Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
You think of joy, purpose & fullfillment, in Ennis's, Jack's or someone elses ??
Artiste:
What do you think is meant: "boys like you". ?
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Artiste on July 25, 2008, 01:54:13 pm ---What do you think is meant: "boys like you". ?
--- End quote ---
I'm guessing Ennis, in his anger and confusion, was lashing out at Jack and repeating some of the language that goes around the stables, the pens, and the bunkhouses where he'd spent much of his life. "Boys like you" is obviously a put-down with homophobic undertones.
LoneleeB, I really loved reading your take on Ennis and his inner turmoil. Written from personal experience, I daresay (sadly). I hope you and we all learn from Ennis and Jack's sad story, and turn our stories into long, happy ones. Not the stuff of epic tragedy, but that's okay with me!!
Artiste:
Merci Front-Ranger!
Your post reveals something about both: Ennis and Jack !!
You think that Ennis saying: Boys like you to Jack, shows that he (Ennis) is jealous or wants ONLY Jack to himself, or is it something else, at that point and time in both of them ?
Au revoir,
hugs! Glad I am that you are safe! And, may I ask which agricultural zone are you in, is it like 2B ?
optom3:
I think to be capable of accepting and giving love,you have to be shown love from very early days.We know that Jack at least had some sort of communication and judging by her reaction to his death,a display of love as well, from his mother.He is an only child so does not to have fight siblings for what little love there may have been.
Ennis is much more complex,he had to grow up pretty quickly I suspect after his parents death,then he moves from one family member to another until finally no one has any time or space for him, and this is his family we are talking about here.There seems precious little evidence of love there. It also struck me that he maybe has pretty low self esteem.In the s.s. he really wants to be a sophomore as he feels it holds some sort of distinction to it.The pick up goes so that is the end of that dream.
How can Ennis know how to accept or give love when he seems to have been shown so little in his life.It may well be why he feels comfortable around animals.He has had little chance to be anything much other than a loner.
Jack with his unfailing optimism, in spite of hardship, manages to unlock something deep within Ennis.It as, as has been posted very telling that Ennis says,that's more words than I've spoken in a year. How sad is that. Look at how much we all communicate daily.Think how we would feel if pretty well all communication was denied us.Ennis is slowly learning to enjoy some of life's very simple pleasures.Sitting chatting round a fire,smoking having a few drinks----- "he'd never had such a good time,felt he could paw the white out of the moon"
We are not talking about anything that most of us have enjoyed on numerous occasions well before the age of 19.Seen in that context it is almost inevitable that Ennis would fall in love with Jack. Is he straight,gay or bi? I am not sure of the answer to that.I do know that Ennis fell in love with the first person probably to show him any, attention,the s.s says "they were respectful of each other's opinions" I suspect that this is yet another first, someone who listened to his opinion and gave him some credit for it.
Seen from that perspective,Ennis is like a an orphan who is removed from the only environment he has known and taken under the nurturing wing of Jack.Slowly little bubbles of happiness start to arise to the surface,originally based on the simple bonding by the camp fire.All sorts of emotions and physical feelings are beginning to awaken,but for Ennis there is no reference point.Most of us have experience some form of love by the age of 19.I think for Ennis this is the first real love he has ever been shown or felt. He has no idea how to cope with it,he has only his horrific memories.
Then in an ironic twist, just as he may be starting to relax up on BBM, the idyll is cut short.There is no warning,just like there was no warning when his parents died.Another month up on BB and who knows what may have transpired.I am sure that Ennis is amazed that he actually has the capcity for love,but knowing how to deal with it is another matter.He needed more time under the gentle guidance of Jack.
It is therefore not surprising that he is physically sick when he finally parts from Jack.It is the second time in his life that something has been taken away from him with now warning whatsoever.It can be no coincidence that the phrase lovesick was originally dreamed up.If we think back to our first loves,we probably remember, we cannot eat,or sleep,we feel sick if the promised call does not come.Yet again thoughEnnis cannot process what is happening.He simply has no life experience to compare it to.
He is not without the ability over the course of time to realise what has happened,he shouldn't have let Jack out of his sight.So whether he ever admits it, he knows that he loves Jack.
I often wonder what may have been different,if they had been allowed more time on BBM.Ennis may not have been any more comfortable with the fact that the person he loves is a man, but having found love, even if he could not live with Jack because of the haunting memories,maybe he would not have married Alma.We will never know. I always find it surprising that in the s.s motel scene,Jack tells Ennis he thinks they nay have been seem.Why ??!!! He already knows how neurotic Ennis is, yet that statement only serves to reinforce that. Also the timing of the revelation when Ennis has , at least for him, bared his soul,saying "I like doin it with women,yeah,but Jesus H, aint nothing like this.
So I think Ennis, may not have permanant joy or fulfillment,but think how much he would have missed out on, had Jack never entered his life.It goes back to the age old connundrum is it better to have loved and lost,etc. I truly believe, if they had never met,Ennis would have gone through life never knowing the immeasurable pleasure of true love.I am sure it is his love for Jack that allows him to slowly thaw and feel love for his daughters.It is yet another irony, that just as Ennis starts to thaw and relax into his love for Jack, that the frozen snow puts an end to that.
The more I read the story and watch the film,the more I see how very, very clever it is.
The pivotal point to me seems to be the abrupt, cutting short of their time on BBM.
Artiste:
Merci beaucoup, yes thanks very much optom !
Your post is marvelous ! I can see you as a professor... in an university, here by your dissertation-like explanations! These are great, by you !!
Just to outline as you say:
Seen from that perspective, Ennis is like a an orphan who is removed from the only environment he has known and taken under the nurturing wing of Jack. Slowly little bubbles of happiness start to arise to the surface,originally based on the simple bonding by the camp fire.
.........
Optom and to all too, do you think, therefore, that one can be actually be removed, to use your expression what he had known as sadness in his youth, to an area of happiness such as Brokeback Mountain becomes for Ennis ?
And is that likewise (a bit maybe too) for Jack ?
In a way, I say yes; in another way, I think no, considering my own life. As examples, when I was in Los Angeles or Quebec City (as well as in other places), I was sad... and became sader when I watched (in Quebec City) often during days: the clip of this Brokeback Mountain movie; why ? - likely because I yearned for such love as Ennis and Jake had - and I did not have my former lover-buddy anymore since he was now in heaven (had died) !! And, I remember that every time I went before his death: to my pal's place ( his house/his home), he and I... were happy !! So, my question is, do we have to be somewhere else in order to be happy ??
Ennis and Jack are always somewhere else ?? !!
Au revoir,
hugs!
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