Bonnin- Brokeback Mountain 1

Throughout the history of the United States the white male has sought to secure and assert his control over the American nation. This control has seen its decline over the years. From women acquiring the right to vote back in1920, the end of the Jim Crow Laws in the 1960’s and the election of an African American male in the last presidential election, the U.S. is headed at a steady pace towards equality. This poses a real threat to the small, yet powerful population of Americans who wish to retain their control over economic and social conventions. In “Brokeback Mountain” the author portrays this struggle through the socially unaccepted homosexual relationship of Jack and Ennis and the unconventional matrimonial roles of Jack and his wife Laureen.

The short story “Brokeback Mountain” is set in the 1960’s a time when minorities’ rights were much more repressed than they are now. Up to that time there were laws in place enforcing segregation in the nation and women rarely entered the workforce in the white male run society. Anything that went against the establishment was not only marginalized, it was destroyed. A clear example of this was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by a white racist and soon after the murdering of Robert Kennedy, a presidential hopeful who campaigned for unity between the races. These men posed a real threat to the racial class in power and were thus eliminated. This is comparable to the killing of Earl, a gay man. At a very young age Ennis was forced to witness the mutilation of Earl’s cadaver by heterosexual white men. This was done to instill fear in Ennis, his brother and anyone else who was present. The message was clear; stray from the accepted sexual conduct and be forced to die a dehumanizing death. The fact that Ennis has no doubts in his mind that his father was capable of having killed Earl, reveals plenty about his upbringing and the way he was taught to view the world. Ennis was always fearful of being branded as a homosexual and would respond aggressively to Jack when having sex or to anyone who accused him of being gay, as was displayed when Alma suggests he had an affair with Jack. He later went and picked a fight as if to rid himself of his homosexuality in a similar manner to the violence employed to rid society of the threat of Earl.

Aside from the power struggle between straight and gay men, the story also presents the struggle between Jack and Laureen. Once her father passed away, she assumed the patriarchal role and assumed control of the finances and hence of the family. Jack resented this and he makes it clear when he complains to Ennis about his impotency at home. Laureen did not want to accept her son had a disability, so he could not get him help: “Laureen had the money, so she called the shots” (Proulx, 83). His death could be interpreted as there no longer being a place for him within a society as simply a homosexual man.

The tragic ending in which Ennis looks back at his relationship with Jack and the author describes it as there being “no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Monuntain” (Proulx, 85) leaves the reader with little hope for the future of the homosexual within the US. Although one could argue that his final acceptance of that love and his physical embrace of the shirt say the contrary.