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Double meanings: Lines that can be taken more than one way

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tiawahcowboy:
"Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun."
But, I have known and still know closeted homosexual men who married women because they were fun to be with while out in public and they loved them as friends. But, they were never in love with the women. I almost fell into that situation, too.

I had fun with every woman that I dated and everyone of them would have made great wives for heterosexual men. And some of the actually married men who were great as husbands. In fact, one of them had to introduce me to her husband when I saw her at a reunion of a certain college club. In his presence, she told him that I helped her adjust to college life and she thanked me for that, too.

Well, it does not make sense to me why they created that scene for the movie in the first place. I mean, Cassie was dating, Carl, the guy she entered the restaurant/bus station with and they were acting like a happy couple until she saw Ennis.

But, it appears she doesn't exactly love Carl  . . . "Carl? He's nice. He even talks." Looks more like she's dating Carl on the rebound; since Ennis has been ignoring her messages.

nakymaton:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 30, 2006, 01:10:50 pm ---So which boy didn't fall in love with fun? It could be him realizing how much he means to Jack. Or it could be him realizing how much Jack means to him.

--- End quote ---

I would say that Jack didn't fall in love with fun. I mean, I think Ennis does think that Jack is fun. (I keep picturing Jack's exaggerated clowning around when Ennis tells him that "my daddy thought rodeo cowboys were a bunch of f***-ups." Or Jack's bad harmonica playing. Or Jack's off-key singing. I think that Jack does think that Ennis is fun... certainly they had fun together, teasing each other on the mountain, skinny-dipping after the reunion. But I don't think Ennis realizes how much fun he really is.)

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on May 30, 2006, 01:24:47 pm ---I would say that Jack didn't fall in love with fun. I mean, I think Ennis does think that Jack is fun. (I keep picturing Jack's exaggerated clowning around when Ennis tells him that "my daddy thought rodeo cowboys were a bunch of f***-ups." Or Jack's bad harmonica playing. Or Jack's off-key singing. I think that Jack does think that Ennis is fun... certainly they had fun together, teasing each other on the mountain, skinny-dipping after the reunion. But I don't think Ennis realizes how much fun he really is.)

--- End quote ---

Well, that's true! Jack is fun incarnate, espcially compared to what Ennis is used to. I guess I was thinking more in terms of their relationship, especially on the heels of Ennis' "I can't stand this no more, Jack." Living apart and keeping their feelings secret like that was not fun. So in other words, it doesn't have to be fun to be love. Plus, I imagine Ennis meaning "I wasn't much fun anyhow" as less a comment about himself in general, so much as that he wasn't fun for Cassie -- because he was pretty indifferent toward her and secretly longing for Jack the whole time.

I also thought that maybe just the very word "love" itself triggered an epiphany for Ennis. Something along the lines of, "Wow, Cassie was in love with me even after just a brief time of casual dating -- maybe what I've had with Jack for the past 20 years and the intense feelings we have for each other is love, too." (Duh!) And then by the time he says the word when talking to Alma Jr. he's decided that, you bet, it was love.

Mikaela:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on May 30, 2006, 12:48:14 pm ---What do you all think he's thinking?


--- End quote ---

I think he's taken aback, - surprised - that she'd actually fallen in love with him. I also think that faced with her obvious pain, he's ashamed.
I think he's spent so much of his energy on "standing it" in relation to Jack during all those months away from him, that he has never really bothered to make an effort to define or understand what, exactly, he might mean to Cassie. He's just shied away from the whole issue. Moreover, Ennis doesn't like himself much. Not only doesn't he think himself "fun", he doesn't think there's much in him that another person would find to love or enjoy...... so the thought that someone else might actually fall in with him is not one that comes easy to him, if at all. I'm certain this colours his perception of what he means to Jack, too - as has been mentioned above.

~~~

Here's another thing I've been wondering about - a sort of double meaning in the short story. I was hoping the film would hint at the answer, but it didn't. In the short story, there's "an ancient magaizine photograph of some dark-haired movie star taped to the wall beside the bed"  in Jack's room in the farm at Lightning Flat.

Do you think the photo would be a female or male movie star?

At first reading I imagined it'd be Liz Taylor or some other actress, but then I changed my mind and decided it's a male star, perhaps from one of the western films back then. If it was some tough cowboy hero star, I doubt Jack's parents or anyone else would think anything of him having the photo on the wall.

Front-Ranger:
I agree with you, Mikaela, that it would more likely be a male star, such as Montgomery Clift, because the epitome of male beauty back then was "Tall, dark, and handsome" while the female bombshells were more likely to be blond (except for Natalie Wood, she was the Catharine Zeta-Jones of her time).

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