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

P.O. Boxes, Mailboxes and the No. 17

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Brown Eyes:
Greetings Open Forum Denizens!

So, a new topic has recently come to mind.  The themes of mailboxes, the post office and related things seem to be very vital to the movie. And, I don't recall discussing this much around here.  There was an old thread (it was relatively silly) on imdb about the importance of numbers and the instances of different numbers recurring in the film.  During that discussion, the importance of that "17" that we see Ennis very deliberately put on his new mailbox was brought up... but not in a very satisfying way.  So, I'll throw a few specific questions out there to start things off...

Why does the camera focus so specifically on Ennis putting the number "17"... or more accurately the number "1" and then the number "7" one after the other on his trailer's mailbox?  He even stands back to look at it.  Both the amount of time the camera lingers on it and Ennis's attention to it seem to indicate that the filmmakers want the audience to focus on this too.  So, why?

Ennis seems a bit excited about this new mailbox... Why?  Who is he expecting to get fun mail from now?  It's a sad thought really.

After all of those years sending postcards back and forth... and Ennis's mail being relatively visible in the p.o. box in the tiny post office... is it safe to assume that much of Riverton was completely on to Ennis's big secret?  Even though the postcards were written to seem innocent enough... don't we think that a lot of people would have started putting 2 and 2 together?

Why didn't they send letters in envelopes?  If they had they could have communicated with each other better.  They could have written longer notes and with the cover of an envelope they could have told each other more private things without so much worry about other people seeing. 

serious crayons:
Good topic, Amanda!

Front-Ranger started a discussion about phones over on the CT board that eventually spread into mail issues, so maybe we can get into other forms of communication here, too.

OK, how about this. Hasn't it been 17 years since Jack sent Ennis the first postcard? (Reunion 1967, last scenes 1984, according to Barbara's timeline.)

Maybe the mailbox represents Ennis' subconscious desire to keep the lines of communication open with Jack. He's inviting Jack to "send him a postcard," so to speak, from beyond. Sorry, I am trying and trying and I can't figure out a way to phrase that so it doesn't sound kind of hokey. But my intention is serious. You know what I mean, right? He wants Jack to be with him.

jpwagoneer1964:
I think it has been said before that Ennis would no longer want to go  to the PO so he got himself a mailbox at his trailer. he is proud of the job he did putting it up.

Ennis and Jack didn't express their feelings so much in words, written or otherwise.

serious crayons:
This discussion gives me a new idea about that final postcard. The fact that it's signed "Ennis del Mar" I've always taken as a funny in-joke about their first meeting. But another reason could be because it sounds more formal and less intimate than a simple "Ennis." Maybe he was afraid that would arouse suspicion.

The more I think about the mailbox and the 17, the more I think they are connections to Jack. And maybe that's also the reason he's living in a trailer like the one where they first met. (And furnishing it with fans and coffee pots.)

But another possibility for the mailbox, which has been suggested elsewhere, is that it shows he's becoming even more hermitlike now -- he's not even going to go into town for his mail. A practical question: Would the PO deliver as far out as his trailer? Aren't townies more likely to have door-to-door delivery and rural folks have to go into town? Or maybe it's just a sign of the times and the postal service upgrading.
 

nakymaton:
I just googled "rural free delivery," which was the mail service that rural people used until Emergency 911 service spread to rural areas (less than ten years ago, in a couple of the towns where I've lived) and even small country roads got street addresses. Apparently, rural mail delivery has been around since 1896. I don't know what its history is in Wyoming, but it was the norm in other parts of the country in the 70's. So that doesn't explain why Ennis wouldn't have gotten a mailbox until the 80's.

Post office boxes cost money, and rural mailboxes don't (except for buying the box in the first place, and replacing it when the neighbor's kids blow it up with leftover fireworks). I don't know if that could be part of it.

I guess as far as symbolism is concerned, the things that work best for me are that 1) the reunion (and the first postcard) was seventeen years ago (though Ennis wouldn't have had any control over what box number the post office assigned him), and 2) that the post office was the place where Ennis used to get his postcards from Jack, and it used to be a happy place, but after that last postcard... then the post office became the place where Ennis learned that Jack was dead. I'm not sure avoiding it necessarily implies avoiding people; after all, Ennis agrees to go to Alma Jr's wedding (and deal with both Alma and the memories of being 19 and in love) right after setting up the mailbox. But it might mean avoiding painful memories.

As for letters vs. postcards... maybe letters would have been more damning, in a way. I can see a nosy wife asking lots of questions about what's in a letter. With a postcard, it's all there; nothing seems to be hidden. What better place to hide than in the open?

(Also, in the short story, Ennis is far-sighted and doesn't enjoy reading, so a letter wouldn't be the same kind of pleasure it would be for other people.)

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