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

"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe..."

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serious crayons:

--- Quote from: moremojo link=topic=2973.msg81544#msg81544 date=my take:
...[i ---between what he knew[/i]...
--What Ennis knew is that Jack was dead and, to his mind, lost to him forever.

...and what he tried to believe...
--Ennis must have hoped, in fleeting, elusive moments, to hear Jack's voice, to see a new postcard from him, to feel his hand surprise him in the sweetest of ways.
--- End quote ---

So well put, Scott. I do think the line refers to Ennis' feelings about Jack's death, but I've always interpreted it in terms of the tire iron question. This way is much more poignant. And, I think, undeniably true of every grieving loved one.

nakymaton:

--- Quote from: moremojo on August 31, 2006, 09:40:08 pm ---...between what he knew...
--What Ennis knew is that Jack was dead and, to his mind, lost to him forever.

...and what he tried to believe...
--Ennis must have hoped, in fleeting, elusive moments, to hear Jack's voice, to see a new postcard from him, to feel his hand surprise him in the sweetest of ways. He saw Jack in his dreams, and believed enough in the verisimilitude of the vision to awaken sometime with the sheets wet--how saddened he must have immediately become to remember that it was, after all, only a dream.

--- End quote ---

 :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Yes.

j.U.d.E.:

--- Quote from: fernly on June 30, 2006, 02:29:26 am ---As far as what Ennis tried to believe (and this tears at me, too, that he isn't sure) - he could only try to believe that, given the chance in November, he would finally have said yes to Jack ("Jack, I swear.."), and saved Jack, and himself.
--- End quote ---
You think? It would have saved Jack and himself? I mean, had he said yes, he might then, have been exposed to the same 'ending' as Jack (if you go with the theory that Jack was murdered).

Now that I think of it.. as much as Ennis knew he loved Jack and had never loved another person quite as much as Jack and never would again, maybe he was even more homophobic and so damn deep in denial of his own real sentiments, that he didn't say yes, because he had more fear of ending like Earl, than showing love towards Jack? It's quite a depressing thought really - Ennis basically denying his feelings and thus 'letting' Jack die, in order to save his own life. Was he more afraid of dying than showing his affection to Jack and the world..?

 j. U. d. E.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: j. U. d. E. on September 01, 2006, 08:29:45 pm ---Now that I think of it.. as much as Ennis knew he loved Jack and had never loved another person quite as much as Jack and never would again, maybe he was even more homophobic and so damn deep in denial of his own real sentiments, that he didn't say yes, because he had more fear of ending like Earl, than showing love towards Jack? It's quite a depressing thought really - Ennis basically denying his feelings and thus 'letting' Jack die, in order to save his own life. Was he more afraid of dying than showing his affection to Jack and the world..?
--- End quote ---

Hi Jude! Nice to see you around these parts!

I don't think Ennis' fear of Earl's fate was the only reason to keep from shacking up with Jack -- maybe didn't even top the list. I think it was more a generalized fear and shame and belief that homosexuality is "wrong."

On the bright (well, sort of brighter) side is that, to the fear of physical danger was a factor, I don't think Ennis applied it just to himself. He had showed himself to be protective of Jack and/or willing to suffer on Jack's behalf (switching jobs, ordering soup, killing the elk). I think Ennis was as concerned about Jack's safety as his own.

brach:
I think you guys are leaving out an important part of the quote: "There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could
be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it." 

"Open space" means simply "discrepancy." "Open space" does not mean "the reader is free to interpret this quote any which way he chooses."

Examples of things the quote refers to: (1) Ennis may have tried to believe Jack's death was an accident, but he wasn't sure which way it was, "the tire iron or a real accident." (2) Ennis may have tried to believe Jack would not have really quit him for that "ranch neighbor a his from down in Texas", but he could never be sure because Jack had died before they could talk about it.

The significance of the shirts:  Jack had probably put the shirts in his Lightning Flat closet shortly after he returned from Brokeback in August 1963, and he very likely forgot about them years later, or else he would have kept them with him at his home in Chlidress.  The reason Jack stole Ennis's shirt in the first place was because he knew Ennis would be marrying Alma and believed he'd probably never see Ennis again. In any case, Jack did not plant the shirts in his boyhood closet in Lightning Flat for Ennis to discover 20 years later. Those shirts were Jack's way of memorialiazing the "dozy embrace" and how he felt about Ennis when they split up back in 1963.

20 years after Brokeback, Jack had surely come to accept that Ennis would never live with him:   

"Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed
happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that
Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see or feel that it was
Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they’d never got much farther than that. Let be, let be."

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