Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Alma and Jack: one question

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shortfiction:
Thanks for the replies....It makes sense that Alma would be disoriented, to say the least. And Ennis was so caught up in seeing Jack again and of course didn't know she'd seen them kissing, so he doesn't think about how she's feeling.

August7th:

--- Quote from: Katie77 on October 30, 2008, 02:37:48 am ---No matter how much we love Jack and Ennis, what happened there, was pretty selfish.
--- End quote ---

And it seems even more "cold" in the short story since Ennis just calls Alma on the phone from the motel to tell her he'll be gone for a few days!

chowhound:
As others have suggested, Alma must have found the situation after Jack's arrival very confusing, maybe even threatening, especially when you consider how little she knows about this fella called Jack who has so suddenly entered her life. All she knows is that he has sent her husband a postcard, letting him know that he'll be passing through Riverton on a certain date and suggesting the two of them might get together for a beer. When she asks Ennis who this Jack is, he lies to her. He denies that they "coyboy'ed" together but were, instead, "fishing buddies". (Why this lie? Is Ennis quickly and cleverly establishing a cover story for a possibly prolonged visit from Jack?) However, when she briefly gets to meet Jack, one thing she learns about him is that he is a married man with a young child. This is, at least, something she can cling on to. He is a regular married guy with a young child, much like Ennis and herself.

So I think Alma's invitation for coffee is an attempt to get the world back into a normality she is comfortable with. Clearly, for Alma it's been a bizarre evening and night, with the kissing to start with and then Ennis not returning after they leave for their drinking session. Now Ennis is flying around their apartment, quickly together all he needs to go off on this fishing trip with his buddy.

Alma's invitation for coffee, then, is probably a desperate attempt to bring the world back to what it was like before Jack arrived. If she can only get Jack up to the apartment, then she can find out more about his wife, his young son, maybe even see some photos that many men carry in their wallets of their wife and children. The framework of her world would then at least have the outlines of the sort of world she is familiar with.

Of course, this doesn't happen. All Alma can do is to tearfully watch their departure, unsure of what world she now is in. It will take a long while for her to work that one out.

Gabreya:
I agree.

Marge_Innavera:

--- Quote from: chowhound on October 31, 2008, 10:41:15 pm ---Alma's invitation for coffee, then, is probably a desperate attempt to bring the world back to what it was like before Jack arrived. If she can only get Jack up to the apartment, then she can find out more about his wife, his young son, maybe even see some photos that many men carry in their wallets of their wife and children. The framework of her world would then at least have the outlines of the sort of world she is familiar with.

Of course, this doesn't happen. All Alma can do is to tearfully watch their departure, unsure of what world she now is in. It will take a long while for her to work that one out.

--- End quote ---

As several people have pointed out during these discussions, Alma doesn't have any background that would prepare her for the moment when she sees them kissing.  For most of the 1960s -- probably all of the decade for people in small towns -- there was very little open discussion of homosexuality and the 'conventional wisdom' about it was that it was a psychological disorder, even a mental illness.  And the general impression was that homosexual men in particular were 'creepy' and generally disfunctional.

I don't believe for a minute that she didn't know what she was seeing -- if you see your spouse kiss anyone like that, same-sex or opposite-sex, you're going to know what you're seeing.  But when we encounter something we're not prepared for, or never thought existed, I think we all try to fit it into what we previously believed.  (There's some "open space between what [we know] and what [we try] to believe.   :) )

Come to think of it, trying to act as if there's been no shift in reality is a common response when a marriage is going sour or when you know that someone close to you has a drinking problem, gambling problem, mental breakdown, etc.  There just seems to be something in the human psyche that makes us act as if the open space between what we know and what we want to believe doesn't exist as long as we can.  One of the most well-known examples might be a couple whose marriage is in trouble having a baby in the hope that this will fix things.

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