Questions:
1. At times, the future seems hopeless for Gilbert Grape. Explain.
2. What is eating Gilbert? Explain.
3. Why does Arnie Grape love to climb the water tower?
4. The film is set in Iowa. How is this important to the development of the plot?
5. How does the youngest daughter, Ellen Grape, feel about the family?
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Conformity:
a feeling that you don’t want other people to see you as different. You want to
be just the same as those around you. You do not want to be seen or laughed at.
Asia:
conformity is valued. We call this a collective society. People want to be part
of a group. The value is important in small town middle America as well.
John Stuart
Mill wrote a famous book in 1859 called On Liberty. He has the idea of “mob
rule.” You are controlled by the society you are in and not allowed to be out
of it.
“Man is born
free but everywhere in chains.”
The director
is from Denmark, so he is brainwashed in a different way than Americans.
Americans will naturally tell you they are free and they believe it,
The irony is
they thought Arnie couldn’t live until 18. But the mother was actually the one
holding.
They used to
film 21 Jump Street, the TV show that made Johnny Depp famous, at my university
when I was student.
The workers
used to love when he would go into restaurant in Vancouver because he left big
tips.
He came from
a poor, single mom family. His mother was a waitress in real life.
We have five
senses.
See, hear,
smell, taste and touch.
The sixth
sense is intuition, a weird feeling we get sometimes.
The movie is
from horror genre. It is scary.
The director
is a first generation American. His parents are from India. Taiwan has four
great directors. They are all first generation Taiwanese people. Why is this
important? First generation people have to think about identity more. They
always know they are a little strange from their classmates. Their parents are
different, often don’t speak the language well, etc.
The movie is
filmed in Philadelphia. The director grew up there. He said his parents
immigrated to this city because it is the most historical in the US
Also, it has
Christian themes. One of the opening shots is a bird’s eye view. I think he
does that because God is looking down.
