Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
what possessed Jack to take that shirt in the first place?
Mikaela:
Jack was lucky in that Ennis was called the relatively distinct Ennis del Mar and didn't have a more John Doe'ish type of name too, I supppose. That would have limited Jack's chances even further of someone remembering and connecting the name and the person when Jack asked around....
tiawahcowboy:
--- Quote from: opinionista on May 28, 2006, 03:34:18 pm ---I think Jack sort of swore to himself he was going to find Ennis again one way or another. He goes back to Aguirre a year afterwards pretending to look for work when he was actually looking for Ennis. And I bet at the rodeos and later at his job as a farm machinery salesman, he didn't hesistate to ask, especially among the folks from Wyoming, if someone knew Ennis del Mar by a chance.
However, I think it's odd they don't exchange addresses when they part ways. But I guess Ennis wanted to avoid any temptation, and Jack didn't want to be punched in the face again.
--- End quote ---
The movie made it look like Jack Twist went back to Aguirre's trailer office the next year under pretense of looking for work; when he was inquiring about Ennis Del Mar.
But, Annie Proulx actually had Jack going back to see if work was available and he never mentioned Ennis Del Mar. (Since Annie Proulx's story is fiction, we really don't have to use the "argument from silence" excuse here as one might use when talking about real live human beings.)
Besides, according to Annie Proulx, K. E. Del Mar, Ennis's brother, lived in Signal, Wyoming. That's probably how Jack found out that Ennis had moved to Riverton and why he decided to send a postcard to him general delivery there.
Annie Proulx's Jack Twist did not work for the farm machinery company until long after Alma divorced Ennis, after Ennis had Thanksgiving dinner at Alma and the grocers' with the girls, and after Lureen's father died.
Added note: In 1963, the only married sibling of Ennis Del Mar who was mentioned in the book was his sister.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: Mikaela on May 28, 2006, 04:50:30 pm ---Jack was lucky in that Ennis was called the relatively distinct Ennis del Mar and didn't have a more John Doe'ish type of name too, I supppose.
--- End quote ---
Do you think "Ennis" was an unusual enough name that Ennis never bothered telling anyone his last name, until Jack asked for it?
(I suddenly had an image of Jack hanging out with some guys from Wyoming after a rodeo, swapping some kind of exaggerated tales from childhood, and then suddenly saying, "Hey, you know a guy named Ennis del Mar? I got this shirt a his, been meanin to get it back to him one a these days." But, you know? Not realistic at all. ;D )
Mikaela:
Or:
""Hey, you know a guy named Ennis del Mar? I got something belongin' to him, been meanin to get it back to him one a these days."
Then we could have argued back and forth on whether Jack was talking of his heart, the shirt, both, or something else entirely. ;)
Concerning the name, perhaps someone once taunted Ennis about del Mar being a pansy kind of name. Ennis being Ennis, he would have worried over that after he punched the someone's lights out. Could be the reason he just tells Jack he's Ennis. Wouldn't want to give the man the wrong impression from the very first, you know. ;)
tiawahcowboy:
--- Quote from: nakymaton on May 28, 2006, 05:18:31 pm ---Do you think "Ennis" was an unusual enough name that Ennis never bothered telling anyone his last name, until Jack asked for it?
(I suddenly had an image of Jack hanging out with some guys from Wyoming after a rodeo, swapping some kind of exaggerated tales from childhood, and then suddenly saying, "Hey, you know a guy named Ennis del Mar? I got this shirt a his, been meanin to get it back to him one a these days." But, you know? Not realistic at all. ;D )
--- End quote ---
I have never met a guy whose first name was Ennis; but, I know several people with the surname of Ennis. I know people have the last name of Del Mar and I have been friends with more than one person named "Delmar."
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