What's Eating Gilbert Grape: Loyalty and Shame

Scenes of Loyalty:

1. Since Mr. Grape is dead and the oldest son left the family, Gilbert is the only son left to be the man of the house. He works in a grocery store to support his family, and he is the sole caretaker of Arnie, his mentally retarded younger brother. He doesn't let other people take care of Arnie, even his sisters.
   
2. A minor but interesting scene of loyalty is seen at the Lamson's Grocery store Gilbert works at. His employers are worried about going out of business because a newer, bigger store called FoodLand opened in town, drawing away their customers. Gilbert remarks he would never go to FoodLand and betray their store. However, this becomes a bit awkward later in the movie. Gilbert goes there to buy a replacement cake for Arnie's birthday party only to be spotted by his boss, despite FoodLand being the only place to buy cakes.
   
3. Mr. Carver is very loyal to his wife Betty, despite not knowing that she's cheating on him with Gilbert. He doesn't even know that Gilbert seems to "spend more time" than necessary in making grocery deliveries to the Carvers' home. Mr. Carver even considers giving Gilbert a job.
   

Scenes of Shame:

1. Any scene concerning Bonnie Grape portrays a deep amount of shame. The most effective is when Arnie climbs the water tower for the last time. He succeeds in reaching the top, but is brought down by the local police force and gets thrown into prison. At hearing this news, Bonnie goes directly to the police station to demand Arnie back. The thing is, she has never left the house or even the living room sofa in seven years. When the family brings Arnie home, a crowd gathers around them to see the behemoth Bonnie has become. One of the onlookers even takes a picture of the family as they leave.
2. Gilbert accidentally leaves Arnie in the bath by himself, resulting in Arnie developing a fear of water. During the course of the movie, Arnie avoids taking a bath, becoming dirtier and dirtier in each scene. When the rest of the family can't take it anymore, Gilbert tries to force Arnie into the bathtub, with little success. Frustrated, he starts hitting Arnie. When he regains his composure, Gilbert is ashamed and drives off away from the house. Arnie tries to follow him, only to go to Becky's trailer. His disappearance triggers his sisters to find him.
   
3. The aforementioned scene with Bonnie's shame could be a contributing factor to her death. After Arnie's birthday party, she waddles up to her bedroom despite not moving from the couch in seven years. She ends up dying in her sleep, and the children don't have any idea of what to do with her body. Amy is especially worried because calling the funeral home would expose people to Bonnie's morbid size. Gilbert's solution is to move all their stuff out of the house and burn it down.