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Fun Brokeback questionnaire 2
dly64:
--- Quote from: atz75 on July 08, 2006, 10:09:34 pm ---Don't get me wrong... John Twist is an awful person. Abusive, spiteful, mean-spirited, etc. I'm certainly not defending him as a character. But, it does sort of seem like he would have let Jack move up to the ranch with Ennis or the "other fellow". He would have complained about it, made fun of them, picked on them, grumbled about it, etc. But still... it appears that he may have been willing to let it happen. I also think that once he got used to John Twist, Ennis would have been more than capable of standing up to him if he had decided to move to Lightning Flat with Jack.
--- End quote ---
I see your POV. (I certainly can agree that Ennis would have laid John Twist flat if he crossed him too much). I just don't know .. I guess I'll never know .. if Mr. Twist would have allowed Jack and Ennis to move in together. John saw it as Jack's "dreaming" and that it would never happen. Who knows what the jerk would have done if it was to "actually come to pass".
serious crayons:
In my view, the fact that Mr. Twist is a jerk is the whole point. He's the anti-Mr. del Mar.
Mrs. Twist is compassionate. But she's Jack's mother, and mothers (at least stereotypically) love their children no matter what. Ennis' mother was apparently sympathetic, too.
But Mr. Twist has been depicted as an asshole from the beginning. Though Jack never says so, we vaguely surmise that Mr. Twist ran Jack off because Jack is gay. (Subtly underscored by Jack's "your folks run you off, too?" as if hoping they ran Ennis off because Ennis is gay.)
In contrast, at first we hear mostly good things (as Mikaela insightfully pointed out) about Mr. del Mar. He died in an accident (automatic sympathy). And in contrast to Jack, Ennis speaks respectfully of his dad. Then WHAM -- turns out he actually evil, a man who would torture someone to death for being gay. Imagine the hell that would ensue if Mr. del Mar found out about Ennis.
Now we meet Mr. Twist. Sure enough, he IS a jerk. Rude, spitty, belligerent, looks like that scary farmer in American Gothic. If Ennis' dad, respectable on the surface, was in fact a murderous homophobe, imagine what a monster this guy must be.
Then he says, in effect, that he knows Jack was gay ("I know where Brokeback Mountain is -- spit ") and resents Jack considering himself too special to be buried in the "family plot." We might assume there's a figurative link here -- Jack thought he could break society's rules and be gay, rather than do the classic straight-man family-values thing, but Mr. Twist wants to hold him to the family "plot," as in story line. Surely a jerk like this must also be homophobic. On the other hand, it's possible he just means that Jack got snooty after he got some money and "thought he was too 'special.'"
Then the old man starts talking about Jack's plans. "'Ennis del Mar,' he used to say ..." he looks a little loony, yet the recollection is so touching that Ennis, despite the circumstances, faintly smiles. But not for long -- immediately old man Twist twists the knife, telling him: hey, pal, Jack had moved onto another guy, you were out of the picture. So Mr. Twist is trying to make Ennis feel even worse, in the midst of his grief. Definitely not a nice guy.
But wait -- is he a homophobic jerk? His jab at Ennis -- cruel as it is -- indicates that he accepts the relationships for what they are, reacts on their terms, understands that Ennis would feel bad about being dumped. Iin other words, his cruelty is no different from the cruelty he might exhibit to a heterosexual couple.
Also, Mr. Twist's main point of contention seems to be that Jack never got around to licking the damn ranch into shape (which Mr. Twist clearly would have welcomed -- the ranch appears rundown, AND we've heard Jack imply his folks could use a hand). Mr. Twist doesn't give a damn if Jack leaves his wife for Ennis del Mar or some ranch neighbor a his -- as long as he came to help. Mr. Twist's main complaint isn't that Jack wanted to ranch together with another man.
On the contrary, Mr. Twist's complaint is that Jack didn't!
And in any case, whatever resentment he holds doesn't provoke him to kick Jack out of the family (plot) but to insist that he stay in it.
He's a mirror image of Mr. del Mar, a gay man's father, who is respectable on the surface but evil toward Earl and Rich. Mr. Twist, a gay man's father, is an asshole on the suface but would at least grudgingly tolerate his own Earl and Rich.
Add this to the two old guys walking together in town and the guys with the black hat and the white hat in the bus station and all the other examples of how it might actually have worked for Jack and Ennis.
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on July 09, 2006, 12:31:52 am ---But Mr. Twist has been depicted as an asshole from the beginning. Can't please him, no way. Ran Jack off. Never taught Jack a thing, never once went to see him ride. Though Jack never says so, we vaguely surmise that Mr. Twist ran Jack off because Jack is gay. (Subtly underscored by Jack's "your folks run you off, too?" as if hoping they ran Ennis off because Ennis is gay.)
--- End quote ---
Holy cow Katherine! That was quite a post! Yup, that's pretty much how I see it. He's an asshole, but not necessarily or primarily a homophobic asshole. Not mincing words here.
::)
I love your point about John Twist insisting that Jack stay in the family plot. And, I do agree that his comment about "being too damn special" may be about Jack's newfound wealth even more than a jab at his sexuality.
I also am fascinated by your point that I quoted above. I've never pondered Jack's early comment about the idea of parents running a kid "off." This seems like a very good explanation of that situation and Jack's comment. It's an odd idea... the idea and the image of parents essentially kicking a kid off the property (that's how I think about it when Jack says this). It's interesting that this is Jack's immediate assumption when Ennis says he "was" from ranch people.
Anyway, Mr. Twist is probably extra mad that Ennis didn't come work/ live at Lightning Flat now that he's met Ennis and sees that he's a strong and seemingly very capable guy who probably really could have helped whip the ranch into shape. I'm only sort-of half kidding here. I think Mr. Twist was a terrible threat to Jack as a kid/ teenager (the abuse/ running him off), but by the time Jack was grown, Mr. Twist seems like a lot of hot-air. John Twist could still be mean and nasty, but Jack with his smart Mother to back him up were probably pretty capable of dealing with him on many different levels. Essentially, if Jack decided to move there it seems possible that John Twist wouldn't be able to do a whole lot to stop it anyway.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: atz75 on July 09, 2006, 12:59:13 am ---I love your point about John Twist insisting that Jack stay in the family plot. And, I do agree that his comment about "being too damn special" may be about Jack's newfound wealth even more than a jab at his sexuality.
--- End quote ---
Somebody suggested that in an earlier post. I used to be convinced that the family plot thing meant John Twist was homophobic. Now I think it's a red herring -- meant to imply a jab at Jack's sexuality but actually just the opposite.
(The running off thing came from someone else, too. That's what I meant when I said in a post to Mikaela earlier this evening that this is so much about bouncing ideas off each other.)
So I realized -- wait a minute, Mr. Twist is threatening and abusive and neglectful and rude and all that bad stuff. But the one thing he isn't, at least not in any obvious way, is homophobic! What could that mean? When you come right down to it, the very fact that he might be despicable, yet not homophobic, means more than the fact that nice Mrs. Twist isn't homophobic. And because he's the father of a gay man, as was Ennis' evil dad, it's an unmistakable parallel. Much as he might resent Mr. Twist's rudeness, this must have been more stunning to Ennis than Mrs. Twist's kindness. Mr. Twist is an asshole -- yet very pointedly not a homophobic asshole.
In other words, I don't just think he's not primarily homophobic or not necessarily homophobic. I now think we're meant to notice that he's just plain not homophobic. So, in Ennis' mind: how is that possible? It's the very opposite of what his own dad taught him to expect. (Jack's relative lack of internal homophobia is probably not unrelated.)
In other words, if Jack's dad had been a nice, sympathetic guy who wasn't homophobic, that would be one thing. In fact, we might not fully trust it. Maybe he just seems nice. But the very fact that Mr. Twist is an asshole and yet still not homophobic -- doesn't express his assholeness through homophobia -- is far more powerful. It's like Jack not looking when Ennis is bathing makes the point more strongly than if Jack had simply looked.
ruthlesslyunsentimental:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on July 09, 2006, 12:31:52 am ---In my view, the fact that Mr. Twist is a jerk is the whole point. He's the anti-Mr. del Mar.
--- End quote ---
Wonderfully put and written! You summed up my feelings exactly. And you saved me lots of typing time. Thanks!
So I guess this is my shortest post ever, huh?
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