Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 09/08: Were Ennis and Jack particularly bad fathers?
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: fernly on March 18, 2008, 11:37:22 pm ---I've been trying to sort out my thoughts about how Ennis' and Jack's experiences of being raised affected their views about, and abilities to parent. Ennis and Jack both had utterly appalling experiences inflicted on them by their fathers. They both, in sharp contrast, were gentle with their own children.
When Ennis was orphaned, his brother and sister "did the best they could", but once he was 19, "no more room for" him. He wasn't a child any more, but he was certainly an inadequately parented young adult.
Jack's folks didn't "run him off" (at least not permanently) since he went back Lightning Flat after that first summer, but home for him, from what we see, seems to be, at best, more about obligation than love and joy. He seems to take joy in Bobby in the early years of his childhood, but the despair that grips Jack as Ennis keeps refusing a life together, seems to sap that joy also.
The anger at their lives that both Jack and Ennis feel spills out, and their children witness it, but it's never directed at the children. That alone isn't enough to make them 'good' parents, not by today's standards, but it's certainly more than they were given by their fathers.
And Jack and Ennis gave their kids a lot more than that.
Again, not enough to make them good parents by our lights, but they were parenting 40 years ago, and doing a much better job than their fathers. Is that enough to ask, that each generation will do better than the one before?
--- End quote ---
Heya fernly!
This is a great point. Yes, it's pretty amazing to see how doting and affectionate Ennis and Jack both are in comparison to their fathers. This really is truly admirable about both of them... there's never any indication that either of them is violent towards their children (like OMT definitely was towards Jack... and we can at least be sure that Ennis's father was extremely emotionally abusive towards Ennis and his siblings). So, yes, both Jack and Ennis are enormous improvements on their own fathers.
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: atz75 on March 18, 2008, 11:41:28 pm ---Yes, it's pretty amazing to see how doting and affectionate Ennis and Jack both are in comparison to their fathers. This really is truly admirable about both of them... there's never any indication that either of them is violent towards their children (like OMT definitely was towards Jack... and we can at least be sure that Ennis's father was extremely emotionally abusive towards Ennis and his siblings). So, yes, both Jack and Ennis are enormous improvements on their own fathers.
--- End quote ---
We can? How so? By the Earl incident? That's pretty horrific to be sure, but how can we assume that wasn't an isolated incident? I think the book/movie showed Jack's father to be the more abusive.
fernly:
--- Quote from: atz75 on March 18, 2008, 11:34:42 pm ---Still, I'm confused about exactly what Ennis is so angry about. Why is he freaking out about Alma working at this particular juncture? Alma's always worked. I mean, why is he blowing up about it now?
--- End quote ---
Hi, Amanda,
I wonder if part of that anger is that Ennis is feeling so trapped and despairing, trying to fullfill the prescribed role of straight husband and father. Seems like some of the anger, (from reasons that he's not willing to face) is getting displaced on Alma when she starts not fulfilling part of her role in that scenario.
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on March 18, 2008, 11:38:09 pm ---It's not that she's working, but that it's taking precedent over and interfering with their homelife. This is not an uncommon gripe of macho men. The husband who works, then comes home to relax, while fully expecting the wife to work, then come home to cook, clean and take care of the kids too and feels put upon if she asks him to share in that work as well. That's Ennis.
--- End quote ---
OK, yes, I can see this.
With this interpretation in mind... It seems to me that one of the functions of this scene is to demonstrate how much angst, strife and stress over gender roles existed for Ennis within the context of a heterosexual marriage. The peace and calm and utter willingness to switch off with different domestic tasks/ work (i.e. tending vs. herding) between Jack and Ennis is such a contrast. Ennis's behavior on Brokeback shows that the anxiety over tasks that are often perceived to be gender specific just melts away in a single-gender context for him. Ennis seems perfectly happy to be camp tender, and he seems perfectly happy to switch with Jack. There's no stress in that. He washes dishes and cooks Jack's food, etc. So, in that context... and in the context of the relationship where he feels most comfortable... the same issues just simply don't exist where it comes to work load (compared to his experience and unfair expectations with Alma).
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on March 18, 2008, 11:44:52 pm ---We can? How so? By the Earl incident? That's pretty horrific to be sure, but how can we assume that wasn't an isolated incident? I think the book/movie showed Jack's father to be the more abusive.
--- End quote ---
Yes, I think Jack's father probably was more consistently abusive towards Jack.
I think the Earl incident alone (even if it's a totally isolated incident) is enough to constitute horrific (I mean criminally horrific) emotional and mental abuse towards young children. I mean, we know this scared Ennis for life and essentially helped ruin his chances at happiness with Jack.
It's been noted in other threads that the Earl story comes as something of a surprise to film viewers (in its horror) because earlier Ennis makes rather positive or somewhat affectionate-sounding comments about his father. In the "most I've spoken in a year" conversation he says "I think my Dad was right", etc. and says that he admired his Dad's skill as a roper, etc. So, the awfulness of the Earl story comes as quite a contrast.
Also, in the way Ennis tells the story about Earl, he also implies that he wonders whether his father was actually the murderer or among the murderers of Earl... by saying "Hell, for all I know, he done the job."
So, I definitely stand by the assertion that Ennis's Dad was emotionally abusive. In this case, one time only was definitely enough to constitute this accusation.
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