58 pages • 1 hour read
Peter HedgesWhat's Eating Gilbert Grape
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Peter Hedges
Peter Hedges grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa. However, he spent a lot of time in small towns like the fictional Endora, Iowa, while visiting his grandparents and other family members. Hedges says that he was fascinated by the water towers that often towered over these places, as well as by their abandoned farmhouses and small school buildings. Many of his childhood experiences and those of his family members in these places inspired aspects of the novel. For example, the author's baby brother once participated in Arnie’s habit of chopping off grasshoppers' heads with the mailbox flag.
Hedges takes pride in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape's status as a cult classic. He shares stories from fans who tell him the book changed their outlook on life, including a young man who said that reading it helped him as a 17-year-old and led to his becoming a medical student. Hedges is also proud that Anna Quindlen mentions What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in How Reading Changed My Life (Library of Contemporary Thought). She places What’s Eating Gilbert Grape alongside other critically-acclaimed coming-of-age narratives, such as The Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace.
Since the publication of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Hedges has written plays, films, and other novels, including An Ocean in Iowa, which also takes place in Endora. His screenwriting and directing credits include the Steve Carell film Dan in Real Life. Hedges also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for About a Boy, a 2002 movie starring Hugh Grant and Toni Collette that, with the original book by Nick Hornby, inspired a television show that ran from 2014 to 2015 and starred Minnie Driver.
Cultural Context: Film Adaptation
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was made into a movie in 1993. It was directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starred several actors who were in the early stages of their careers at that time, including Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, and Crispin Glover. Hedges wrote the screenplay for the movie, which he describes as sweeter and less edgy than the novel. He asked only that the movie contain two pivotal scenes from the book: the scene in which Bonnie leaves the house to retrieve Arnie from jail and the closing scene in which Gilbert and his siblings burn down the house around Bonnie. Hedges believed these acts were both special and necessary to the plot.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape was not successful upon its release. It had mediocre sales at the box office, although it received a few positive reviews from critics. However, the movie created a great deal of buzz about DiCaprio’s performance as Arnie, with some saying he outshone Depp as Gilbert. DiCaprio’s performance earned him Best Supporting Actor nominations at both the 51st Golden Globes and the 66th Academy Awards. He also won Best Supporting Actor from the 65th National Board of Review Awards, Most Promising New Actor from the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards of 1993, and the New Generation Award from the 1993 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. The movie later surged in popularity as DiCaprio's and Depp’s celebrity rose.
