TOTW 20/08: Ennis rejecting people close to him

[MountainMan]

I'm not sure if Ennis believes that he could ever be happy....with Jack or any of the others. So maybe he has a kind of "why bother?" attitude toward relationships. He can't commit to Jack because of the consequences he foresees, and perhaps he simply can't see them succeeding and being happy together. Or he doesn't believe he deserves it.

hmmm. Same thing with the others. Alma, Cassie, etc. But with them it may be that his desire for Jack has ruined his other relationships. Maybe he feels there's no point in trying since he really wants to be with Jack (but won't!) and can't be satisfied with the others.

[brokeplex]

I'm not sure if Ennis believes that he could ever be happy....with Jack or any of the others. So maybe he has a kind of "why bother?" attitude toward relationships. He can't commit to Jack because of the consequences he foresees, and perhaps he simply can't see them succeeding and being happy together. Or he doesn't believe he deserves it.

hmmm. Same thing with the others. Alma, Cassie, etc. But with them it may be that his desire for Jack has ruined his other relationships. Maybe he feels there's no point in trying since he really wants to be with Jack (but won't!) and can't be satisfied with the others.

good point, Ennis sees his options as so limited that to ascribe to him the same motivations that others have in relationships may be a stretch. I see Ennis as an emotionally stunted man who never really learned the value of a relationship.

[Artiste]

I disagree, and think that Ennis did his very best, considering that he was in a war zone !

[brokeplex]

he did his very best, but he was still an emotionally stunted man and could do only so much. my comment isn't an attack on the Ennis character, just what I feel is a realistic appraisal of what I feel the character could or couldn't feel for Jack, or Cassie, or Alma under the circumstances of his emotional retardation.

[Artiste]

If you see Ennis in another light, he was in war zone ?

Worst in some ways, than that Greyhound man who was murdered recently ?

[mariez]

I'm not sure if Ennis believes that he could ever be happy....with Jack or any of the others. So maybe he has a kind of "why bother?" attitude toward relationships. He can't commit to Jack because of the consequences he foresees, and perhaps he simply can't see them succeeding and being happy together. Or he doesn't believe he deserves it.

hmmm. Same thing with the others. Alma, Cassie, etc. But with them it may be that his desire for Jack has ruined his other relationships. Maybe he feels there's no point in trying since he really wants to be with Jack (but won't!) and can't be satisfied with the others.

And beyond that, I don't think Ennis ever believed that achieving "happiness" was the purpose of life, or that it was something to strive for.  You played the hand you were dealt, did what was "right" as dictated by society (and his father), didn't complain, and withstood what you couldn't fix. 

Marie

[brokeplex]

If you see Ennis in another light, he was in war zone ?

Worst in some ways, than that Greyhound man who was murdered recently ?

welll, if you wish to call his life a "war zone". I don't quite see it that way. Ennis chose to make his life as placid as was possible, he was adverse to any change at all, including a change in his relationship with Jack. I have no doubts as to the causes of the hollowness of his emotional life, but I can't see that as a "war zone". I thiink that a lot of Brokies have unrealistic expectations of Ennis, and a thin understanding of what Ennis, or men like him, were or are really like - and what their motivations are. It isn't logical to self-internalize Ennis's motivation and actions, most people opining on Ennis simply do not have the experiences necessary to relate to it, except in a generalized / "romanticized" sort of way.

[Artiste]

Merci brokeplex !

I think that romanticising Ennis is OK to a certain point, but just that is not, since I re-say that Ennis feels that he is in a war zone or something similar ! That changes our perception... somewhat ? Ennis has a  perception of the world,  which notably is very different than most, and he said so, remember ?


Like those others on that Greyhound bus, lately, these other peaceful passengers were in a war zone when that murderer was carving and beheading that innocent young man, and they will remain so till the rest of their lives in many ways seeing the world daily different from now on ! So was Ennis, and that was not his fault, as society is what it is then and now worst and worst !
Au revoir,
hugs!

[brokeplex]

we will just agree to disagree on the "war zone" analogy.

[Artiste]

Ok brokeplex, then put Ennis on that Greyhound bus, and he's not the murderer ?

And then of his life then anf after ??

Au revoir,
hugs!