Jack and Ennis; Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

[chowhound]

I was browsing through my Brokeback collection earlier today, when I came upon this. It came from an interview that Larry McMurtry(LM) and Diana Ossana(DO) gave in the July of last year:

LM: In my new memoir, I explain how in "Lonesome Dove" I recreated the classic pair from "Don Quixote": Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - the visionary and the practical one. They are the archetypes.

DO: And Ennis and Jack are the same.

Maybe others have made this comparison before, but it is new to me. And as it's made by Diana Ossana, it clearly carries some authority.

Although the parallels won't work for all details - knight and servant, for
instance - I can see how they can be made to work at a more general level. There is something of the dreamer about Jack - maybe even the "visionary" if one considers the development of gay rights over the last forty years. And, for very understandable reasons, Ennis is the practical one, telling Jack, after he describes a possible "sweet life" together, that "it ain't goin' to be that way".

Do others see it this way?

[mariez]

It's a great observation, chowhound.  As a matter of fact there was some mention of this in the "BBM and Lonesome Dove" thread in January.  See, specifically, retropian's reply #12 and some discussion that follows:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,31524.10.html

Marie

[Brown Eyes]

This really is a great topic.    I love to think about the ways that BBM has deep roots in literary history as well as cinematic history.

[Front-Ranger]

With apologies to Diana and Larry, I don't really see Brokeback Mountain that way, nor Lonesome Dove either. I see both books as buddy stories, and BBM is in addition a coming-of-age story. In buddy stories, both lead characters are more or less equal and complement each other.

The Don Quixote archetype is of a visionary and somewhat misguided leader paired with a subservient partner who is tirelessly loyal and grounds the other person so that he doesn't destroy himself. There is often an element of comedy or irony. Examples are King Arthur and Pansy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail or, more seriously, William Styron's Sophie's Choice. Also, Jack's Kerouac's On the Road. I wonder if Grey Gardens is a female version of this story (I haven't seen it yet but I've heard a lot about it.