Hi marl42, welcome to BetterMost!
I agree with you that Ennis fear of getting abandoned and rejected is a major driving force for him. And I also think that it's sometimes overlooked or at least too less noticed.
He was abandoned by his parents, then his sister, his brother and finally Alma abandoned him too. Add the loss of his childhood innocence (if he ever was allowed to have something like that, thinking of his father) at age nine and what you see is a life fill of loss from an early age on.
And on top of all that, he lost Jack in the end
.
I also agree that withdrawing himself is a safety mechanism and that it would have been hard for Ennis to open up fully to Jack and to commit himself to their relationship fully, even without his internal homophobia.
What I don't agree with, is that said things would have been impossible for him in any case, even without homophobia. Hard, yes, but he had the potential to overcome it. He trusted Jack immensly. Just the simple fact that he did fall in love with Jack at all, that he did what he believed to be wrong with Jack on Brokeback and his easiness around Jack (happy tussle) is evidence of how much he was willing and able to give himself to Jack.
Both, his internal, and the external homophobia of their society was what made ranching up for them impossible. That's what the movie is about.
I don't agree with so many of you that the whole tragedy was Ennis's fault
You're preaching to the choir here... I'm so with you on that
.
Hi all of you, I decided to come out of lurkdom to respond, again I do thank latjoreme for posting my thoughts.
Anyway I am fully aware that Jack asked 'are you coming back next summer" and then Ennis said he's getting married in November and then see you around. What I specifically originally meant and I see now wasn't clear was that after Ennis said see you a round, he still stood near the truck for a while as if he was still waiting for Jack to say something more so that they should stay together now and not separate.
On the mountain Ennis waited for Jack to take the lead, Jack was always riding ahead of Ennis and when the sheep were mixed up Ennis asked Jack 'what do we do now?', I think that Ennis knew that the sheep had to separated, I think that meant that the relationship was up to Jack at that point.
I think that because of Jack's coldness about leaving the mountain, and the fight, and Jack's spiting in front of Ennis path on the way down, and Jacks rejection of the cig, I think Ennis took all those things to mean it was over for Jack.
At the truck, because Ennis was feeling so rejected, he did not take the 'are you coming back next year' as "I love you and I don't want to lose your" which he wanted to hear, I think he took it also as a rejection and that the whole thing did not mean that much to Jack at that point.
So when I wrote that Ennis waited, I meant that after that Ennis still waited, he did not leave after he said 'see you around' he still stood at the truck at that point in hope that Jack would say something more.
Agreed. I also think Jack was far too chipper on that day and Ennis draw the conclusion that for Jack it's not such a big deal to come down the mountain a month early.
The scene at Jack's truck: From my very first viewing on, I was waiting for Jack to say something more. I want to scream at him in this very moment every time I see it. Ennis
was waiting. He
was lingering because he didn't want to go. Just yesterday, I asked why Jack didn't say anything to stop Ennis on another thread. I know he's hurt and sour from that punch, then Ennis says no to his proposal regarding next summer, Ennis talks of marrying Alma again - all founded reasons, but still...*sigh*
