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.
Part 6-Part 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 6, Chapter 54 Summary
Gilbert stays up talking to Becky and then drives her home. He is still on the porch when Larry arrives early the next morning. Gilbert helps Larry carry 18 presents for Arnie into the house. When the time for the party arrives, Gilbert knocks on the bathroom door to inform his mother. She tells him that she was angry at God for years, but she forgives him because he allowed her to live to see Arnie turn 18.
Bonnie stands at the back door and watches the party unfold. When cake is served, Arnie eats only frosting and tries to steal a friend’s frosting. Larry just stands by and watches as Gilbert settles the dispute, but Larry gets the hug afterward. Arnie opens his presents, including a train set from Larry. Amy asks Gilbert if it’s a good party, and he agrees.
Part 6, Chapter 55 Summary
Gilbert again reassures Amy that the party is good. Later, she tells him Arnie wants to go to Burger Barn for dinner, and the family makes its way to the restaurant in three different cars. When Gilbert arrives, everyone is already seated at the back of the restaurant. Tucker makes a big show of assigning a single server to them. After Amy gives the girl their mother’s order, she assumes it’s for the entire group and begins to walk away, forcing Gilbert to explain the situation to her. Everyone else orders, but Gilbert gets water only. He seeks out Tucker to thank him after he presents the family with a birthday cake. Then Gilbert begins to cry, for reasons he doesn’t understand.
Part 6, Chapter 56 Summary
Back at the house, Larry and Gilbert hang out at the trampoline. Ellen waves them into the house, and they discover that Bonnie decided to go lie down in her bedroom for the first time in years. She is halfway up and decides she can’t do it, but when Larry encourages her, she goes the rest of the way.
Part 6, Chapter 57 Summary
Larry writes a check to Amy as he prepares to leave. Outside, Arnie is building a rocket ship with sheets under the trampoline and claims he’s searching for Albert Grape, who missed out on knowing him. Amy, Gilbert, and Janice clean up from the party, and Amy encourages everyone to finish off the cake so Bonnie won’t eat it later. Becky stops by the house, and Gilbert introduces her to everyone. He walks her home, and she tells him they can kiss the following day. Back at the house, Ellen is leaving to attend her Bible study. Larry and Janice leave to get beer. Becky calls and asks to meet Gilbert at sunrise. Amy teases Gilbert for having a girlfriend. He smears frosting on her but then gets a wet rag to wipe it off. A bell begins to ring.
Part 7, Chapter 58 Summary
Bonnie is ringing a bell, calling for Amy. Both Amy and Gilbert run up the stairs to check on her, and they find her in distress. They attempt to help her, but she dies as they struggle. Larry and Janice return home, and Gilbert leads them to the bedroom. Amy insists Gilbert find Ellen before they call for help. Gilbert goes to Burger Barn and tells Tucker what happened. Then he goes to an old railroad bridge where people go to park and finds Ellen in Bobby’s family hearse. He drags her out and drives her home without telling her what happened. They arrive home just in time to find Dr. Harvey leaving. Ellen is devastated.
They decide to wait until later to call for an ambulance. Gilbert finds Larry in the basement attempting to destroy the support structure Tucker put up, outraged that it stands where their father died. The siblings gather in Bonnie’s room, where they look at pictures of her, turn on music, and dance.
Part 7, Chapter 59 Summary
They dance for a long time, but Amy eventually says they should call the ambulance. Gilbert becomes upset and tells them everyone will make fun of Bonnie because they will need a crane to remove her from the house. He believes their mother is beautiful and doesn’t deserve to be remembered this way. He steals the phone, hides it in his room, and begins to gather things and take them out of the house. Amy catches on and carries a box of her Elvis memorabilia out of the house. Ellen follows with some family photo albums. Soon, everyone is helping, covering the front yard with furniture and keepsakes.
Part 7, Chapter 60 Summary
Larry goes to get gas. They light the house on fire and sit on the couch to watch. Arnie asks lots of questions, but the others just watch or listen. Sirens approach as their mother’s room collapses.
Part 6-Part 7 Analysis
The birthday party that was anticipated from the beginning of the novel finally takes place. The day is a success, and Bonnie finally forgives God for allowing her to live long enough to see it. Unfortunately, she doesn’t join in the celebration but remains hidden in the house, ashamed of her appearance, even though the guests are limited to family and people with the same intellectual disability as Arnie. There is irony in her decision to keep her distance from the party she longed to see throughout her son's life. This shame foreshadows the end of the novel, inspiring Gilbert to protect his mother from the cruelty of their neighbors and inevitable town gossip.
Gilbert and Becky’s relationship continues to grow, and she decides that he is finally in touch enough with his emotions to enter into a more intimate relationship with her. Gilbert's life seems to be improving as he settles into his life in Endora, despite his previous desire to run away. Likewise, Tucker has a job he clearly loves and embraces the change that is coming to town. Arnie is happy, and Larry is making a new effort to invest in the family emotionally. Amy is satisfied with the party, and everyone is getting along. Unusually, Gilbert even has kind words for Ellen and Janice. It’s a good day for Gilbert Grape.
From the beginning of the novel, Gilbert expresses a dislike for the sound of a bell. He even chooses to go to a gas station where the bell does not work. Yet, when his mother chooses to sleep in her own bedroom for the first time in years, he doesn’t object when she is given a school bell to ring if she needs help. The bell that begins to ring as his mother is dying recalls the one Mrs. Brainer likely rang at school on the day of his father's death. Thus, Hedges links Albert's death to Bonnie's with a sound Gilbert previously identified as meant to remind everyone “we exist” (25). This sound also represents Gilbert's desire to avoid drawing attention to himself and his family; having felt ashamed of his father's means of death and the townspeople's comments about his mother's size, he prefers not to remind them of the Grapes' existence. This connects to the theme of suicide’s impact on loved ones.
Bonnie’s children gather at her bedside to remember her in a makeshift memorial with music, pictures, and memories. The moment is emotionally significant to them, but it is also a way to delay the inevitable call that will bring people to the house who will have to figure out how to remove her body from it. Gilbert recognizes immediately that removing her from the second story of the house will require extreme measures. Gilbert expresses that his mother was beautiful, directly contradicting other terms he once used to describe her. His harsh words toward his mother and Arnie were a coping mechanism, not a truthful reflection of his feelings for them. Gilbert fights to protect his mother’s dignity, revealing the love for her that was often hinted at earlier in the novel.
The fire at the end of the novel and the Grape children watching it spread symbolize the way their family burned down slowly in the aftermath of Albert’s death. However, the children survived that loss, and they come together again after losing Bonnie. The Grape siblings' future is unclear, but their mother's death and the destruction of a house that for so long represented the tragedy of their father’s death free them to construct a new path for themselves. Despite the tragic circumstances that lead to the fire, it also represents agency and a new sense of possibility for the siblings.
