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

Jack's adolescence is a blank page...

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JCinNYC2006:
Well thanks Katherine.  And that's good news Daniel!

Juan

Shuggy:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on September 12, 2006, 04:00:21 pm ---That's a pretty common rationale. Maybe Annie Proulx thought of that, and realized it would be a good way of introducing a distinction between father and son. (Where she got the abusive peeing from, though, I can't imagine.)

--- End quote ---
If John Twist was away at the war, they could have circumcised Jack without even asking. (A 1941 article says "Some doctors make a practice of routine circumcision unless specific objection is raised by the parents, while others first consult the parents in order to discover their wishes.") It peaked in frequency in the 1950s.
Or they could have leant on Mrs Twist, and not told her what it entailed. NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
Another possibility is that John Twist was so sadistic so early that he had it done IN ORDER to hurt and deprive Jack, but that's far-fetched (except when you consider the peeing).
As for looking like his father...

jpwagoneer1964:

--- Quote from: Shuggy on September 27, 2006, 04:59:52 pm ---If John Twist was away at the war, they could have circumcised Jack without even asking. (A 1941 article says "Some doctors make a practice of routine circumcision unless specific objection is raised by the parents, while others first consult the parents in order to discover their wishes.") Or they could have leant on Mrs Twist, and not told her what it entailed. NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
Another possibility is that John Twist was so sadistic so early that he had it done IN ORDER to hurt and deprive Jack, but that's far-fetched (except when you consider the peeing).
As for looking like his father...

--- End quote ---
Most American born white males are circumcised especially within the time frame of the story.   I understand the pratice is less routine in todays hospitals.

Meryl:
bump

Brown Eyes:
I don't know how I missed this awesome thread the first time around (I happened to notice a Guest looking at this thread via the "who's online" feature... so that's how come me end up here :) ).

Anyway, back to the topic of Jack's teenage/adolescent years... Yes, I think the information we do have (from the story) about his childhood and the abuse he suffered is probably important to imagining how his adolescence might have gone.  How far into Jack's teenage years do we imagine the physical abuse continued?

It's certainly true that we don't have the same sense of Jack's abusive childhood through the film.  We know that Jack's bitter about his father based on how he talks about him and the lack of bull riding lessons and his early remark that there's no way to please his old man.  But, I'd say we have less to go on about Jack's youth in the film vs. the story.  The visual clues from his bedroom seem a litte odd to me in regards to the question of his adolescence, because his Lightning Flat bedroom really looks like a small child's room more than a teenage room.

However, the one major issue from the film that does not appear to have been discussed yet in this thread is his question early on to Ennis about whether or not Ennis's parents "ran him off".  He asks this as if this is a common occurance/ would not be a shocking occurance.  I mean it's very telling that he immediately jumped to that question when trying to figure out Ennis's background.  So, this seems to imply that Jack was run off.  Or is very familiar with that kind of experience.  It's interesting to speculate exactly what that means or when that might have happened to Jack.  Was the fact that Jack was up on Brokeback one summer earlier, in '62, a direct result of his being run off?  Why do we suppose Jack was run off (and was Ma Twist completely powerless in that scenario... since she doesn't seem like the type of parent to kick out her child)? 

In a certain sense the idea that Jack was kicked out seems to imply that he understands abandonment too, although of course Ennis's circumstance seems more severe.

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