OK, here's a story/movie comparison that I just thought of. You know how we're always observing that Ennis is less homophobic in the story? Well, that's not the only difference; he's also much more chatty. In the movie, he's downright taciturn ("that's the most I've spoke in a year"). Whereas in the story, he talks more or less the same amount as Jack, as far as I can tell. That's another reason the characters seem less distinguishable in the story.
But also, it suggests something to me about the two Ennis' childhoods. I always figure Movie Ennis is quiet not only because that's his inherent nature (although, as a big believer in genetic influence, I would probably argue for that in RL). I think it's because he's extremely inhibited, and for a good reason. For Movie Ennis, the Earl experience was just the tip of the iceberg. If Ennis could even consider the possibility that his dad, someone he seems to have respected, tortured someone to death for being gay, we can assume that his entire childhood was pretty terrifying and confusing and shame-filled and awful -- from the time he noticed he was attracted to men, presumably at an early age, until his dad died, and of course beyond. The fear of revealing that one big part of his nature scared him into keeping ALL of himself hidden.
Talkative Story Ennis, on the other hand, doesn't hesitate to tell Jack about wringing it out and realizing he shouldn't have let him out of his sights and Jesus H, sex with women ain't nothin like this. Granted, he's talking to someone he trusts, but so is the far more inhibited Movie Ennis, and yet he's all "Me? Uhhhh .... I dunno."
And that goes along with what always seemed to be the big reason for Story Ennis to reject Jack's offer: he saw a man who'd been killed for living with another man, so he knows it's dangerous. From that perspective, his response to Jack's offer seems a pragmatic, even reasonable, decision rather than the result of inner conflict. The larger implications of how the Earl incident might have affected his whole youth are still there if you think about it -- and I'm guessing that wily Annie Proulx probably means for us to do just that. But they're not so vividly played out in Ennis' personality.
Sorry if everybody else is rolling their eyes and thinking, "Well, duh!" Though I had thought of all the parts of this before, I'd never put them together quite that way.
BTW, I have come very close to starting a whole thread about Ennis and the Earl incident. So often I see people say Ennis behaved the way he did because "he was forced to view the body of a man who'd been killed for being gay" or something like that -- that is, explaining his behavior in terms of one isolated horrifying incident. Whereas in fact that's just an incident that lends itself to telling, both by Ennis and the film/story, but really suggests so much more than that. "For all I know, he done the job" is really a key line.
