Ennis no, Jack yes
Chrissi--that's a great picture in the first post. I love it.
Ennis bought a new postcard to remind him of their communications when apart; Lureen found Ennis's postcards in Jack's belongings after his death.
That's my vote thinking/basis.
I have had a rethink and decided,Ennis and Jack both no. In the filmand the S.S, Lureen talking to Ennis says "would have let you know,but wasn't sure about your name or address.Jack kept his friends' addresses in his head"
I can never decide whether that is really true, or if she does know Ennis's address and is just being spiteful.After all she admits she knows of the fishing trips.
But if she is being honest, then Jack could not have kept any of the postcards,as she would at least have got the town from the post mark, and knowing his name it would not be a big job to track Ennis down.
Ennis at the end of the S.S has to go and buy a postcard of BBM to tack up with the shirts, so it would seem he kept nothing either.
I suspect they both thought it would go on for ever, much as it had done for 20 years, and saw no real reason to keep the postcards.
I find it makes it all the more poignant, that Jack has kept the shirts, and Ennis then keeps them, reversed, and next to a card of BBM.
The saddest thing of all, in the S.S, is when the postcard Ennis has asked to be ordered, arrives in the shop, it is just 30 cents.
There is something so completely desolate about that, 2 old shirts and a 30 cent postcard. Not a lot to show for 20 years of love.
As it says in the S.S the huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him, when processing Jacks' death.Which is in direct contrast to their time on BBM when in life they were flying in the euphoric bitter air,looking down on the plain below.
Every time I watch the film or read the story again, something else strikes me.How can so much be packed into so few pages.I know the answer, Proulx is a genius, but it seems every single word was chosen.Not one is excess to requirements.
Sorry for straying off topic a bit there.BBM always gets me sidetracked.