Gilbert Grape and his brother Arnie watch the traveling carnival drive into town. This is a yearly ritual, as Arnie likes the horses. They enjoy a picnic as they wait. Gilbert thinks about his second-grade teacher, Mrs. Brainer, who recently died. She taught at the local school, a 13-year school that shut down the year after Gilbert graduated because of a lack of funds. He is one of only four students from his graduating class who remain in the small farming town of Endora, Iowa. One of the others is his friend Tucker, and the other two are twins who were severely injured in a car accident. Arnie grows impatient waiting. He asks Gilbert to carry him, but Gilbert says he is too big. Arnie says that Gilbert is “getting littler and littler. You’re shrinking” (8).

Later in the morning, Gilbert is trying to take a nap on the couch, but Ellen, his 16-year-old sister, is painting her nails, and the smell bothers him. He asks her to move, and she says he doesn’t understand how hard life is for a teenage girl. Amy, Gilbert’s 34-year-old sister, comes to drag him off the couch. She is a teacher’s aide during the school year and runs the household year-round.