Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 08/07: Was Alma afraid to confront Ennis after seeing him with Jack?
Penthesilea:
Howdy folks,
hope you all had a nice weekend :).
This week's topic is
Was Alma afraid to confront Ennis after seeing him with Jack?
and subsequent questions like if yes, was it was the reason she didn't confront him right on the spot, or the next morning, or after the first fishing trip? Or where there other causes as well?
Why didn't she at least confront him at the time around their divorce? What do you think might have happened if she had been standing there long enough for Ennis and Jack to see her? (Okay, the last example is quite speculative and slightly off topic - but as always, feel free to go off topic if you have interesting insights, maybe they'll lead us back to the OP eventually)
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on September 17, 2007, 09:05:04 am ---Howdy folks,
hope you all had a nice weekend :).
This week's topic is
Was Alma afraid to confront Ennis after seeing him with Jack?
and subsequent questions like if yes, was it was the reason she didn't confront him right on the spot, or the next morning, or after the first fishing trip? Or where there other causes as well?
Why didn't she at least confront him at the time around their divorce? What do you think might have happened if she had been standing there long enough for Ennis and Jack to see her? (Okay, the last example is quite speculative and slightly off topic - but as always, feel free to go off topic if you have interesting insights, maybe they'll lead us back to the OP eventually)
--- End quote ---
Yes, I definitely had a nice weekend! Hope you did too! Thanks for this interesting question! Yes, I think Alma was afraid to confront Ennis. I think she was a rural, uneducated, and unempowered young woman who probably didn't know Ennis very well at all and found him somewhat strange. She just bore it in silence because her siblings and parents had told her that that's just how life is and you've got to just stand what you can't fix (same as Ennis). She didn't confront Ennis even at the time of the divorce because he was responsible for the child support and she thought if she riled him she might not get it. When you are in the grip of rural poverty, everything revolves around money and any questions or feelings or sense of morality or dignity just flies out the window. What if Ennis and Jack realized she was looking at them? After an initial start or double-take, they probably would've pretended they were just goofing around, started punching each other and said something like "aw, he's from Texas, where they do stuff like that."
moremojo:
I would say yes, she was doubtlessly afraid to confront him, but I don't even think fear was the only variable here...I don't even think it was in her character at the time to do something like that. Alma struck me as a gentle soul who was doing her best to please her husband and be the wife and mother she thought everyone around her expected her to be. When she tried to sway Ennis to come around to a decision pleasing to her, she coaxed him gently and softly, like with the pleas to move into apartment over the laundromat and to desist from fighting the bikers, and in the latter case she wasn't even successful at that.
Over time, we see Alma become more assertive and also more bitter. I think she started to assert herself in direct proportion to the growing sense that she had nothing more to lose.
huntinbuddy:
I agree with Susiebell on this one. Alma, was simply overwhelmed at that moment she witnessed the reunion scene at the base of the stairs. It is simply too much information for her to process.
Nearly every time I went to the theater to see BBM, and believe me, it was more than a few; only twice was I with an audience where a few, or in most cases, many, didn't laugh.
I never did laugh. Aside from Ennis finding the shirts, this is one of the more heartbreaking scenes for me, and Michelle Williams showed acting at its best. You can just feel what she has seen, and know that at that moment, her world has just been shattered. Does he love me? Why did he marry me? Who is this Jack guy? The questions she must have had are endless.
Even the next morning as she is holding the baby, she tries to feebly wave goodbye to Ennis as he and Jack take off for the first of many fishing trips. Doubt she waved goodbye much after the second or third fishing expedition.
Even after it appears that she has sit up all night waiting for Ennis to come home from his siesta at the Siesta, she still hasn't figured it all out, but has had all night long to go over many of the possibilities. I don't think Alma even had it all quite put together even by the time she divorced Ennis. I do think she had put it all together by the time the Thanksgiving dinner rolled around after she had remarried and found herself pregnant again.
She probably never let a day or night, or waking moment go by that she didn't let this revelation that her ex-husband might be secretly gay. She probably let it eat away at her very soul until the present day if she were a real character. And that is what makes this movie so real, because there are many, many real life Alma's out there who have experienced the very same thing.
BBM-Cat:
--- Quote from: Susiebell on September 18, 2007, 07:14:38 pm ---
I feel that Alma was simply so overwhelmed by what she'd just witnessed that she was unable to say anything about it to Ennis. I don't even think she fully understood what was happening. I don't think that she was too afraid to confront him, rather that she didn't know how to confront him or even what she was confronting him about.
Her increasing bitterness towards him came about very gradually, as she began to understand the full implications of what had happened. It's sad that she felt that she still couldn't confront him directly, instead choosing to trick him into a confession with this whole note-in-your-crill-case trap.
Susie :)
--- End quote ---
Definitely agree with that Susie - IMO, Alma did not fully understand what she just witnessed - I don't believe she even had a schema or a label for it in her mind at that time until much later. As many have alluded, she thought it best to keep the status quo and continue being the best wife and mother that she knew how to be, within her domestic role. Perhaps she even thought that Ennis & Jack's behavior at the time of the reunion, while strange, might go away or only be a one-time thing. I honestly don't think she puts things together for quite awhile, owing to Ennis' consistent emotional distancing from her, and his perkiness after each camping trip.
Possibly a lot of Alma's building resentment was not simply about her believing Ennis' preference was for Jack, but more about why she could not seem to capture his attention and affections as his once or twice a year buddy could. I can only conjecture that she felt hurt, puzzled, and betrayed, especially as she probably told herself she was doing everything a wife and mother should, so why doesn't he love me? etc.
IMO, I don't think Alma tricked Ennis into a confession though - she was smart enough to contrive it and to pull it off, but I don't think she was smart enough to bluff about it.
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