Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

what possessed Jack to take that shirt in the first place?

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nakymaton:
So the shirts are one of the most powerful images I've ever seen in a story or in a movie. They just destroy me. I love them.

But I keep wondering: what was going through Jack's head when he took Ennis's shirt? Did he figure that he would never see Ennis again, and wanted some part of Ennis to hold onto? Did he just pick the shirt up from the ground after Ennis took it off, first thinking that he would give it back to Ennis when Ennis had settled down, but then the right moment never came, and at some level Jack wanted to keep the shirt?

Or...?

tiawahcowboy:
He took Ennis's shirt probably for more less the very same reason that Ennis took the shirts from Jack's boyhood makeshift closet. The shirt was a remembrance of their good times up on Brokeback.

Oh, due to the fact that Ennis Del Mar was too poor to own very many clothes, Jack also probably decided to "steal" the shirt because Ennis could not afford to give Jack the shirt off is back. The "blood" on the shirts seems to have the connotation of being "blood brothers."

opinionista:

--- Quote from: nakymaton on May 28, 2006, 10:40:03 am ---So the shirts are one of the most powerful images I've ever seen in a story or in a movie. They just destroy me. I love them.

But I keep wondering: what was going through Jack's head when he took Ennis's shirt? Did he figure that he would never see Ennis again, and wanted some part of Ennis to hold onto? Did he just pick the shirt up from the ground after Ennis took it off, first thinking that he would give it back to Ennis when Ennis had settled down, but then the right moment never came, and at some level Jack wanted to keep the shirt?

Or...?

--- End quote ---

I guess Jack figured it was unlikely they see each other again or at least have the same relationship they had during that summer. Ennis had already announced he was marrying Alma as soon as he went down from Brokeback Mountain. So after they have the fight, Ennis changed his shirt and probably left somewhere. Jack saw it and took it with the intention of giving it to him, but changed his mind and decided to take it with him as a keepsake. I guess Jack already knew Ennis was the best thing that ever happened to him.

stubbyeddy:
justed wanted to add, my last 'boyfriend' he stole one of my shirts, i found it later on in his closet. when i asked him why he just didnt ask me for it, he said he was just embarrased to ask. I asked him why he took it, he simply said becaue it was mine and that it smelt of me, we didnt see each other often, only once or twice a year. I didnt press the issue beyond that. well just wanted to add that...

tiawahcowboy:
From the book:


--- Quote ---The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack's sleeves. It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he'd thought, long ago in some damn laundry, his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons missing, stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack's own shirt, the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one. He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
--- End quote ---


When Jack took the shirts, they did have the smell of the mountain on them. They probably had grass stains all over them, too, since they had been wrestling, as well as the smell of wild sage. Oh, wild sage makes good incense and can be used for spiritual purposes.

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