Topic of the Week 1/07: Did Ennis know early on that he was in love with Jack?

[moremojo]

But at the same time, it's hard to interpret what his emotions were as he and Jack were descending the mountain.

The descent from the mountain was as much a fall from grace as it was a metaphor for falling in love.

[mvansand76]

The descent from the mountain was as much a fall from grace as it was a metaphor for falling in love.

And coming down from paradise, from the heights of passion and love to the plains where those feelings weren't acceptable anymore.

[moremojo]

And coming down from paradise, from the heights of passion and love to the plains where those feelings weren't acceptable anymore.

Yes, astute observation. The mountain, dangerous though it was, was always safer for the boys than the so-called "civilized" world below.

[shortfiction]

I don't think Ennis had the internal vocabulary to explain to himself just what it was he was feeling.  If you give something a name, it becomes more real.  He simply called it a one-shot thing and was thinking about the fact that he was already committed to marrying Alma after they finished their job. 
     I do think that his gazing at Jack, especially when the latter was riding the horse up on the mountain as the sheep grazed and Ennis was in the stream, was part of his unnameable feelings.
     Jack, on the other hand, seemed smitten with Ennis from the time he pulled up outside Aguirre's trailer in his truck.

[delalluvia]

No.
He didn't know that he could be in love with a man.  And, of course, when he finally did, it was too late.   

[BBM-Cat]

No - I don't believe Ennis was able to conceptualize what he felt for Jack as love. He may have realized that he liked Jack, or was very fond of him. Ennis' conceptualization of his feelings was external - this "thing" that grabs hold of him - but I do believe he came to internalize those feelings later in his life.

[Kerry]

There's only one person can answer this question - Ennis.

All the rest is simply conjecture IMHO.

[ifyoucantfixit]

       As with everything about this movie i hesitate to make firm and certain statements.  To say I do or don't know about  what either of them felt, is difficult with the limited evidence given.  However I do * think* Jack did know it was love.  Ennis was not as someone said very self aware.  He only knew that he had the best friend he had ever had in his short life.  He knew also that he loved having sex with Jack.  That much is obvious.  But to call it love.  I doubt it. In the beginning I don't think he even knew what love was really.  I don't think he really did know it was love, until Jack died, and he found the shirts.  I do think after that he knew.  Otherwise he would not have asked Jr.  "Does he love you?"

[nic]

There's only one person can answer this question - Ennis.

All the rest is simply conjecture IMHO.

I'd agree with you bud! But conjecturing can be fun though 

For my own conjecturing, I really don't know.  I like to run through all the many permutations of when & where etc & I love the fact the story & movie can both seem so ambiguous on not just this very important question, but many others too.  I do know that Ennis definitely felt the amazing emotional euphoria of being in love with Jack but I accept that I just cannot pin down when he knew what it was with enough certainty to pin my (cowboy) hat on it.

[Brown Eyes]

There's only one person can answer this question - Ennis.

All the rest is simply conjecture IMHO.

Well, Ennis is a fictional character subject to infinite interpretations from reader to reader (or viewer to viewer).  That's one of the joys of fiction (I think).  The infinite capacity for interpretation.  I think Proulx was very, very serious about her imperative that we're supposed to finish the story in our own lives (by which I also take her to mean... impose our own interpretations).