Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 20/08: Ennis rejecting people close to him
MountainMan:
this is a great topic.
:)
I need to think more tho....
Artiste:
I do not think that Enns rejects others close to him since he needed to protecthimself, his family and his lover !
mariez:
--- Quote from: atz75 on August 03, 2008, 12:48:44 pm ---Since we see that Jack really is the only lover with whom Ennis seems to connect emotionally and he doesn't demonstrate interest in other men (and by his own admission in the short story), maybe Jack really was his one shot at true romantic happiness.
--- End quote ---
That is interesting, Amanda! I do agree that Jack is the only lover with whom Jack is able to connect, but I'm not sure if I'm understanding the rest of what you're saying correctly. Throughout the story, Ennis truly does not believe he is a gay man. The destructive rural homphobia is ingrained too deeply inside of him for that, so he explains his relationship with Jack as "this thing" - an anomaly of two straight men who are best friends, but who have sex. I think that's what he meant when he asked Jack if this happened to other people. Brokeback was a very special set of circumstances - that's why he believes it had the "power" (the imagined power referred to when he finds the shirts) and doesn't realize until he finds the shirts that the real power was the love he and Jack shared. I think he believes he's telling the truth when he tells Jack in the motel "I know I ain't." But clearly it's not the truth - Ennis is not a straight man who just happens to have sex with his best friend. I don't think we can take his admission that he doesn't have interest in other men as a simple statement of fact - it's not that he doesn't have an interest, it's that Ennis would never have allowed himself to have an interest because that would mean that what he had with Jack wasn't just "a thing" - and if it's not just a thing then he's one of "them guys" - something he definitely does not want to be.
Understand that I'm not trying to make a case that Ennis could have another shot at romance, I'm simply saying that what Ennis believes and says throughout the story is not necessarily the truth - just the truth as he sees it.
Marie
Artiste:
Truth is truth.
Of course, thruth depends on one's culture, experiences, feeling, civilisation(s), etc. !
There are such men out there in the World that are Ennis! They see themselves as straights and are, and it is normal for them or some to have sex and /or love ONLY another man !!
It depends a lot... on each person ?
Artiste:
He tries to protect, like a good human and civil being should !!
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