Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain

Exploring a man’s mind and experiences can reveal a lot. We learn his language, his life, and his love, but also his fears and phobias. In the story Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx has written us into the mind of Ennis Del Mar. We explore this man as a sheep herder and a lover of another sheep herder. Brokeback Mountain has given a clear picture on what it is to be a gay homophobic man but without much resolve. This story is first set in Wyoming in the year 1963 and continues for two decades. During this time in the United States, many developments happened including the Civil Rights movement, the Women's movement, and the Stonewall Riots. Wyoming State Legislature passed a ban on same-sex marriage in 1977 reading that “marriage is a civil

There was these two old guys ranched together down home, Earl and Rich - Dad would pass a remark when he seen them. They was a joke even though they was pretty tough old birds. I was what, nine years old and they found Earl dead in a irrigation ditch. They’d took a tire iron to him, spurred him up, drug him around by his dick until it pulled off, just bloody pulp. What the tire iron done looked like pieces a burned tomatoes all over him, nose tore down from skiddin on gravel. (Proulx 29)

This is the first association that Ennis has with being gay and has only incubated since then. Ennis’ father took him to see it and it has obviously shaped Ennis for the rest of his life. He now ties this slaughter to love. Love between two men. Proulx never reveals any other instances that parallel this negative connotation to being gay in Ennis’ younger life, but it is safe to assume that he grew up in a milieu that supported this thought. Being bombarded with homophobic ideas, one can only surrender to the thoughts and subconsciously embrace

He could not stand being a gay man. But he understood that he was loved by a man and he loved that man. Proulx leaves us in a flurry of Ennis battling with these two conflicting ideas. Ennis loves Jack. Ennis is homophobic. The only advice we are left with is to learn how to live with our desires. Ennis has to swallow the guilt and recognize that he is in love with Jack. But we never see Ennis through this development. We never read of any more interactions with any other gay men. Proulx leaves advice to Ennis on how to overcome his internalized homophobia, but it is also advised toward the audience. The audience has seen the mind of this gay homophobic man and have been left with the cognition to recognize this in our own lives. Proulx leaves only one solution to a greater problem. The one solution she leaves us with is simple; so simple it could be taken in a different way. Instead of Ennis admitting to his love with Jack, and homophobia is the problem, Ennis could memorialize the law of Wyoming, that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that Jack was the problem. Granted, this story was written in a way that Ennis desire for Jack is unquestionable, but this just shows that Proulx’s advice is flimsy. Ennis is a simple man, and maybe he only needs simple