Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain (Symbolism) Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain is a short based on the long and complicated relationship of two ranchers in the sixties. Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar meet on Brokeback Mountain herding sheep. They eventually had a drunken experience with their true sexualities and became infatuated with each other. After twenty years of Jack and Ennis meeting in Wyoming a few times a year, it comes to an end when Jack was killed. His wife Lureen claims it was an exploding tire, but Ennis’ own experiences cause him to believe Jack was murdered.
After receiving news of Jack’s Death, Ennis’ goes to Jack’s parents’ house to retrieve his ashes. Although Jack’s father would not give them up, he did allow Ennis to go up and look
at Jack’s room. Proulx is brief in her illustration of the bedroom, noting the few things left from his childhood. Then, as Ennis opens the closet door she is very descriptive of everything in the closet and the closet itself. A slower paragraph that leads to Ennis finding Jack’s old shirt from Brokeback, the summer they first met. The sleeve was covered in Ennis’ blood due to a nose bleed that Jack attempted to stop. Feeling that the shirt was a little heavy, Ennis looked inside the sleeves to find another shirt; the one he lost at Brokeback. This is where Proulx is slows things down, writing gently with great detail about what Ennis is feeling. She describes the two shirts as “…the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one.” Other than Brokeback Mountain itself, these shirts symbolize everything these two men have gone through and the way they feel about each other. It is the first time Ennis truly opens the door to who he is, coming out of the closet literally and figuratively. It also brings a bitter notion that Jack is truly gone, clutching his shirt hoping for his scent but finding nothing.
Ang Lee’s 2005 adaptation follows Proulx’s story closely, most likely because it is a short story and there is not a lot of room to expand. The scene begins with Ennis walking into the room slowly, then cuts to a panning shot of Jack’s room. After a series of close ups on Ennis inspecting Jack’s belongings, there is a full shot from inside the closet. To end the scene there is a long take close up of Ennis discovering his and Jack’s shirts. This long take showed the viewers that Ennis was taking it in, finally finding something in Jack’s room that meant something to him. This correlates with Proulx’s story, as she dedicates and entire paragraph for this one take.
After receiving news of Jack’s Death, Ennis’ goes to Jack’s parents’ house to retrieve his ashes. Although Jack’s father would not give them up, he did allow Ennis to go up and look
at Jack’s room. Proulx is brief in her illustration of the bedroom, noting the few things left from his childhood. Then, as Ennis opens the closet door she is very descriptive of everything in the closet and the closet itself. A slower paragraph that leads to Ennis finding Jack’s old shirt from Brokeback, the summer they first met. The sleeve was covered in Ennis’ blood due to a nose bleed that Jack attempted to stop. Feeling that the shirt was a little heavy, Ennis looked inside the sleeves to find another shirt; the one he lost at Brokeback. This is where Proulx is slows things down, writing gently with great detail about what Ennis is feeling. She describes the two shirts as “…the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one.” Other than Brokeback Mountain itself, these shirts symbolize everything these two men have gone through and the way they feel about each other. It is the first time Ennis truly opens the door to who he is, coming out of the closet literally and figuratively. It also brings a bitter notion that Jack is truly gone, clutching his shirt hoping for his scent but finding nothing.
Ang Lee’s 2005 adaptation follows Proulx’s story closely, most likely because it is a short story and there is not a lot of room to expand. The scene begins with Ennis walking into the room slowly, then cuts to a panning shot of Jack’s room. After a series of close ups on Ennis inspecting Jack’s belongings, there is a full shot from inside the closet. To end the scene there is a long take close up of Ennis discovering his and Jack’s shirts. This long take showed the viewers that Ennis was taking it in, finally finding something in Jack’s room that meant something to him. This correlates with Proulx’s story, as she dedicates and entire paragraph for this one take.