Ennis told Jack to hush up his harmonica playing or else he'd scare off the sheep. This runs contrary to the prevailing customs in the sheepherding industry. Cowboys and sheepherders' musical skills were valued. They calmed down the livestock, they did not run them off. This was documented in Patricia Earl Warren's article "Homos on the Range" in True West Magazine, discussing Brokeback Mountain.
...do you think that it made Ennis feel uncomfortable or that he just liked to tease Jack about it? I'm wondering if maybe Ennis saw it as not very macho.
and, he used to try, he really tried.
Jack was being teased, it was an inside joke. He DID, after all, suck on the harmonica
And, Amanda, I got the quote wrong... I think it was "He used to try." This is from the "pissant" scene.
In Ennis's ribbing, were there elements not only of admiration, but also envy and jealousy??
f Ennis was jealous of Jack over something my feeling is that it would be over Jack's relative comfort in his own skin. I wonder if Ennis was a little bit in awe of Jack's comfort at striking up conversations and in his open-ness- relative to Ennis's painful reserve.
A poster once said that meeting John was part of Ennis' evolution: that he was seeing a future version of himself if he didn't change his ways. I don't disagree.
It probably caused him to realize the folly of the comment that Ennis made during the last argument that he thought Jack "forgot what it's like to be broke all the time." Given how his parents lived, Jack surely hadn't forgotten what poverty is all about.Good point, Amanda! In fact, I counted several times when Ennis dissed Jack unfairly. It may have been three times! But I think it was more than that.
Poor Jack.
:(
I think it's sort of easy to see him as a bit of a puppy that gets kicked a lot (so to speak). His Dad is mean to him, Ennis is hard to deal with (at least sometimes), L.D. is mean to him, the customers at the tractor dealership (and probably by extension a lot of people in Childress) are mean to him, etc. This is on top of the sad notion that most of Jack's ideas/ dreams "never came to pass." And then he dies young (either by murder or by horrible accident!!
hehe, bbjack, I was just writing about how Jack was like a horse, but I didn't think of that one! (Who cares with that tongue of his!!) Go look at this:The tongue is genetic, his pappy does the same thing lolololol
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1039.msg172121.html#msg172121 (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1039.msg172121.html#msg172121)
oh, and if you go back one page you can also read more on the harmonica issue written by our FRiend EDelMar!!
Sure, and we all hate to see Jack be treated that way. Getting more into the psychology of Jack though - how much of the mistreatment by others could he have deflected or changed? In some ways because of his unassertive nature, Jack was the "puppy that gets kicked a lot" so to speak. I hate to say he allowed it, but in a way he did. I really saw Jack develop his assertiveness though, throughout the movie with the culmination at the FLS. Perhaps Jack's ideas/dreams 'never came to pass' because he lacked follow-through and self-confidence (yes, he was confident in some things but not the 'biggies' - his ideas/dreams). Maybe he had a self-fulfilling expectation of failure- and maybe others saw this in him too.
hehe, bbjack, I was just writing about how Jack was like a horse, but I didn't think of that one! (Who cares with that tongue of his!!) Go look at this:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1039.msg172121.html#msg172121 (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1039.msg172121.html#msg172121)
oh, and if you go back one page you can also read more on the harmonica issue written by our FRiend EDelMar!!
Lee, can't find Edelmar....
Hooray for the Archives! They save the day once again!
:-*
I agree with a couple points above, that in this scene with Jack playing the harmonica near the sheep Ennis is teasing and even flirting with Jack. I think he's trying (consciously at this point) to turn the harmonica into an inside joke between the two of them. Which I think is why he brings it up again years later during the reunion camping trip. I don't think he's actually bothered by Jack's harmonica playing one tiny bit. At this point, I think he's so smitten with Jack that he probably thinks it's adorable and the best music he's ever heard. The happy look on Ennis's face indicates this to me (his facial expression and the tone of his voice contradict his teasing remark).
It's interesting that it seems that the harmonica fits Jack's personality (maybe because it's loud and exhuberant) and not Ennis's. But, Ennis is musical. We know he likes to hum/sing to himself and then he hums to Jack too during the flashback.
I really like your details!! More please...
Jack was infatuated since he had immediately a crush on Ennis when he first say Ennis, in the BM movie... I figure. You think so too?
But the first year Jack worked there, do you think that Jack had booze then? Was he an alcoholic?He was a little young to be an alcoholic but he was certainly on his way to being one! Doesn't he answer the profile of the addictive personality though? Yes, he does.
So Jack somehow trained Ennis, by being so very careful and training himself not to touch Ennis first few times, so that Ennis would touch him eventually??On the contrary, I think Ennis trained Jack. He told him what he could do and what he could not do. Thru his body language, he dictated even more. How he reacted to Jack's ideas trained Jack even more. You can just see it in Jack's eyes...what can I get away with without setting him off? The way he says, late in the movie, "Well, maybe you should get out of there...maybe go to Texas." And then, realizing that he had stepped into the shoot-em zone, was cutting fence..."I was just thinkin out loud. Go live your own miserable life." And Ennis seemed to be telling him, when he said "You're a real thinker there" not even to THINK about them being together, much less give voice to those thoughts.
hugs!Thanks, I needed that!!
I am presently in dire pain since I moved furnitureOh, Artiste, I am so sorry to hear that! :'( You stay off your feet and rest today, please!!
So, it was Ennis who trained Jack? In many ways. Was that because, Ennis had right away realized that Jack had an immediate crush on him, at that trailer to get themselves a job from Aguirre??No, that would have been manipulative, and I don't think Ennis had that in his nature. Their friendship was like a dance in which fearless Jack made the first step while fearful Ennis pushed back or retreated. But there was another force within Ennis and that was the power of love, the need to connect. Even tho he tried to control and repress it, at times it asserted itself and what a blessing that was for them, and for us!
But, where (from whom) does Ennis get this way to method how to control a man?Part of it was animal instinct, but he also learned from his father and his brother. One time Jack reflected that "I never figured you to throw a dirty punch" on that last day on the mountain, and Ennis tried to explain it by recalling how his father advised him to beat his brother up at odd times when K. E. was not expecting it. "The lesson was, Don't say nothin and get it over with quick" Ennis said. And then tumbled out the story of Earl and Rich. From his father, Ennis learned how to control others' behavior through force. He didn't do this in a conscious way, and thus when it was time to let his guard down, to let himself loose, he didn't know how to do it. He was either unresponsive and impassive, or he was wildly out of control.
You say about Ennis: He was either unresponsive and impassive, or he was wildly out of control.Many people straight AND gay are this way. In fact, my mother was like this. She grew up in a home with a lot of sisters and brothers, and wanted to avoid conflict at all costs. Then, whenever she couldn't stand it any more, all the pent-up feelings came out in a rush.
...Ennis sounds straight, I mean much more heterosexual acting therefore. What do you think?
Concerning Earl and Rich, I am concerned since nobody seems to be talking about them. Tell me... please?I will come over and talk about Earl and Rich on the topic set up for them, I promise. But, for some people, they have trouble talking about it and some can't even watch that scene in the movie!! Can you blame them? It's horrifying!