Ennis and the final card

[chowhound]

The final card we see in the movie goes like this:

Jack
How about November 7 for you. I can meet you at Pine Creek.

Ennis del Mar

I've always been curious as to why Ennis uses his full name and not just Ennis. After all, they have known each other for close to twenty years.

Maybe it's a private joke between the two of them because of the way their introduction went:

Jack: Jack Twist

Ennis (shakes hands): Ennis

A beat.

Jack: Your folks just stop at Ennis?

Ennis (after a moment): Del Mar

Or maybe the writers wanted us, at an almost subconscious level, to connect the end with the beginning.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Penthesilea]

I've always been curious as to why Ennis uses his full name and not just Ennis. After all, they have known each other for close to twenty years.

Maybe it's a private joke between the two of them because of the way their introduction went:

Yes, maybe.

Or maybe the writers wanted us, at an almost subconscious level, to connect the end with the beginning.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Yes, I can believe that.

Ennis gives his name in an ascending order in the course of the movie.

First time: Only "Ennis", and he gives the "Del Mar" part only after Jack explicitly asks for it.

Second time: meeting Cassie for the first time. The introduction goes like this:

"Ennis"

(Pause)

"Del Mar"

The full name doesn't come automatically, fluently. But he gives his full name without being nudged to it; after a thinking pause. I bet he's thinking of Jack at this very moment and their introduction long ago.


Third time: "Ennis Del Mar", complete, full name on the postcard.

[Front-Ranger]

Interesting question, Chow. The story doesn't give any clue about how Ennis signed his name, so I guess we must attribute this plot detail to the prop director, set designer, or Ang Lee himself. But it may be that Annie had a hand in it because of her earlier novel called Postcards in which each chapter begins with a picture of a postcard written by one of the characters, usually Loyal. I'll have to check the book and see if he signed his full name, Loyal Blood.

After he omitted his last name in introducing himself to Jack, Ennis used his full name twice, first to Cassie and then to Jack in the final postcard. It's clear that Cassie was just a Jack substitute so it's not surprising that Ennis said his full name, almost in an experimental way. In signing his full name to the postcard, Ennis seems to be acknowledging that through the experience with Cassie he learned how to give one hunerd percent of himself, not just once in a while way out in the middle of nowhere, but consistently. I don't think he was being formal or distancing himself at all, I think he was doing the opposite.

[Monika]

I think it´s Ennis being careful. To him, signing the card with "Ennis" , would seem a bit too friendly and he is always so careful not to arouse suspicion.

[Brown Eyes]

Am I correct in remembering that Cassie also calls Ennis by his full name in the bar when they meet and the bus station? In the bar, doesn't she say "what do you do Ennis Del Mar?" as if she thinks he's sort of funny for saying his full name the way he did when they met.  And, doesn't she say "I don't get you, Ennis Del Mar." in the bus station? 

There is something to this whole issue of the use of Ennis's full name.  The use of his full name is emphasized a lot throughout the film.

Of course, Jack asks Aguirre if Ennis Del Mar had been around when Jack returns to ask for another job.  And, Jack's Dad really makes a show of emphasizing Ennis's full name when he's talking about Jack's dreams during the Lightning Flat conversation.  "Ennis Del Mar he used to say..." etc.

Lee, it's interesting that there might be a connection of some kind to another piece of Proulx's writing.

 

[Front-Ranger]

Verr' interesting, Brown Eyes! And conversely, Alma replaces Jack's last name with the word "nasty."

[Brown Eyes]

The use of full names or names in general seems pretty interesting.  Now that I think about Ennis and Cassie's first meeting, she mimicks the way Ennis uses his full name (but she most closely echos the way Ennis sounded when he first met Jack):  "Cassie... Cassie Cartwright"


I think when it comes to Ennis, the name issue is bound up with the overarching theme of Ennis coming to terms with his identity.  A name seems to be a very clear symbol of a person's identity.  Somehow the issue of his name makes me think of Ennis's enigmatic statement in the alley when he has the dry heaves.  Clarissa once, wisely, noted that Ennis's question "what are you looking at?" is multi-layered.  What are we looking at when we look at Ennis?  And, does Ennis himself even know.

[belbbmfan]

I agree with the name being a symbol of someone's identity.

Maybe the fact that Ennis DID sign with his full name is an indication of an 'more established' identity. Maybe he was getting over his reluctance to use his full name. In the beginning he was just 'Ennis' and in the end he was 'Ennis Del Mar'. There is a big distinction.

[blueremembered]

I find the issue of Ennis' name very interesting. It is surely significant that Proloux gives him an exotic double barrelled surname that refuses to sound American.

Jack encourages him to use his full name, and Jack himself uses it to others, as Brown eyes pointed out. Perhaps Ennis feels that his full name, like his 'full self', was encouraged and made real by Jack. I, certainly agree with Front-Ranger that he wasn't being at all formal but was doing the opposite.

[Front-Ranger]

Maybe the fact that Ennis DID sign with his full name is an indication of an 'more established' identity. Maybe he was getting over his reluctance to use his full name. In the beginning he was just 'Ennis' and in the end he was 'Ennis Del Mar'. There is a big distinction.

Quite true, fabienne. And we know he hungered after distinction, since he wanted to be a sophomore, but didn't ever get there,  instead he got pitched directly into ranch work, which, according to Aguirre, was for "no-account" "deuces going nowhere."

Thanks for your contributions, blueremembered!!