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

Masculinity in Brokeback Mountain

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Front-Ranger:
You might also like to check out our book discussion at:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,8238.0/all.html

Espresso:
Thanks Man! It will really help me :)

I think that I get the point why both Ennis and Jack are characterized using wide variety of masculinity elements. Masculinity itself is something very close to the animalistic roots of man, so it explains why rising feeling of nearness ends up in sex scene. What is more, both Ennis and Jack  are fairly rough characters, I mean their clothing, behavior, the way they speak, all these things proves the proposition that physically they look like masculine characters, but looking through the inner world perception, both characters (especially Ennis) are very sensitive. Ennis and Jack are experiencing different inner struggles, main point of ennis struggle is to remain unnoticed, while Jack struggles with his desires to live with Ennis till the end of their lives.

Sorry for grammatical issues, English is not my mother-tongue language, and I have written it quickly.
:D

Front-Ranger:
I am impressed that you are studying Annie Proulx when English is not your mother tongue!! So don't worry about small errors. Jack's and Ennis' English was far from perfect too!

AP's writing is controversial; it seems people either love it or hate it. However most agree that Brokeback Mountain is her masterwork, even though she won a Pulitzer Prize for another book. IMO, she is a master of exposition and her descriptions of the surroundings give clues to the internal workings of her characters. Here's an example taken from the lake scene where the two men clashed at the end of the story:

"Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable--admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears--rose around them."

She helps us imagine the ghosts of a life they once could have had, their hopes and dreams rising around them as vapors and fading away into nothingness. Very moving.  :'(

milomorris:
One very important thing about kids who grow up poor is that they often lack access to thoughts, ideas, influences, or stimulus from anything outside their immediate environment. And sometimes when they do get it, they don't have the skills to process what they are experiencing. I think this was more of an issue with Ennis than with Jack, but they both suffered because of it individually and together.

More specifically, when it came to their discovery of their feelings for each other, neither of them really knew what to do about it. They were both certainly fearful. And it was something foreign for both. Jack--because he had been exposed to a wider world than Ennis--was at least willing to travel down the path his love laid out for him. Ennis could only react with 1 of 2 primal responses: sex and fear.

Had these two men been less poor, they would have been less isolated. Less isolation in turn leads to broader knowledge, understanding, and experience. So I think their poverty was a major contribution to their tragic circumstances.   



--- Quote from: Espresso on May 18, 2011, 02:09:48 pm ---What is more, both Ennis and Jack  are fairly rough characters, I mean their clothing, behavior, the way they speak, all these things proves the proposition that physically they look like masculine characters, but looking through the inner world perception, both characters (especially Ennis) are very sensitive.

--- End quote ---

Both Jack and Ennis were indeed masculine to the core. It was not just their clothing, speech, or behavior. And please don't make the mistake of putting masculinity and sensitivity in opposition. The two are not mutually exclusive. I have written much here about the way men express their feelings, both in general and between each other.

If your project needs another topic of analysis in order to fill it out, I suggest an analysis of the relationship between masculinity and homosexuality, and how society has viewed that relationship over time and across cultures. Of course, you'll have to be careful to make sure that your analytical points tie back to the situation in Brokeback. I can point you to a number of resources if you need them.

Buona fortuna col tuo progetto.

Mandy21:
Thank you for joining us, Espresso, and best of luck on your paper!  I hope more people add their thoughts on this thread in order to help you.

The subject of masculinity is certainly a strong one in terms of BM.  We have the stereotypical father of Ennis bashing gays and forcing his sons to witness the repercussions of such behavior, the cold-hearted, bitter and disappointed and jaded father of Jack who seems to be mortified that he could have possibly raised a gay son.  Then we have the tough-guy bravado of Ennis as the result of his upbringing, and the sensitive and open but still strong antithesis of that in Jack.  It's a topic that one could go on exploring for a hundred pages, I should think.

I hope your teacher/professor knows something of Brokeback, either the book or the film?

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