When Jack falls in love... and lets Ennis go

[ZouBEini]

I agree with you, Littlewing. I think Ennis would have tried to spend more time with Jack, but would not have been able to escape his homophobic upbringing enough to live with Jack.

~Larz

[Luvlylittlewing]

Hey, Zou!  No, I don't think Ennis would ever get to that point, setting up a home with Jack!  He was simply too damaged, too messed up to even consider such a thing.  Furthermmore, Ennis probably felt he didn't deserve such happiness!

[ZouBEini]

Hi Littlewing! 

At least subconsciously, I believe he felt he didn't deserve happiness.  Amazing what effects subtle (and even unintentional) brainwashing can have, eh?


Here's a quarter for your thoughts. *flips quarter*   

~Larz

[Amber]

Ahhh, the "Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved" line ... one of the saddest I think from the book. 

And I think you guys are right that Jack didn't let Ennis go (I don't think he ever really could) and that Ennis ran away.  I'm am however always torn by the thoughts of whether Ennis would live with Jack had things gone differently or if he would have always denied true love.  It depends on the day and on my mood as to how I answer that question.

As far as that "dozy embrace" - I think that's how Jack always pictured his love with Ennis.  I think when he looked back and thought of Ennis this was the memory that always popped to the front.  Whether it was the exact moment he knew he loved him or not I'm not for sure - but I certainly think that, that moment his how Jack always choose to remember their relationship.

Then the heartbreaking moment when that camera flashes back to the present and there is Jack standing alone, watching the only love of his life drive off after once again denying them a future together.  What I see in his eyes is sadness and longing for what could have been.  Ok ... now I'm entirely depressed.  *sighs*

[welliwont]

bump for more discussion,   

[jpwagoneer1964]

To Saucycobblers, I agree with you.  However, I do believe Ennis would have made some changes for Jack.  One step in that direction was breaking up with Cassie, IMO.  I don't know, I think Ennis would have tried to see Jack more, be more available to him, but I don't think he would have lived openly with Jack, as Jack wanted.

I'm not sure Ennis would live with  Jack either although I would hope so. Unfortunatally his fears were not unfounded and in WY it wasn't and may still be not a safe place to be out.

[Marge_Innavera]

I have heard it said, though, that if you love someone you let them go. And I think that even though Jack kept prodding Ennis to live that "sweet life" with him, he ultimately understood that this was the way Ennis always would be- running away from him and coming back. Jack lets him go, Ennis always returns. Ennis even tried to come back that November.

IMO, if Jack had lived that would have been decided in November. Jack would never have wanted to let Ennis go and would not have if Ennis could have brought himself to agree to even a compromise. But if not, he was weighing alternatives for what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. In the movie, his relationship with Randall is an open space to be filled in by the viewer: would Randall have divorced his wife to be with Jack? In the one scene where he appears, he doesn't appear to be too happy with her and her seemingly bubble-headed chatter is often rather disrespectful of him, especially since she's talking with two people they've just met.

Not that Randall could ever have "replaced" Jack; as if any person can ever been replaced. But I've heard people say so many times, after a divorce or some other event where they've put someone out of their life: "I love this person so much and always will but I just couldn't cope with them anymore."  Or had run out of energy, or hope, or just time in the sense of getting older. Jack was close to 40, an age where he would have started realizing that this romance in a wilderness ghetto wasn't something he could build the rest of his life on.

[Marge_Innavera]

One step in that direction was breaking up with Cassie, IMO.  I don't know, I think Ennis would have tried to see Jack more, be more available to him, but I don't think he would have lived openly with Jack, as Jack wanted.

There were a number of in-between compromises available all along. One might have been for Jack to get a divorce, get a job in Casper (about 125 miles from Riverton) and let Ennis know he was available. Ennis would have resisted at first, but IMO they would have ended up spending an average of a week a month together; no way Ennis could resist Jack just a two-hours drive away in an anonymous big (to him!) city for long.

The fact that Jack never makes any kind of geographical move himself might indicate that Ennis wasn't the only person putting obstacles up. Jack had wanted so much to escape the poverty-stricken life in Lightning Flat: he would apparently have been willing to forego that if Ennis had been willing to go the whole route and live with him but giving up the lifestyle he'd become accustomed to for something less wasn't something he was willing and/or able to undertake.

[serious crayons]

no way Ennis could resist Jack just a two-hours drive away in an anonymous big (to him!) city for long.

He'd have to worry about running into his sister, though!

But you're right, that would have been a good idea.

[twistedude]

Heath says Jack died "the minute he couldn't be with Ennis anymore."