What's Eating Gilbert Grape': Autism Essay

Topics:	AutismMental Illness
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The movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape portrays disability in the younger brother of Gilbert, Arnie who is 17 and has a classic case of autism which in the movie cause him to climb the high water tower and go wandering off. This is where Gilbert comes in as he is always taking care of Arnie. The disability of autism that Arnie has is often portrayed in the movie as a nuisance to some people in the community. As the movie was set in the early 1990’s people were not as mindful of people with disabilities. With this, we see that the town would gather together when Arnie would climb to the top of the water tower and just wait for him to come down. This also resulted in some of the community speaking badly about the Grape family since they had so many issues going on in their family. The movie portrays Arnie sometimes getting bullied or pushed around because of his neurological differences and this caused Gilbert to constantly be on edge about his surroundings when with Arnie. Arnie is not able to understand what is going on around him therefore social cues are hard for him to understand. Arnie is clearly the one with the disability but there are some underlying problems within the family. The Grape's father hung himself seven years prior. This goes to show that there are some issues with depression and/or anxiety as the movie tends to mention. This movie has a lot of deeper meanings than just Arnie who has autism. In the movie you can kind of tell that there are hints of Gilbert having anxiety, this could be blind to someone who does not suffer from something like this. As someone who suffers from anxiety, watching the movie you can see tendencies that resonate with symptoms and sometimes I call them “ticks” of anxiety. This almost goes unnoticed as the focus is mainly on Arnie and his autism. As Gilbert lives on edge while taking care of Arnie we see that these anxious tendencies are often overlooked in the movie. With this, we see this movie has a lot of underlying issues other than just Arnie having autism. Although it does not come out and especially say that Arnie has autism we see that he does fit on the spectrum.

Arnie’s experience of the disability has a lot to do with his tight-knit family and the small. The old-fashioned community he lives in. We see that sometimes disability is determined by the experience the person faces. Now this is not always the case and this does not mean if someone has a disability and they are in a rich environment that their disability will be essentially nonexistent. But the experience that people have, will more than likely have an effect on how the disability is executed in daily life. This is a theory that is touched on in our textbook. We see when people come from different backroads, whether it be socioeconomic, race, or any of the other factors that fall into this category.

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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’: Autism Essay. (2023, October 27). Edubirdie. Retrieved November 24, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/whats-eating-gilbert-grape-autism-essay/

“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’: Autism Essay.” Edubirdie, 27 Oct. 2023, edubirdie.com/examples/whats-eating-gilbert-grape-autism-essay/

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’: Autism Essay. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/whats-eating-gilbert-grape-autism-essay/> [Accessed 24 Nov. 2024].

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’: Autism Essay [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2023 Oct 27 [cited 2024 Nov 24]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/whats-eating-gilbert-grape-autism-essay/

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