Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Where was Ennis coming from? Going to?
Pipedream:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on April 17, 2006, 04:16:45 pm ---That's kind of a funny question, what did Alma see in Ennis? Well, what did Cassie see in him? What did Jack see in him? What about Annie Proulx, Ossana and McMurtry and millions of us? Aside from the fact that he is eye candy and a bona fide Marlboro Man, Ennis is certainly not vain or stuck up, and he has an air of a little lost boy who needs to be loved. Plus he represents a challenge that any red-blooded female would relish. Irresistable!
--- End quote ---
I second that, Front-Ranger. Ennis is bloody gorgeous. I am totally in love with him, too.
::)
moremojo:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on April 17, 2006, 04:04:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: RouxB on April 17, 2006, 03:44:46 pm ---Their attraction to each other is rooted (IMNSHO) in their lonliness.
--- End quote ---
Now, that makes perfect sense. I am totally buying that explanation for why they fell in love with each other so quickly. Really, I am! These were two very lonely boys, especially Ennis. But as for the steady, dependability part, no, it takes time for someone to demonstrate that they're dependable. I don't buy that you can really know that about someone right from the get-go.
--- End quote ---
All good points that have been made, and I would add that I suspect that part of what attracted Jack to Ennis is precisely Ennis's loneliness--his desperate need for love. Jack was a nurturer, and I think he intuitively sensed how bereft Ennis was of love. Jack's "It's all right...it's all right", in the second tent scene, may have been the most loving words Ennis had heard in his life up to that point (and it breaks my heart to imagine that). In contemporary terms, Jack might be termed a "co-dependant" kind of personality, an appellation that I find tends to trivialize or subvert the innate, natural human yearning not only to receive love but to give it.
Another element of Jack's attraction to Ennis, I think, was his recognition that Ennis was an excellent cowboy. Both the boys have great respect and admiration for the cowboy's image and life, and in Ennis Jack found an exemplary model who responded to him with interest and affection.
Just some thoughts...
Scott
Ellemeno:
From the short story -
They were respectful of each other's opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he'd never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon.
That's a good enough reason right there.
It's interesting, it seems like there are sort of two views on Jack falling in love, and staying in love, with Ennis. There's the "it doesn't make sense, he's too uptight, he never gives enough" school of cerebral thought, and there's the "OMG, yum yum, me love too" school of PHROAHH (that British sound some of you make). I'm in the second school.
Meryl:
I agree with moremojo that Ennis's loneliness brought out Jack's nurturing instincts, and that Jack was lonely, too. In the few homosexual relationships Jack may have had before meeting Ennis, he hadn't met with anyone who was willing to form an emotional bond. Ennis didn't know how not to bond, as much as he might have been denying it to himself.
But Ennis had a wild side, too, and I think that's what kept Jack coming back. Ennis's taciturn, repressed exterior hid a volatile temper and a personality that could go "full throttle." Jack loved to ride bulls, chose mares with low startle points, opted for the excitement of the rodeo life. It seems he chose his man the same way. ;)
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: meryl on April 17, 2006, 11:19:08 pm ---But Ennis had a wild side, too, and I think that's what kept Jack coming back. Ennis's taciturn, repressed exterior hid a volatile temper and a personality that could go "full throttle." Jack loved to ride bulls, chose mares with low startle points, opted for the excitement of the rodeo life. It seems he chose his man the same way. ;)
--- End quote ---
Meryl, you are in the saddle! Good work. You are dripping pearls today.
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