not be entirely for the better, and that it is best to make adjustments. The last part of the message of the screenwriter is that young people need to find a way fully develop their own lives and still meet their responsibilities; where these conflict, compromises must be found.

Effectiveness of portrayal

I feel that the characteristics of Arnie’s autism was portrayed accurately. I think that the director and Leonardo DiCaprio did a very good job of portraying autism and the symptoms in this film. I feel that the portrayal was promoted in both a positive and negative way. I think that the film was portrayed in a positive way because it showed the personality of a n individual with autism, but at the same time it showed the negative consequences of the actions of a person with autism. One negative consequence is that Arnie got arrested because he wanted to climb the water tower and to me that was a negative way that portrayed autism because it shows that just because someone has a communication disorder or any other kind of disorder it does not mean that you have to arrest them. They may not know that what they are doing is wrong even though you might remind them multiple times.

Transformation of Gilbert and Arnie

The inclusion of autism in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape transformed Arnie and Gilbert Grape. It transformed Arnie because he had to learn the consequences of his actions. This showed him that there are some things that he can and can’t do. Even though he can’t change his disorder, he learned some of his actions. With his autism, he made a lot of friends and after his mother passed he only had one person to take care of him and not two. It transformed Gilbert because he had to step up and take full responsibility to take care of Arnie and the rest of his family. Even though Gilbert and Arnie’s sisters help take care of Arnie, Gilbert primarily takes care of him.Gilbert knew how to take care of Arnie what he liked and what he didn’t like. After their father died, Gilbert and Arnie were the only males in the house hold. Also, Gilbert had to step up and get a job to make money and take care of his family because his mother couldn’t take care of them, especially after their father died and she fell into a deep depression. Arnie’s autism showed Gilbert that it is very hard to tell him right from wrong because he doesn’t know.

Inaccuracy

In my opinion, I do not think that there was any inaccuracy or misleading information about autism. I think that the portrayal was very accurate, and that Leonardo DiCaprio did an amazing job portraying the symptoms of autism. I did not see any misleading information about autism portrayed through Arnie. I think that the film did a magnificent job of not having aby misleading information about autism.

Shaping my views

I think that this portrayal of autism has informed me about my views of autism in many ways. In one way, is that I have only seen autism in small children and I knew that their level of language would be behind their actual age group. I have had experiences with a four year old with autism and she hadn’t started speaking yet and I didn’t realize that she had autism and had not hit that developmental milestone for speaking yet. Another way is that I didn’t realize that some people with autism do not like to be touched.