Gaining Perspective
How “Brokeback Mountain” Changed a Nation’s Point of View
“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, 1997)
When Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain” was published in 1997, homosexuals were not as widely accepted as they are today. They faced discrimination and brutality that violated their basic human rights and often ended violently. Subsequently, when readers realized “Brokeback Mountain” was not a cowboy story, but a love story between two men, they were surprised. This surprise was heightened by the fact that “Brokeback Mountain” is written primarily from the point of view of a seemingly straight man. An analysis of the point of view in “Brokeback Mountain” reveals how the plot, setting, characters, and tone can be presented to create a lasting impact and make the overall theme of the story prominent.
Proulx wrote “Brokeback Mountain” using the third-person omniscient point of view, but often limits the point of view to just Ennis. This gives Proulx the ability to share insight from many characters with the reader, while also keeping some information secret to create a dramatic effect. Proulx’s style of switching between omniscient and limited omniscient has a unique effect on the other literary elements in the story.
Point of view has the most obvious influence on plot. The story is opened using third-person omniscient view, allowing Proulx to introduce the characters, set the scene, and provide background information without the use of lengthy dialogue. When the point of view shifts to focus on Ennis, the plot also focuses on Ennis and his journey.
By limiting the plot to Ennis’s story, Proulx is able to keep information on Jack secret until the two are together. Whenever the two are together, however, the point of view changes to include both Ennis and Jack. This creates an interesting effect where the reader knows primarily about Ennis’s personal life and his thoughts, but forms a sense of intimacy between him and Jack. By presenting the story in this way, Proulx develops the main conflict in the story to be Ennis’s internal conflict of whether to follow his heart with Jack and risk his life, or to conform to society and keep their relationship secret.
The major crisis of the story occurs when the two meet for the last time. The point of view includes both Jack and Ennis, heightening the emotional tension. The two fight, and confess all of the feelings and secrets they had kept buried for so many years. Proulx highlights the tension between them after the argument, “Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable — admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears — rose around them.” This scene is the last time the point of view includes both of them.
Proulx finishes the story from Ennis’s point of view only. Her choice to do this adds drama to the climax of the story — the reveal of Jack’s death. Ennis did not know Jack had died, and since the point of view included only him, the postcard stamped “DECEASED” came as a shock to both Ennis and the reader. From this point on, Ennis’s story focuses on finding resolution.
The flip-flopping of point of view stimulates characterization more than just one point of view could. By beginning the story in the broader omniscient view, Proulx was able to set the tone for Jack and Ennis’s characterization. Both Ennis and Jack were raised on poor ranches with no other futures besides continuing the ranching trade. Ennis del Mar embodied the classic 1960’s cowboy: tall, rough, and made for ranch life. He was engaged to a young woman by the name Alma Beers, and he took any ranching job he could get to take care of her and, as the story progresses, their family. All in all, Ennis del Mar is the poster-boy for the heterosexual male. Jack Twist, on the other hand, was small and heavy-set, with curly hair and bucked teeth. He had a passion for the rodeo and an itch to get out of Lightning Flat. Neither looked the type to seek the company of another man.
Proulx creates dramatic irony and develops Jack’s character during Ennis and Jack’s first reunion. When they are in the hotel together, Jack is revealed as truly gay through a conversation he had with Ennis about whether or not he slept with other men, “‘Shit no,’ said Jack, who had been riding more than bulls, not rolling his own.” (Proulx, 1997). Proulx revealed this to the reader, but Ennis was unaware of this development. When it is finally revealed to Ennis that Jack has other lovers, the crisis of the story is reached and tension is at its highest.
After the crisis moment, the point of view focuses on Ennis alone. Proulx uses this to develop Ennis’s character. From this point on, Ennis’s thoughts and feelings are revealed as he tries to cope with the loss of his lover and find closure.
Proulx uses the parts of the story focusing on Ennis to show that his character is stuck in a limbo between who he is and who he is expected to be. Ennis deals with his internal conflict by suppressing it, only seeking answers when he finds out about Jack’s death. He visits Jack’s parent’s ranch in Lightning Flats, and hidden inside Jack’s closet he finds the shirts “like two skins, one inside the other, two in one” (Proulx 1997). Since he never found closure with Jack and Jack’s father refused to give him the ashes, he keeps Jack with him by keeping the shirts and a postcard of Brokeback Mountain in his truck. Holding onto the shirts shows that Ennis is holding onto the past and unable to move on. Ennis’s frequent dreams about Jack heighten Ennis’s confusion, and he never manages to find resolve. Ennis’s never-ending internal conflict and the way he copes with it can be summarized by the closing sentence of the story, “There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it.” (Proulx, 1997).
While characterization plays off point of view strongly in “Brokeback Mountain”, the setting is also greatly impacted by point of view. Proulx’s use of point of view emphasizes the attitude toward homosexuals during the 1960s. The first instance of judgement is shown through Joe Aguirre’s secret conversation with Jack, “He neglected to add that the foreman had leaned back in his squeaky wooden tilt chair and said, ‘Twist, you guys wasn’t gettin paid to leave the dogs baby-sit the sheep while you stemmed the rose,’ and declined to rehire him.” (Proulx 1997). Nobody would hire a gay man, but then again, there were worse fates for a gay man in those times.
The most disturbing reveal about the discrimination towards homosexuals came in the form of a story Ennis told Jack about two old men who had lived together:
“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, 1997).
Later on Proulx would reveal through Ennis’s point of view Jack’s real fate, because while Jack’s wife told one story, Ennis knew “they had got him with the tire iron.”
As point of view plays a role in setting, it plays a similar role in tone. The beginning of “Brokeback Mountain” has a tone suggesting a story of struggle and hardship, like most great cowboy stories. However, Proulx throws her readers for a loop by suddenly changing the tone to one of forbidden romance. After Ennis and Jack part ways, Proulx uses point of view to express the intimacy of their relationship. Whenever the story focuses on Ennis, there is a tone of frustration and struggle, reflecting his internal conflict. In contrast, when Jack and Ennis are together, the tone becomes one of passion and comfort, albeit secrecy. Ennis is most himself when he is with Jack, and when he is not with him something is off.
Although there are times of comfort, there is an underlying feeling of tension in the story. The tone is stressed by Jack’s desire to be together publicly and Ennis’s insistence that they sneak around. When Ennis learns about Jack’s death, the story becomes somber. Ennis not only grieves for his friend and lover, but for a life they could never have together.
Overall, the changing point of view and its effects on other literary elements brings light to the theme of “Brokeback Mountain”: perspective. “Brokeback Mountain” provides insight to the internal battle and fears of someone struggling with their sexuality, and likewise shows that anyone can be gay. By illuminating the perspective on homosexuality of many different people — a father, a wife, an employer, and a lover — while also focusing on the thoughts and feelings of the man struggling with his sexuality, Proulx created a story that relates strongly to people from all walks of life. With the 2005 movie adaptation of “Brokeback Mountain” starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist and Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar, millions of Americans experienced this change of perspective. Proulx opened the door for discussion about homosexuality in media; and now, almost twenty years later, homosexual marriage is legal in the United States. Proulx’s ability to transition between omniscient and limited omniscient makes “Brokeback Mountain” a prime example of how point of view can be used to give a story depth and drama worthy of the silver screen. The resulting impact “Brokeback Mountain” had sparked the movement for gay rights, and ensured that homosexuals would not suffer the same fate as Ennis and Jack.
Works Cited
Proulx, Annie. “Brokeback Mountain.” New Yorker 13 Oct. 1997: n. pag. NewYorker.com. Web. 25 Jun. 2016.*