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Ennis or Jack? Which one did you identify with more?

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bbm_stitchbuffyfan:
I think I identify more with Ennis, not to parrot everyone's posts or anything. Maybe that's why we all love this movie so much. (kidding...)

Just because Ennis cuts himself off from other people, unfortunately, I tend to do that. And Ennis has a hard time just connecting with the people around him. Yeah, uh, me again. I really felt for Ennis but I also did feel extreme empathy for Jack.

I relate to Jack in that I, like him, am a hopeless dreamer. He seems to be quite a romantic, what with all his hopes of a 'cow-and-calf operation,' and Christ knows when it comes to Brokeback, I am a pathetic romantic. That's why I think, to an extent, I relate to Jack.

I love them both; extremely well-written characters.

www.jlodown.com

JCinNYC2006:
More Ennis, but both a little.

Ennis:  too emotionally closed off, guarded, take time to open up to new situations/people, too focused on past regrets.

Jack: optimistic, impulsive, affectionate, restless.

That makes it sound like Ennis has all the crummy qualities and Jack all the nice ones, but I see good things in both of them. 

What a cool question.

Juan

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: JCinNYC2006 on April 04, 2006, 11:34:03 pm ---That makes it sound like Ennis has all the crummy qualities and Jack all the nice ones, but I see good things in both of them. 
--- End quote ---

I know, sometimes we do make it sound like that! I have been tempted at times to start a thread "in defense of Ennis." I think if Ennis had all crummy qualities, Jack probably wouldn't have loved him and we wouldn't either. He's got great qualities, but they're harder to pin down than Jack's.

JCinNYC2006:
That might be a cool thread.  Obviously he does have good qualities.  But for each one I think of, it's kind of mixed.  Like I think loyalty is important to him, but obviously he wasn't totally loyal to Alma.  He's strong in that he can endure a lot, but his strength is also tinged with his stubborness and fear.  I have to think more about what I would consider to be his best qualities. 

I think I'm like Jack in being attracted to that kind of guy as well (especially the non-communicativeness), and boy can that be difficult. 

Juan

Rayn:

--- Quote from: monimm18 on April 04, 2006, 01:59:45 am ---...Jack, maybe because he was, like Annie Proulx put it (paraphrasing a bit), "quicksilver, beautiful, hungry, bitterly disappointed over and over, and still able to give so much love and electricity".

--- End quote ---

      I am very much like Jack who is kind, out-going, tender but also tough enough for the hardness of life, hearty, tenacious and caring.  He also dwells in possibility, has a vision of the good life even if he never realizes it entirely.  He keeps trying, he keeps loving, he keeps hoping, he has faith.  That is how I am, accessible and mostly open to good people and good experiences in life.  The odd, even interesting thing is that I find myself in an "Ennis Del Mar Like Land" of my own making. 

     What I mean by that is that Ennis is remote, removed, often emotionally rocky.   One of the best image of Ennis' internal life early on is after his first night with Jack when he rides off in the morning.  He rides along a rocky ridge, high up, windy, seemingly near the sky, just Ennis on his horse.  This is, at least in the first part of the movie, truly Ennis.  I understand Ennis, but am not Ennis.  I empathize with Ennis, but cannot live as he lives, but have myself in a remote country, living a very solitary life without much contact, until recently, with anyone I can actually be myself with, and no partner at all.   I am Jack lost in an Ennis Del Mar Like Land and trying to make my way out because, like Jack, I believe there is a way.  I must say though, that while I identify strongly with Jack, I have a bit of Ennis in me too, his anger, his stubbornness, his pain from past trauma and loss.  I am these too.

     In a symbolic way, I see Ennis as hard, stark reality and Jack as gentle visions and ideals.  They understand each other, but are opposites, they complete each other too.  Each needs the other to make life bearable, and while they may seem in conflict at times, they are more like the Yin and Yang of The Tao.  For me, when they are together they symbolically balance each other and form "the big picture".

Peace,
Rayn

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