What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is the debut novel by Academy Award-nominated writer Peter Hedges. Set in 1989, the novel is a coming-of-age story about a young man whose life is overshadowed by the tragedy and family drama that surround him. The novel was a critical success upon its release in 1991 and was adapted into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio in 1993, for which Hedges also wrote the screenplay.

This study guide is based on the Simon and Schuster paperback, 1991.

Content Warning: The source material for this study guide includes discussions of suicide, intellectual disabilities, and obesity. In addition, the source material includes derogatory terms for intellectual disabilities and obesity that are omitted from this guide, other than within direct quotes from the novel.

Plot Summary

Gilbert Grape lives in Endora, Iowa, in the home his father, Albert, built. Living with him in the home are his older sister, Amy; younger sister, Ellen; younger brother, Arnie; and mother, Bonnie. Albert died 17 years ago. In the years following her husband's death, Bonnie became disabled by severe obesity. For this reason, Amy and Gilbert are responsible for running the household. Caring for Arnie, who has an intellectual disability, is Gilbert’s primary focus. As the novel opens, Arnie and Gilbert are watching the carnival arrive in town and counting down the days until Arnie’s 18th birthday.

Gilbert works at a small grocery store, Lamson Grocery, which is struggling to survive due to the opening of the larger and more modern grocery store, Food Land, across town. While he is at work, a customer, Mrs. Betty Carver, reminds him that he didn't pay his insurance premium and suggests he make an appointment with her husband, Mr. Ken Carver. Gilbert misses this appointment because he goes to visit his father’s grave and falls asleep in the sun.

Amy asks Gilbert to pick Ellen up at Dairy Dream, the ice cream parlor where she works. Gilbert meets Becky there, a beautiful young woman who is new in town. On a later visit to his friend Tucker’s home, he learns that most of the young men in town have seen this girl and want to get to know her. At the same time, he learns that a new fast-food restaurant, Burger Barn, is being built next to Food Land. While Tucker is excited by this idea, Gilbert is apathetic.

Gilbert and Tucker work on a support for the floor under Bonnie’s chair, which is sagging; they inadvertently put the support in the same place where Albert died of suicide. On Thursday, Gilbert makes a new appointment with Mr. Carver. It turns out that these appointments are a cover for Gilbert and Mrs. Carver to meet in her home for sexual encounters. However, after meeting Becky, Gilbert feels his interest in Mrs. Carver waning. Mrs. Carver takes his rejection hard and demands her husband come home to console her.

At home, the family makes plans for Arnie’s birthday party. Bonnie’s wish was always to live long enough to see Arnie turn 18, because the doctors predicted he would not live that long. The party will include Gilbert’s two older siblings who have left the home, Larry and Janice. Both of them have jobs that pay well and send home checks to help care for Bonnie, Arnie, and Ellen. They rarely come home, however, with Larry returning home only on Arnie’s birthday each year.

Gilbert meets Becky again when she purchases a watermelon at Lamson Grocery, and Mr. Lamson asks Gilbert to deliver it for her. Becky acts erratically, causing Gilbert to grow frustrated and decide she’s not worth his infatuation. However, he continues to run into her, even having breakfast with her grandmother. At this point, he learns Becky is only 15. However, rather than back off, Gilbert continues to seek her out, and Becky continues to show up at his house.

Gilbert learns that his old school, which has been shut down for seven years, will be burned down as practice for the local fire department. Becky takes him there and makes him use a piece of chalk to say goodbye to each classroom. While he is in his second-grade classroom, Gilbert reveals that he had a bathroom accident there while worrying about his father’s well-being.

On the Fourth of July, a former classmate of Gilbert’s, Lance Dodge, who is now a local celebrity as a television reporter, returns home to visit his mother. Gilbert is annoyed by Lance’s celebrity, especially since everyone in town—including Gilbert’s own family—thinks he is fantastic. Gilbert ends up having lunch with Lance and witnesses his grandeur firsthand.

Tucker and another friend come by the Grape home one night while Gilbert is giving Arnie a bath. Gilbert leaves Arnie, assuming someone else will get him out of the bath, and leaves with his friends. When he returns home, he goes straight to bed. Early the next morning, he discovers Arnie is still in the bath. Arnie decides then that he’s afraid of water and will not take another bath. Gilbert and Amy both struggle to convince Arnie to bathe as he gets dirtier and dirtier, but nothing they do convinces him.

Mr. Carver shows up one afternoon and asks for Gilbert’s help. Gilbert thinks Mr. Carver has learned of his affair with his wife, but he simply wants to show his children, who want a swimming pool, how fun a trampoline can be. Mr. Carver becomes violent with his children, causing Gilbert to beg him to stop. Later in the day, Gilbert learns Mr. Carver died of a heart attack while setting up a wading pool.

It’s Arnie’s birthday, and the party is a big success. Afterward, Bonnie decides to sleep in her own bed for the first time in years. The siblings all go off and do their own thing, leaving only Amy and Gilbert to respond when Bonnie dies. The family gathers and celebrates her life. When it is time to call for the removal of her body, Gilbert convinces everyone to burn down the house to save Bonnie the final insult of having to be removed via unusual means due to her heavy weight. They remove most of their belongings and watch the house burn down.