Lureen was far more wordly aware than Alma Sr.. I mean she was in some alpha beta deta blah blah thing. that in itself is evidence that she is more wordly wise..
To me, Lureen's sorority membership is very much social designatin, not academic ones. Especially in Texas at the time Lureen would have been in school. In a great twist of fate, my university degree is from Boston University (in Film, no less)! By the time I attended, the whole Greek system had pretty much died there, except for the African American student body.
But certainly Lureen was more worldly than Alma. She was educated, came from money, had herself been on the rodeo circuit, and was clearly someone who had goals and dreams of her own. We don't see any of that with Alma.
I don't get why everyone thinks Lureen is so awful. I don't think she tricked Jack into marrying her out of calculated ambition. How would that have benefited her in any way? She was more worldly than Alma, but just really a spoiled and protected little girl who got in over her head reeally quickly when she met Jack. And he did too when he met her. They did what a lot of couples did...had sex, got pregnant, got married. And then spent years just trying to make something work that never really did work since they were together for all the wrong reasons.
Fast forward now, (dizzy yet?), to the post "Deceased" phone call from Ennis when Lureen was so ice cold and seemingly rehersed in her response. She only releases when she truly understands who Ennis is. Do you think Lureen knew all along and she used that knowledge as an unspoken control mechanism.
I believe Lureen was desperate for the kind of attention and affection that brought her and Jack together in the first place. She wanted a husband who would adore and dote on her as completely as her daddy did, and instead she was with a man who was by nature caring, but mostly indifferent, and who put his mysterious friends before her. I think she was desperate for Jack's adoration, but too proud to say it, and too confused as to why it wasn't there to ever address her disappointment.
I don't know that she tried to control Jack - he didn't have trouble taking off to see Ennis, and left after Ennis's divorce with what seems like no planning, and then returned home with no obvious consequences to his marriage. But a lot of that we don't really know.
I think Lureen teased Jack to see what he would say and how he would respond. She used humor, even though not so funny, to try to understand how her man could be so uninterested. I see women do this all the time. Jokingly complain about their husbands to others in social settings, but what they are joking about is real pain, and they just need some small release and validation that what they're going through is real.
And I think she was so cold on the phone to Ennis in the realization that what she had always hoped was just her wrong-headed suspicions about Jack, were now confirmed to be a reality she didn't want to know about. I think she loved Jack - he's a very lovable guy. But her bitterness adn increasing hardness came from huge disappointment. Everyone's heart broke in a different way.
