Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Double meanings: Lines that can be taken more than one way
tiawahcowboy:
In the AP and the Movie, Mrs. Twist practiced Christian hospitality when Ennis came to her home. She was not merely being nice or pretending so, when she offered Ennis something to eat and drink while he was in her home. She knew that he had been travelling for a while and was probably hungry.
Since she was not in very good health, she offered what she had on hand. The biblical Greek word translated as "practice hospitality" means "the action of showing love to strangers."
I was watching PBS-TV last night and Bono mentioned what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-40. Jesus said that if one invited a stranger in and gave him something to eat and drink, it was as though the person showed hospitality to himself in his name.
Mikaela:
Popping in very quickly to say - Mel, I absolutely love this analysis of the church activities as the social glue and social norm setter of the community Ennis and his family lived in. Just the thing I was trying to piece together but couldn't quite manage to formulate in my previous question concerning the Del Mar family's church activities!
Also Katherine, very well put observations about Mrs. Twist and her acceptance of (Jack and) Ennis!
I've been wondering why his mother didn't introduce Jack to her pentecostal faith. It seems obvious that she must have been the positive, accepting and enabling influence on Jack that made him into the person he became as an adult. And yet, she didn't touch upon and include him in something as personal and as important to her as her religious beliefs. But perhaps John Twist denied her that, wanting the boy to at least grow up in the "proper church?"
Another thing I have been wondering, is why Junior feels the need to specifically say that the wedding will be at the Methodist church. I've imagined Ennis 8and his immediate family) would have continued as a Methodist since that's what his folks were. (I've even imagined that's where Ennis and Alma met. Ennis didn't go to school, he worked on lonesome ranches - chances are they did in fact meet at some church social, I suppose.) Then perhaps Monroe belonged to another church so that Alma and her daughters switched when Alma married Monroe........
If so, could Junior marrying in the Methodist Church be another nod from her to her daddy? Does she thereby want to show him that when she makes this life-long commitment she wants to do so in the church of her childhood, the church that he is familiar with? She probably has much better memories from that church picnic and other similar events than Ennis himself has.
Well, I'd really like to think that *could* be the reason for her mentioning the Methodist church specifically. But perhaps her doing so simply means that Kurt is not a methodist so they've been discussing which church to get married in.
--- Quote ---I'd like to think one of the effects of that transformation is that society has a bit less influence on him now than it had for the previous 20 years.
--- End quote ---
I'd really like to think so, too. But the last image that the film leaves us with - the shirts still kept hidden in the closet - makes me less optimistic on that account. It's as if Ang Lee wants to stress that society's impact for men like Ennis hasn't changed much - it remains just as overwhelmingly limiting and crushing a force still at the end of those 20 years, - for Ennis, and for others like him.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on June 01, 2006, 05:14:57 pm ---I think the "ain't no angel like you and Jenny here" fits in with the examples I gave. I, at least, would leave out the Twist ranch scene (or maybe discuss it in a different sort of discussion of religion). ... First he's a part of it, and feels as his attraction to Jack is a sin. Then he withdraws from it, partly hinting that there's something wrong with him ("I ain't no angel"), but also partly hinting that there's something wrong with society ("that fire-and-brimstone crowd"). And then with his daughter's wedding, he's simply going to participate -- there aren't any references to sin or guilt. But he's going to be part of the community, in some sort of way.
I can't speak to Christian symbolism at the Twist ranch at all -- it doesn't resonate with me personally. Not saying that it isn't there, but that I'm not the right person to make sense of it.
--- End quote ---
Whew, Mel, this is getting so complicated! Because now I see what you're saying as far as "church" symbolically representing "society." In other words, in this context church is devoid of specifically religious meaning except to establish the metaphor -- "fire and brimstone" simply means "disapproving of homosexuality," and so on. That makes perfect sense to me.
I slightly disagree with one small point: I have always interpreted "the fire-and-brimstone crowd" not as a criticism by Ennis of church/society -- i.e., Ennis moving toward accepting himself and realizing the fault lies with others -- but more of a statement that as a "sinner" he doesn't feel comfortable in that millieu because they'll judge/disapprove of/suspect him. That is, as far as he's concerned the fault could still be his.
I think I understand your idea, though, and I really like it.
But what I was talking about, and there may be something to this also, is a way of interpreting Ennis' experience more in terms of religion specifically. I'm not the perfect analyst of this, either, in that I didn't grow up in a church and am not a Christian, so my knowledge of Christianity comes only from what I've heard or read or studied along the way. But I don't think it's an accident that Mrs. Twist is so explicitly identified as a Christian, that there's a cross behind her as she's comforting Ennis and so on. Or that his experience at the ranch coincides with a sort of redemption, after which he's ready to change his ways (go to Alma's wedding). That model would also fit with the other references to church.
--- Quote from: Mikaela on June 01, 2006, 06:12:30 pm ---But the last image that the film leaves us with - the shirts still kept hidden in the closet - makes me less optimistic on that account. It's as if Ang Lee wants to stress that society's impact for men like Ennis hasn't changed much - it remains just as overwhelmingly limiting and crushing a force still at the end of those 20 years, - for Ennis, and for others like him.
--- End quote ---
True, the closet is a powerful symbol. And I agree there's not much indication at the end of the movie that society has changed (unless you want to get back into the discussion of the tattooed woman! ;D)
But I do think there are lots of indications that Ennis has changed -- that is, become more accepting of his sexuality. So when I said society has less influence on him than before, I meant that he is now more willing to ignore society's rules (represented here by the roundup) and instead act on behalf of love (attend the wedding). Unfortunately, the closet stands as a reminder that, in the case of Jack if not Alma, his transformation comes too late.
Mikaela:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on June 01, 2006, 06:56:03 pm ---But I do think there are lots of indications that Ennis has changed -- that is, become more accepting of his sexuality. So when I said society has less influence on him than before, I meant that he is now more willing to ignore society's rules (represented here by the roundup) and instead act on behalf of love (attend the wedding). Unfortunately, the closet stands as a reminder that, in the case of Jack if not Alma, his transformation comes too late.
--- End quote ---
Hmmm. I see what you mean - I agree on him accepting himself, having reached some point of peace with his nature. But he still keeps who he is hidden from everyone else than himself, away in that closet, and as such, I think society does have a strong influence on him - just as before, it makes him hide and conform and stay silent. Also, I would argue that him attending the wedding implies him conforming to society's rules, and not the oppsosite, as I mentioned in my previous post. Unless US rural society is very different from the place where I live and grew up....... Over here at least, "society" would really frown at a father who didn't move heaven and earth to attend his own daughter's wedding and walk her up the aisle if she wanted him to.
tiawahcowboy:
I woud say the reason that Alma Jr. say the wedding would be at "the Methodist Church" might be the fact that it might be a different denominational church in Riverton than the one she attended with her mother, sister and possibly her dad when she was younger.
In the way the movie script has Alma and the kids talking about going to church in Ennis's presence and how he responds to that, without really putting going to church down, Ennis might have been going to church some, too.
While one does not see it in the movie, after Ennis and family moves to Riverton, He works 7 days a week, weekdays on the highway crew and weekends at the ranch where his has his horses boarded. I think his "fire and brimstone crowd" excuse for not going to the Saturday night church social was due to the fact that he was too tired to go anywhere.
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