Group Work:
Discussion Questions for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?(Film)
Record your answers on one piece of paper in note form.
1. What did you think of the film? How was it different and similar
to the novel?
2. When Mamma gets Arnie out of jail, she says “you’re free” as
she’s smothering him. Do you find this to be a contradiction?
What does it mean to give our families, especially our children,
freedom? What are the effects of smothering our children
3.
4.
5.
6.
emotionally or intellectually?
How does our culture treat obese people differently than others?
What are the effects on a family of an emotionally and/or
physically absent father?
Discuss the struggle with feeling ashamed of family members or
loved ones, or feeling that people are ashamed with us. What
are the causes of shame in the film?
Discuss how two of the actors in the film were or were not what
you envisioned for the characters when you read the novel?