Ahh the timeline.... that project that I just never got around to yet. I know that there have been some really great timelines created, I just don't know where they are. But for me the timeline surrounding that period of time is:
- Spring 1983: Jack and Ennis have their last fishing trip off at least one week. Jack: "It's gonna snow tonight for sure."
- Their last day together: Jack leaves and drives to LF for a visit of a day or two.
- Sometime between Spring and August: (my guestimate): Jack dies. "Ennis didn't know about the accident for months until his postcard to Jack...." is what Annie Proulx wrote.
- End of September: (my guesstimate) Ennis sends his postcard to Jack about meeting up on November 7th.
- Early-mid October: (my guesstimate) the postcard is returned, stamped with that horrible word in red ink.
- _______________: Ennis' trip to LF to ask for the ashes. Since John Twist says "this spring" in his little rant, I am thinking that this still 1983.
Is this timeline accurate people?
Jake,
Your timeline is the way I understand the sequence of events in the original Annie Proulx story. She says clearly that Ennis and Jack's last fishing trip--and the final confrontation--took place in May 1983. I've always understood that Jack made his remark about the ranch neighbor to his father on the visit he made to Lightning Flat just after the confrontation with Ennis. You might get an argument about the sequence for the film, however, because the screenplay dates the final confrontation in 1981 and Ennis's receipt of his postcard stamped "deceased" in 1982.
The difference in chronology is reflected in Jack's dialogue. Annie has Jack say, "Count the damn few times we been together in twenty years." The screenplay has Jack say, "Count the damn few times we been together in
nearly twenty years." (I added the italics to point up the difference.)
The difference in chronology notwithstanding, I've always understood that in the film Jack also makes the remark to his father during the visit immediately after the confrontation with Ennis--and I've also understood that in both story and film, this is Jack's last visit to his parents before his death.
I hadn't realized that some folks are uncomfortable thinking Jack would talk about the ranch neighbor so soon after the confrontation. It has never troubled me because I think it fits the mood of depression and bitterness I would expect Jack would be in at that time. And I'm feeling now that the comment about the ranch neighbor is really Jack's bitterness and unhappiness talking. I'm doubting now that he would have really gone back to Texas and "proposed" to Randall the way he "proposed" to Ennis in '67.
As far as it goes, I think someone has already mentioned, we don't ever actually see Jack suggesting to Ennis in so many words that they ranch up together on the Twist spread in Lightning Flat. We only see Jack propose that they set up their own little cow and calf operation. For all we really see in either story or film, Jack was ruminating about bringing Ennis to Lightning Flat to his father and mother for years but never said a word to Ennis.