Well, an insult to Jack is an insult to Ennis... If nothing else, it reflects back on his own taste, selection of a lover, etc. And, the word "nasty" can be heard in a pretty homophobic way too.
Good points. And I hear "nasty" as being said with a good deal of homophobia, myself.
Agreed, and I don't think you have to strain to hear it. Alma's whole speech seems implicitly homophobic. She's not just accusing Ennis of being unfaithful. If she thought he was with another woman, her tone would have been less spiteful.
I see Alma's point of view about Ennis's relationship with Jack a little differently than many folks. And, I prefer to let Annie Proulx's words influence my thinking here. I somehow feel that Alma was naive when it come to men having sexual relationships.
Back in 1967, when Ennis was kissing Jack on the upstairs landing and Alma opened the door slightly, all she was was Ennis's straining shoulders when they were hugging. They were too close to the door for her to see them kissing. When she open the door the second time, they were standing side by side. Jack's seeing Alma made him VERY nervous so much that he shook.
I also think that she could have believed the reason that they did not come home that night was that they picked up some gals at a Riverton bar and took them somewhere to have sex with them. That was not uncommon back in 1967 for good buddy and/or cowboy types who went to bars to do that thing and such stuff still goes on in more recent years.
Ennis had those feelings that everyone who looked at him after his experiences with Jack up on Brokeback Mountain in 1963 that everyone just knew he had sex with guys and wanted to have sex with them, too.
When Alma said, "Jack Twist, Jack Nasty," I just believe that she was accusing Ennis and Jack committing adultery with women.
In the book, the only time that Alma even sees Jack is when he shows up late in the afternoon in Riverton on June 24, 1967. She does not even see him again, not even the next day.
So, I don't even think that Alma is being homophobic in the after the divorce Thanksgiving incident. I just say that Ennis jumped to conclusions about what Alma meant in the first place. (I also say that Ennis jumped to conclusions when Jack mentioned going to Mexico as a warmer meeting place 16 years later at the last time the guys were together. Jack had NEVER been there in the first place.)
Oh, when Ennis leaves Alma's place in Riverton in the story, he goes to the Black and Blue Eagle bar and gets into a fight AFTER he gets drunk.
