Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
If you were Alma............
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: lnicoll on May 08, 2006, 09:43:30 pm ---I don't think it's rude, in context. She started it, "After all these years, Ennis, you ain't found anybody else t'marry..."
--- End quote ---
wasn't it Jack who said those words? I believe Alma said, "you oughta marry again Ennis. me and girls worry about you." or something along that line, which wasn't rude at all, at least not to this West Coast art geek snob. :P
as far as "once burned", when I first heard it, I couldn't help cringing at the words. There wasn't a tone of hurtfulness in his voice, but still the words themselves have that power. It may have just been a bad choice of words on his part, but I did get the feeling that it contributed to her lashing out at him.
TJ:
While Ennis got rather assertive with Alma on that Thanksgiving day and even grabbed her wrist, I don't think he would have been the type to have hit a woman when they were having a domestic argument.
While the movie has Ennis taking a swing at Jack at the end of their last time together, Annie Proulx never wrote that happened. When Ennis had the fit in the book, Jack was in his own truck with the cab door shut and they were talking through its open window.
The only kind of agressive contact that the guys had was when they were just roughhousing or "wrasslin' for the fun of it."
When Annie Proulx's Ennis left Alma's and Bill's (Monroe in the movie) and went to the Black and Blue Eagle, he got drunk first and then got into a fight.
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: TJ on May 09, 2006, 01:07:57 am ---While Ennis got rather assertive with Alma on that Thanksgiving day and even grabbed her wrist, I don't think he would have been the type to have hit a woman when they were having a domestic argument.
While the movie has Ennis taking a swing at Jack at the end of their last time together, Annie Proulx never wrote that happened. When Ennis had the fit in the book, Jack was in his own truck with the cab door shut and they were talking through its open window.
The only kind of agressive contact that the guys had was when they were just roughhousing or "wrasslin' for the fun of it."
When Annie Proulx's Ennis left Alma's and Bill's (Monroe in the movie) and went to the Black and Blue Eagle, he got drunk first and then got into a fight.
--- End quote ---
yeah, i not sure he could actually hit Alma either, but in any case, there's always the difference between reality and perception. Whether he was or wasn't capable of domestic violence, Alma certainly perceived him to be capable. Michelle Williams herself said that she felt it a strong part of Alma's psychology and motivation.
TJ:
Some women are very afraid of their husbands or ex-husbands for fear that the men would hit them violently if the situation came up; but, the only violence in their relationship was just verbal with somewhat indirect threats.
And, in some case, the reason for women fearing their husbands came from the fear that their mothers had for their fathers.
Jeff Wrangler:
Maybe we ought to take another poll, rude or not rude? ;D
Again I don't have the text with me at work--if I did, I'd never get any work done--but I think the story tells us that Ennis knew from Alma's tone that something was coming in that kitchen conversation, so he must have tensed up when she said he ought to get married again. And I think I've said elsewhere that poor Alma ends up letting out years of pain and frustration, whatever it is that sets her off--it's always looked to me that she's crying as much as being angry and afraid.
Still, on the face of it, I don't see anything obviously provocative in the remark, "You ought to get married again, me and the girls worry about you." It's even kind of nice that she includes herself in the worrying. And he casts back at her that she's the one who burned him.
Since Ennis is the one I identify with, it pleasures me none to say it, but it wasn't very nice of him to come back with that "once burned" remark. After that comment it doesn't surprise me at all that she goes on to let him know that she knows exactly what goes on on those fishin' trips.
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