What are the motifs in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? by Peter Hedges?

Family is a recurring throughout the entire novel. This is because the storyline is about the lives of this particular family, the Grape family. While every family has their trials and tribulations, Gilbert's family has its own family dynamics that are the same and that are different from those of other families.

In the end though, bones are bones and blood is blood, which means that no matter what is happening, they are a family and they will get through it together, one way or the other.