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getting hit hard by offhand revelations (story discussion)

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nakymaton:
Back to Ennis feeling shortchanged:

I can think of two possible reasons.

The first is that, as far as Ennis is concerned, he has done what he was supposed to do. He got married. He got Alma pregnant. He worked hard, even if he preferred ranch work that he could quit easily. He tried to stick it out with Alma. And then the stability of a marriage and kids was taken away from him, because ALMA went and divorced HIM.

The second is that... maybe he was a bit jealous, at some deeply buried level, of the ease with which Alma was able to go off and marry the grocer. (The reader doesn't know about it, but Ennis did call Jack after the divorce in the story. And then there's Jack's twelve hundred mile drive for nothing. Did story-Jack mention the possibility of a "sweet life" again? Whether he did or not, the implication of that drive is that Jack essentially proposed to Ennis again, and Ennis said no. Perhaps at some level Ennis wished that he could have accepted Jack's proposal. I'm not saying that Ennis was ready to rage at the injustice of society, or to ask the ACLU to help bring a lawsuit against the state of Wyoming for discrimination in their marriage laws -- the so-called "values" of his society are too deeply embedded in Ennis for that, I think. But perhaps, at some subconscious level, Ennis feels the injustice of the situation. It's deep enough to be just a vague sense of being short-changed, rather than open frustration. But maybe that's part of it.)

Front-Ranger:
I thought of yet another reason for Ennis to feel shortchanged: he was being abandoned yet again, and yet again he was being abandoned by a woman. (Is that enough yets?) First his mother, then his sister, and finally his wife and two daughters. (I'm assuming the pickup truck that died on him was neutral.) That's a lot of abandonment for a poor young man.

Front-Ranger:
Oh, BTW Katherine, I have had the joy of having a daughter AND a son, and while having a daughter is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, I didn't realize how wonderful it would be to have a son until mine came along. As the nurse told me shortly after he was born, you can put your arms around your daughter and hold her, but your son will put his arms around You and hold You. I guess I was just thinking of all those annoying teenaged boys I knew when I was growing up, but when the teenaged boy is your own, he's not annoying at all (except sometimes!).  :)

dly64:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 30, 2006, 01:00:53 am ---In the scene where he says he'd be happy to leave her alone if she doesn't want no more of his kids, I read it as, "Thank god! Here's an excuse to get out of this." And in the conversation with Jack about sons vs. daughters, well, that's story vs. movie, but still I don't see that as necessarily a sign of machismo (I used to want a girl for a kid -- maybe because I am a girl -- but just got little boys, yet I'm really not THAT much of a girly-girl, and by the time they were born I was perfectly fine with it). In the Thanksgiving fiasco, I don't see Ennis as being castrated so much as going along just to be nice to his kids (not to be the "sad dad"). I see no sign that he is bothered by either his inability to support his family or Alma being impregnated by another man. He could have done either if he'd wanted to (taken the job at the electric company, had sex with Alma), but it appeared to me he didn't want to.

Here I am, as usual,  dilligently defending Ennis. But really, that's really just how I see the movie!
--- End quote ---

Again, movie Ennis is not the same as story Ennis. I didn't mean to imply that Ennis is this macho man (although he has a streak of that in him). However, his purpose for getting married was because it was expected. He was expected to sire children. He was expected to support his family. At that place and time, it would have been important to have a son. After the divorce, Ennis saw himself as failing in those areas. He fell short of society's and his own expectations. Not that he was devastated by it, but he felt gypped. I may have used too strong of words, but the essence is the same.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: dly64 on September 30, 2006, 09:56:54 pm --- He fell short of society's and his own expectations. Not that he was devastated by it, but he felt gypped. I may have used too strong of words, but the essence is the same.
--- End quote ---

Yep, I was thinking the same. I think the word shortchanged might refer to Ennis feeling, in a general way, like he hadn't gotten what people are supposed to get out of life. I don't see it in terms of feeling emasculated or castrated, a threat to his male ego. But I do think he probably imagines that the standard progression is that people get married, have kids, grow old, be happy ... and he didn't get that. So in that sense, he's shortchanged.

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