It should be noted that Jack had already decided to set up home with that rancher friend of his. When Jack's father informs Ennis about this - Ennis is sure that Jack was killed because of this decision. This is clear from the story!
Then, this spring he's got another one's goin a come up here with him and build a
place and help run the ranch, some ranch neighbor a his from down
in Texas. He's goin a split up with his wife and come back here. So
he says. But like most a Jack's ideas it never come to pass."
So now he knew it had been the tire iron
I beg to differ! The ambiguity is in the movie not in the novel. I would welcome if you would direct me to sites that have the writer saying that Jack's death is open to interpretation.
Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he has first seen him, curly-headed and smiling and bucktoothed, talking about getting up off his pockets and into the control zone, but the can of beans with the spoon handle jutting out and balanced on the log was there as well, in a cartoon shape and lurid colors that gave the dreams a flavor of comic obscenity. The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.(Emphasis mine)
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
It should be noted that Jack had already decided to set up home with that rancher friend of his. When Jack's father informs Ennis about this - Ennis is sure that Jack was killed because of this decision. This is clear from the story! It is difficult to put it but Jack was going around with other men and had Ennis died it would have not ended his peccadilloes! He might have killed himself slowly by drinking more and surely would have missed Ennis badly.
I think your right though, Jack would have been devastated, but I think it would be different than for Ennis. When Ennis loses Jack, he is filled with regret for his failure to see what he had with Jack. His self-loathing greater than ever. I think Jack was much more aware of what he had with Ennis, so his sadness will be more about missing Ennis than about regret.
To Ruby,
I beg to differ! The ambiguity is in the movie not in the novel. I would welcome if you would direct me to sites that have the writer saying that Jack's death is open to interpretation.
It is not actually clear from the story nor the film. I disagree that Jack had decided to set up home with the rancher. And although Ennis felt at that moment @ Lightning Flat that Jack had been killed by the tire iron - he later was not so sure.
Annie Proulx (+ the scriptwriters & Ang)'s brilliance is that the reader/viewer is able to interpret the dialouge/ intentions/ scenes for themselves.
Interesting question, pinku!
I think Jack would have been just as distraught -- his love for Ennis was equal to Ennis' for him. But I think Jack is better able to cope with his emotions and is more of a survivor. While I can't imagine Ennis ever being with anyone else again, I can imagine this for Jack. He would always miss Ennis. But we would not see him in the final shot living in an isolated trailer with nothing for company but a shrine.
And as was stated by Annie "There is no Ennis without Jack."
When John Twist tells Ennis of Jack's plan to bring up the rancher, he also states that, like most of Jack's plans, this one never came to pass-and not because Jack died.
I think Jack would have always mourned Ennis, but he would have made a new life without him, still being sociable, joining up with someone else..
Annie gave us two characters who cannot stand alone.