Brokeback Mountain
”Eat supper, breakfast in camp, but sleep with the sheep, hundred percent, no fire, don’t leave no sign. Roll up the tent each morning case Forest Service snoops around. Got the dogs, your 30-30, sleep there (pg 257 Close Range).”
This sets the scene for Brokeback Mountain, with an air of masculinity and bold, blatent truth. What Ennis and Jack do for a living is not accepted by the police that govern the land, honored by society or highly paid enough to go home to their families, proud. They are cowboys, ranch herders, and sometimes legally and morally wrong according to some social standards.
“Ennis got on the highway crew, tolerating it but working weekends at the Rafter B in exchange for keeping his horses out there. The second girl was born and Alma wanted to stay in town near the clinic because the child had an asthmatic wheeze, (p 264).”
Ennis tries to do the right thing, the fatherly thing; to make sacrifices for his family but still holding onto the past he can’t get rid of, the horses that he loves, and the man he can’t live without. This exerpt tells the reader he denies the truth that he is gay because he is trying to do the masculine, socially acceptable thing by marrying a woman and raising a child, even though his heart is divided between the family he has and the man he wants to be with. The sacrifices he makes at work are truly the all American male’s choices. He works with the highway crew and dreams of a better life. He misses the mountain and misses how he feels when he is with Jack. But he does the right thing, according to social stigmas and supports his family the only way he know how.
“You fuckin go right ahead. Go on and fuckin' yell. I’ll make him eat the fuckin' floor and you too.” He gave another wrench that left her with a burning bracelet, shoved his hat on backwards and slammed out….he went to the bar, pg 273.)
His wife accuses him of an ongoing relationship with Jack other than platonic, noting that he used going fishing as an excuse. Instead of coming clean, he continues to denigh the truth to himself and his family. The problem is obvious. He doesn’t want to admit he is gay. But being the macho one he threatens to hurt her and anyone else who questions his sexual choices. He not only threatens, but leaves a lasting impression.
“ ‘I didn’t want none a either kind, said Jack. But fuck-all has worked the way I wanted. Nothin never come to my hand the right way.’ Without getting up he threw deadwood on the fire, the sparks flying up with their truths and lies, a few hot points of fire landing on their hands and faces, not for the first time, and they rolled down into the dirt’ (pg 276) .”
Jack and Ennis talk about their families and Jack says he really didn’t want kids. It is an unusual thing to speak of because he made his own choices about marriage etc. I am sure what he felt he really wanted didn’t matter, but it did so he told the one he really loved and they made love together over the thought.
Is it masculine to admit he didn’t want kids in the first place but went forward with it because it was the “right” thing to do? Nobody made him sleep with his wife. The right thing most people may have thought in reading this is that if he wanted to be a wild cowboy, then he shouldn’t be gay. Maybe he thought the same thing. But for Ennis a divorce was unavoidable and child support wouldn’t pay for itself. They were stuck but they always had Brokeback Mountain.
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