O'Keefe: Brokeback Mountain (Short Story)

Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain examines the complex relationship between the concept of a spectral (as opposed to binary), nuanced view of sexuality and the puritanical, simplified concept of sexuality accepted by the conservative, male-dominated American mainstream of the time. The movie, through the relationship between Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, and further through the relationship between the aforementioned couple and their respective wives and families, looks at how mainstream culture, through the delineation of and establishment of an “us” and “them” type system of exclusion, disenfranchises, ostracizes, and generally weakens those deemed threatening to mainstream values and those who hold them. Those unlucky few who are outside of the norm have generally, in the U.S., been those that threaten the established societal structure that pervades throughout every level of authority in this country, white patriarchy. As a result of this perceived threat, the mainstream society has lashed out against these outsiders in the forms of racism, and, most pertinent to this particular story, sexism and homophobia.

The very structure of the world in which Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar live, work, and love in is based upon the idea that sexuality, and possibly to an even greater extent, romantic love can only and should only exist between a man and a woman. We see that due to the society they had been living in (prior to their excursion on the secluded Brokeback Mountain) and the values projected onto them that even after having engaged in clearly homosexual, yet, for them, seemingly natural and spontaneous activity they found it difficult to come to terms with exactly how to classify or label their actions and themselves. One of the only exchanges we’re shown that takes between Del Mar and Twist after their sexual relationship begins consists of Ennis stating that he’s “not no queer,” with Jack replying that, he, in fact, isn’t homosexual either. These sentiments, despite their actions, may in fact be true, but it would be impossible for them to express themselves fully given the foreign nature of such a situation and the fact that their view of the world simply did not leave room for their to be anything between heterosexuality and homosexuality. It is important to note that homophobia appears to present itself not so much as a fear of homosexuality per say, but rather as a fear and misunderstanding of anything outside of the strict, orthodox notion of heterosexuality.

Another interesting aspect of the story is that Jack and Ennis, despite living in fear of and trying to escape the persecution and derision of a homophobic society, themselves perpetuate certain aspects of the white male-dominated society that in their hearts they wish they could be separate from by perpetuated sexism in their own homes. In the scenes in which Ennis interacts with his family he is depicted as a quite typical (“fishing trips” aside) white American patriarch that is, to a certain extent, domineering over his wife and family. It’s intriguing to see someone in both roles; that is, he is certainly the outsider type “them” in terms of his sexuality, however, he is simultaneously seen on the other side of the fence, the “us” in terms of his stance on relations between the sexes.