Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
what possessed Jack to take that shirt in the first place?
Brown Eyes:
Bump
8)
Tristann:
--- Quote from: pinku on May 28, 2006, 12:30:33 pm ---What else did he have? That was the only tangible object that he had had to remember his darling, Jack! Looks like the shirts were enough for Ennis to spend his life remembering those unaffected/uncomplicated days at Brokeback, note the postcard pasted/pinned near the shirts! I mean he did not even have the dubious comfort of going to Jack's grave!Beautifully enacted on the screen!
--- End quote ---
I might be wrong here but I think he did have something else. When Ennis goes into Jack's room he finds the wooden horse and cowboy figurine he himself had carved (think earlier in the movie where they show Ennis inside the tent carving, what seems to me, said horse and cowboy). This is something I haven't seen a lot of people talk about. I'd think that Ennis gave the figurine to Jack and that he did so before they left the mountain the first time. So, in my mind, Jack did have something to remind him of Ennis.
I think that Jack realized how strongly he loved Ennis and was scared that he'll never see Ennis again. The closest he would come to Ennis was to have something very close to Ennis, i.e. his shirt. And with it the smells, memories and even blood. In my mind, the blood almost elevated the importance of the shirt to Jack, since it is a very real reminder of a very real person and a very real love. Am I making sense here? Time for bed...
Rayn:
--- Quote from: Tristann on July 23, 2006, 04:34:40 pm ---I might be wrong here but I think he did have something else. When Ennis goes into Jack's room he finds the wooden horse and cowboy figurine he himself had carved (think earlier in the movie where they show Ennis inside the tent carving, what seems to me, said horse and cowboy). This is something I haven't seen a lot of people talk about. I'd think that Ennis gave the figurine to Jack and that he did so before they left the mountain the first time. So, in my mind, Jack did have something to remind him of Ennis.
I think that Jack realized how strongly he loved Ennis and was scared that he'll never see Ennis again. The closest he would come to Ennis was to have something very close to Ennis, i.e. his shirt. And with it the smells, memories and even blood. In my mind, the blood almost elevated the importance of the shirt to Jack, since it is a very real reminder of a very real person and a very real love. Am I making sense here? Time for bed...
--- End quote ---
Yes, you make sense Tristann and I thought at one time that figurine was the one that Ennis was carving that rainy day in the tent on BBM, it certianly seems like something Ennis recognizes when he picks it up. But it could very well just be a boyhood toy Jack had too. A lot of us had toys like that. The one Ennis is carving does seem bigger too. Who knows? Your theory is possible, and no doubt, the shirts, blood and all, are the more powerful keepsake and symbol of their joy and pain.
Rayn
delalluvia:
OK, I'm into the game late here, but I agree that after the punch, Jack thought it was probably over. He saw Ennis left the shirt behind, and took it, meaning to give it back if they might meet again.
After all, Ennis is extremely poor. Taking his shirt is like someone walking in your home and stealing 50% of your wardrobe. Ennis only had 2 shirts to his name.
Jack tried again in town, to wring a 'maybe we'll see each other next year' outta Ennis, but it didn't work, so he decided to keep the shirt.
Now, here's a little twist (no pun intended). Who's to say he immediately hung up the shirt in his closest at Lightning Flat? Jack was commutin' all over the Southwest following the rodeo for a couple of years at least. He might have kept the shirt in his truck with him all that time. Safe from his mother's laundry and any uncomfortable questions. It would be something to keep him warm on cold lonely nights on the road.
When he married Lureen, he finally put the shirt away in his closet at his mom's house. Again, to 'forget' and avoid any uncomfortable questions from Lureen. But of course, he couldn't forget.
Since he and Ennis ended on a bad note, even though they 'torqued things almost back to what they were' is it possible, the reason Ennis found the shirts in the niche in the closet was because Jack put them there? Out of sight out of mind? He was done waiting for Ennis and was going to try to start anew with Randall? He certainly told his father that, but it was probably just talk.
I do things like that. No matter how I feel about my ex's or how we broke up, it's easier to deal with the memories if the reminders aren't right there out in the open.
moremojo:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on July 24, 2006, 08:07:07 pm ---
Since he and Ennis ended on a bad note, even though they 'torqued things almost back to what they were' is it possible, the reason Ennis found the shirts in the niche in the closet was because Jack put them there? Out of sight out of mind? He was done waiting for Ennis and was going to try to start anew with Randall? He certainly told his father that, but it was probably just talk.
I do things like that. No matter how I feel about my ex's or how we broke up, it's easier to deal with the memories if the reminders aren't right there out in the open.
--- End quote ---
Hmmm...that's an interesting angle that had not occurred to me. The shirts were definitely hidden in Jack's Lightning Flat closet, and I had always assumed this was to keep them from prying eyes and hands, as Jack's secret treasures. I had not thought of the shirts being put away so that Jack could thereby better bury the memory they represented. As with so many other details of this story, the truth can never be known...but it's an interesting speculation. Emotionally, I prefer to see the shirts as having always been treasured, and therefore hidden, rather than being hidden to negate the past.
Along these lines, it's significant that the shirts ended up in Lightning Flat, and not (apparently ever) in Childress. Jack certainly would not have wanted to risk having to explain them to Lureen, but he would have been separated from these emotionally charged totems for fairly long periods of time, a scenario that might compound our understanding of Jack's loneliness and pining for Ennis.
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