"There was some open space between what he knew and what
he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if
you can't fix it you've got to stand it."
This was a very poignant story. All you really hear about Brokeback Mountain is the sex scenes, often in a very derogatory way. Personally, I had negative connotations associated with the story because of word of mouth before reading the story. They were pretty detailed, but nobody complains about the heterosexual one, which is arguably described in more depth. Just goes to show how people will let judgmental mindsets take away from a great story.
The story presents a solid conflict between love and duty. Ennis and Jack know they have something, but they don't acknowledge it until after they're both married with children. As such, they know they must stay where they are. It's a very sad but universally relevant plot point: the love that can't be, if you will.
However, you have to question what the "thing" between Ennis and Jack really is. On Jack's end, it seems to be love. He wants to be with Ennis, to live their lives together. Ennis, on the other hand, is too afraid of what people will think (although he does have fair reason, which I will get to later). So, the love vs. duty theme can be broadened to love vs. fear. Jack is relatively fearless. His father said that he had been planning to live with a different man, before he died. It would seem that he ends up dying because of his determination to be himself, if Ennis' thought that the locals killed him is true. Even before then, he always wanted to go off elsewhere with Ennis; he wanted the freedom to be who he was.
Social judgment is another prominent theme. Almost everything Ennis did (and didn't) do was because of what everyone else wanted. He stayed with Alma because she expected him to, and because living with Jack would be frowned upon by others. Even after she left him, the child support payments kept him from freedom. His only actions that seemed to be motivated by what he wanted were his trips with Jack. Through the social judgment theme, Proulx makes a strong commentary on public view of homosexual people. It wasn't illegal or harmful for two men to live together, but at the time, it would mean literal social suicide. Today, we as a society take a less violent stance, but often the basic ideology of "different is bad" still remains. Gay people still have to formally "come out," and they are still judged for who they are. The aforementioned reaction to the gay sex scene says it all.
This is a great post; I particularly admire how you connect the contemporary dismissal of the film with the story's ongoing relevance. I wonder what you do, though, with Ennis's obstinate insistence on continuing to do low-paying ranch work. Certainly he goes against what Alma wants, and sticks his heels into a dying industry. What's the relationship of this detail to your interpretation of his relationship with Jack?
ReplyDeleteWhen I said that Ennis goes along with what everyone else wants, I think I meant it more as him not being as bold and willing to risk it all as Jack was. In their non-relationship, Jack was the outward one, the one who wanted to work for the two of them to be together. Ennis, on the other hand, cared about Jack, but was too stuck in his learned beliefs about what was right to go out on a limb for him. His fear kept the relationship from progressing, but that doesn't mean the feelings weren't there. That repressed nostalgia and sentimentality is, I think, what motivated Ennis to stick to the ranch work. It was his less risky and frankly ineffective way of rebelling against what the rest of the world wanted from him.
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