Author Topic: "Cowboy" - Use of the word in Brokeback  (Read 2359 times)

Offline Toast

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"Cowboy" - Use of the word in Brokeback
« on: May 27, 2006, 12:11:57 pm »
"Time to hit the hay, cowboy"

Ms Proulx is adamant that her characters are shepherds during that summer in 1963

E. Annie Proulx used the word cowboy once and only once in her novella Brokeback Mountain.
Granted the word is used in the 1980s, to remember an event which happened in 1963 - and is quoting an occurence in the 1950s.

In the 80s Jack is remembering the dozy embrace from 1963, complete with a memory of the watch ticking away in Ennis pocket..
In 1963, Ennis and Jack have the dozy embrace.
In the 1950s Ennis' Mom first says the line to him.

So there is an arc through time, connected by the word "Cowboy".
It is very intersting to study the use of the word in the screenplay, and in the movie.

I think it might be the most positive message in the move.
What have you noticed about the use of the word COWBOY as you read McMurtry and Ossana, and watch the movie?
« Last Edit: May 27, 2006, 12:29:17 pm by Toast »

Offline opinionista

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Re: "Cowboy" - Use of the word in Brokeback
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2006, 03:47:18 pm »
"Time to hit the hay, cowboy"

Ms Proulx is adamant that her characters are shepherds during that summer in 1963

E. Annie Proulx used the word cowboy once and only once in her novella Brokeback Mountain.
Granted the word is used in the 1980s, to remember an event which happened in 1963 - and is quoting an occurence in the 1950s.

In the 80s Jack is remembering the dozy embrace from 1963, complete with a memory of the watch ticking away in Ennis pocket..
In 1963, Ennis and Jack have the dozy embrace.
In the 1950s Ennis' Mom first says the line to him.

So there is an arc through time, connected by the word "Cowboy".
It is very intersting to study the use of the word in the screenplay, and in the movie.

I think it might be the most positive message in the move.
What have you noticed about the use of the word COWBOY as you read McMurtry and Ossana, and watch the movie?

I'm not sure about what positive meaning the word Cowboy has in the movie. In fact I think there's nothing positive or negative about it. Brokeback Mountain deals with men that are born and raised in poverty, who feel they have nothing to hope for, except become a true cowboy. They can't get a proper education, they can't be rich but they can be cowboys. This is especially evident in Jack, who wears a black hat and does rodeo because he considers it something truly cowboyish. We all grow up with this image of cowboys as strong, valiant men on horses, who handled guns beautifully and never missed a shot. They were heroes. So they want to be those heroes.

Also, I think the image of the cowboy is used in the story to provide constrast or to show a reality a lot of people weren't aware of. Thanks to Hollywood cowboys have been perpetuated as heterosexual men. The idea of an homosexual cowboy was completely unfathomable for the general population until Brokeback Mountain came into existence. The closest thing to the idea of a gay cowboy ever shown before BBM was probably that guy from the Village People, and nobody took it seriously, obviously.

Many kids dress up like cowboys and play pretending to be one because it makes them feel like men. In fact, I think the were people who didn't like this movie because, among other things, it destroys the image of cowboys they grew up with. I have a friend who says that if Ennis and Jack were played by Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, it would've driven some people to commit suicide. I know my friend is exaggerating but he has a point.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2006, 04:10:08 pm by opinionista »
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. -Mark Twain.

tiawahcowboy

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Re: "Cowboy" - Use of the word in Brokeback
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2006, 06:36:07 pm »
The sentence, "Time to hit the hay, cowboy," is the only time that Annie Proulx used the word "cowboy" in where whole short story.

IMO, Brokeback Mountain is a story even shorter than a "novella." While the stand-alone book is 52 pages long with 6 lines of type on the last page, there isn't that many lines per page which is only 23 lines. A novella with normal lines per page as in novel, is somewhere between 50 to 100 pages in length.

But, by tradition, a boy or a man who works on a ranch and rides horses while he works with cattle is a cowboy.

In the sense that Ennis Del Mar's mother used it, she used it as a term of endearment because, more than likely, Ennis was a little boy and she probably used the phrase with her son in the 1940s, rather than the 1950s.