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

On earth and stones

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Front-Ranger:
I was just thinking about stones today...maybe it's because I live in the Rocky Mountains.

On Jack and stones...early in the story, Jack comes back to camp after a hard day of sheep wrangling, and eats two cans of peaches and some of Ennis' stone biscuits.

And late in the movie/story, Lureen tells Ennis that they "put a stone up" when he asks her about funeral services for Jack.

That seems like an odd statement. What do you think it means?

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on April 21, 2009, 11:59:27 am ---And late in the movie/story, Lureen tells Ennis that they "put a stone up" when he asks her about funeral services for Jack.

That seems like an odd statement. What do you think it means?

--- End quote ---

You haven't heard that use before? It means they erected a grave marker--a headstone--where she buried the portion of Jack's ashes that she didn't send up to his folks in Lightning Flat.

I guess that's an aspect I don't recall seeing discussed before. Lureen didn't send all of Jack's ashes to his parents in Wyoming. She had some of them buried in Texas. She probably had to pay extra to the undertaker to have the ashes divided into two parcels.

LauraGigs:
"They put a stone up..." 

To me Lureen's wording makes Jack's Texas funeral sound so ... empty.  Not that I blame the character of Lureen herself.  It's just that I think it was written to indicate that Jack's postmortem services were so incomplete at that point.  A fitting, subtle setup for the emotional resolution and healing of Ennis and Ma Twist's ritual with the shirts.

Front-Ranger:
Yes, I agree with you, friend. To me it also reminds me of the stony face Ennis adopted sometimes when talking of his dad, his early life, etc.

And, now that I think about it, the stony face of Jack as he watched Ennis drive away...

Penthesilea:
Some comments off the cuff: when I think "stones" I think of Ennis, not Jack. And I think of poor, stony, brownish soil I saw in some places in Wyoming, with beautiful little flowers blooming there nonetheless.

*goes searching for a pic*

*back*

They're beautiful, aren't they?



And this is where they grow:



It's the same pic twice, the first is a detail from the second. I think the place is just brown, dusty and stony almost all year round - but it has the capacitiy to breed such beautiful flowers for some weeks. Reminds me of Ennis. He's linked with bronish tones and with earth. And just like this place, he may appear dusty, poor and stony but has the capacity to fourish a few weeks a year, when he's with Jack. He has the capacitiy of beauty and tenderness in him, just like this seemingly poor and stony soil.


(BTW, the pic was taken on the short, two day Wyoming trip at the BBQ 2007; on the dirt road between Kaycee and Ten Sleep, where the plains come to an end and the first snow-capped mountains come in sight)

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