Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx - Essay Example

?Yoo Jin Choi Erick Piller ENGL-1011-011 February 25, Introduction The concept of sexuality has remained under continuous evolution ever since the times known to mankind. Different cultures have responded differently towards the same sexual practices in different periods of time, and the level of preference of one sexual practice over another has largely been a matter of societal approval instead of personal preferences. Various practices in sexuality are under continuous evolution and in this process they move from acceptance to rejection or vice verse depending upon the then prevailing social circumstances of the society. Largely considered a matter of personal choice, the liking of one sexual practice by an individual is to a large extent governed by how one’s mind is tuned to his environment. This tuning may be in the form of learning from family practices, from social exposures or in some cases from religious influences. Any rebellion of such tuning is not only subjected to punitive action by the society, but also suffers from the ‘guilt’ resulting by not following the norms. Prohibited Dream: “Brokeback Mountain” Annie Proulx’s story “Brokeback Mountain” has been a very popular reading since its publication in 1998 in the “New Yorker”. The book has won several awards including the magazine’s award for fiction. This story was included in “The O’Henry Stories” in 1998 and was called the most interesting story of the collection for its enthralling narrative and indicative detail. “Brokeback Mountain” depicts the relationship between two homosexual men named Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar who meet while herding sheep together in Wyoming and fall deeply in love with each other. However they cannot live their life together as they dream, due to the norms of a highly bigoted world. Paranoia is a big obstacle in their relationship. Ennis is very paranoid that they might get caught as no one in their surrounding respected same gender relationship. The theme of this book is a relationship that is not universally recognized and appreciated and is not considered “normal.” As stated by Michael Warner in his book American culture judges the sexual tastes of people in a thousand ways and believe that sexuality can be regulated by following a certain set of rules which ought to be the norm (1). The story begins with Ennis, who is the central character in the story, waking up after having a dream about the man he met many years ago, Jack Twist, feeling ‘suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream’ (Proulx, 1). The novel states the condition of sexual desire under the ordering regulations of cultural domination resulting in paranoia that ends up harming their relation. Ennis’ struggle for sexual self-realization proposes that sexual prejudice is intensely arranged in a complex conflict with culture. Sexual desire can unsettle culture, but culture can and does interrupt or disrupt desire. This implies that culture is a strong force that can alter the actions of people. It is the cultural values of the society that leads to the feelings of self-surveillance and paranoia in the main characters of this story. Cultural norms guide people and when their heart desires something that is not in line with their culture, it becomes extremely difficult for him or her to go against the rules. There are only few who have the courage to do so, and as we learn ahead in the story, those who go against cultural rules may have to suffer the dark consequence such as losing their lives or other violence. These are the beliefs that are described throughout the narrative’s plot as we see that Ennis is alternated between his feelings of homosexual desire and the norm that is considered to be heterosexuality. Ennis is extremely paranoid throughout the book. “You ever get the feelin’, I don’t know, when you’re in town, and someone looks at you, suspicious … like he knows. And then you get out on the pavement, and everyone, looking at you, and maybe they all know too? (Proulx, McMurtry, and Ossana 71).Ennis sees his surroundings with a feeling of intense paranoia. He always has his guards on, always scared to get caught. Because of that he exhausts himself always discovery and being exposed, instead all it does is imposing a more severe and self-destructive damage more than any exterior threat can ever cause. The continuous anticipation sooner or later fails to defend one’s own secret. The malicious ‘bottom of paranoia’ is that if it fails, it leads to its reckless amplification rather than rethinking of these paranoid habits. This is the uncannily cruel logic due to which the paranoid is the one who fails, not paranoia. This is what happens with Ennis who perceives Jack’s death the way he did which is the confirmation of his paranoia.Ennis’s sexual partiality creates a persistent question of whether the sexual rules or politics of an individual sexual desire is bound by cultural beliefs and standards. According to Eve Sedgwick Kosofsky this is called ‘minoritizing and a universalizing perspective’. The narrative may describe the situation slightly differently but this instinct is exclusive in terms of bigger ideological fear including one in which a man must be a heterosexual and if the case is opposite to this it is simply unacceptable. This is exactly what Ennis is confused and disturbed about his entire life after his interactions with Jack Twist. Ennis wonders about the conflict between gender, sex and sexuality. His initial dream is disrupted by the boiling sounds of the coffee, which remind him that it is about to spill. It is mentioned in the story that “The stale coffee is boiling up but he catches it before it goes over the side, pours it into a stained cup and blows on the black liquid, lets a panel of the dream slide forward”(Proulx, 4). This comparison of him and the warm coffee is associated with Ennis’s memory of Jack as stated in the story “it might stoke the day, re-warm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong” (Proulx, 4). Ennis is stuck between the reality and his memories, which clearly show the internal struggle he is going through. No matter how sad Ennis is, we cannot overlook the fact that his paranoia and inability to forsake a straight image of him concurrently lead him to actions of homo-social policing that result in his own suffering. Paranoia, surveillance and the prohibited dream that Ennis has are all interrelated. The characters themselves are homophobic along with the society they live in. As noted in the book ‘Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America’, gay men and lesbians had to leave their hometowns or places where they lived their entire lives to areas that were more accepting of homosexuality, as was read in most of novels authored before 1945 (Sonstegard et al, 199). Same is the case in “Brokeback Mountain,” where both the men then leave Wyoming where they had been born and raised. Here comes in the concept of social surveillance and paranoia. In the book ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ the residents of Oceania have no privacy and they live under the continuous surveillance, being watched and seen at all times because of which the inhabitants are forced to obey all the rules of that society. Paranoia is much talked about in ‘Paranoia: TheTwenty-First Century Fear’. The book looks into paranoia and how it has been expressed at various times throughout history. Some authors claim that the nature of paranoia depends upon political, cultural, and the social values that we live in. Paranoid fear can be about losing social respect and dreading that people will not accept you as you are. In a disciplinary society, factories, schools, hospitals and prisons are one and the same thing because all of these treat their workers, students, patients and prisoners to conform to the norm according to that society (Foucault, 414). In modern societies power is carried out through administration. The surveillance system provides a type of management and control in order to avoid any kind of violation of the rules and regulations. The concept of Panopticon, which literally refers to a building where the watchman can keep an eye on the inhabitants of that building without their knowledge about such watchful eye, is used to define the nature of human societies which are always keen in keeping eye on their social members. According to Foucault the panopticon has the ability to defend a society by functioning in an effective manner by making improvements in the propriety and morality that consists of socio-economic aspects. How is all this related to Brokeback Mountain? Proulx writes that the feelings that were felt by Ennis and Jack were all natural and so were the meaningful actions taken due to those deep feelings even if these feelings and actions were against the acceptable social norms. The love and passion that they experienced was real and definitely strong; however, this love story did not have a happy ending because the conservative society of the 1960s forces the men apart. The society was powerful enough to influence Ennis’s mind and his fear and restlessness is reflected when he tells Jack the story of a gay rancher being killed where he lived. Their hirer Joe always used to watch them together through his binoculars, which is an imagery of surveillance. Joe later tells Jack that he knows everything and then Alma who is Ennis’s wife has seen him and Jack together many times however remains silent till she loses her patience and divorces Ennis and tells him that she would not want to see him ever again. The men’s relationship is hurting Ennis and his family and he is losing his wife’s support. Thus Ennis has to make the difficult decision of ending the affair with Jack. It was very hard for him to leave his family and children; therefore, the two men could not maintain their relationship any longer. The silence between them after their mutual meeting suggests that their sexual act was not normal and violates social norms. After Alma finds out about them, it becomes impossible for them to express their wishes, as they know that their behavior and acts are completely unbearable and inexcusable by the society. Even though they tell each other that they should not care about others, the truth remained that society’s view on homosexuality did matter and did affect their love lives. Ennis and Jack lived in an environment resembling a panopticon also involving the matters of surveillance and confinement. When they are together for the first time, Ennis says, “I’m not no queer,” and Jack replies, “Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody’s business but ours” (Proulx, 262). This proves that both knew that doing this was not right nor was it normal. Because it was not acceptable by the society they could not express their sexuality and feelings even to each other, which leads to an unhappy ending for them. When Jack says that ‘Brokeback Mountain is all they had’ he sees that as just a faraway memory and this accentuates their differences. When Ennis had met Jack he was already engaged to Alma and this seemed like an obligation to him and even when they meet many years later and get together again, for Ennis his family was still an obligation. When they faced the choice of ending their relationship or moving forward and working to make it a success, Jack’s statement makes it obvious that they did not have a choice but to end it, and Ennis says ‘I doubt that there is anything they can do,’ confirming Jack’s statement. Social control is thus an inevitable force that has a lot of power to alter a man’s view and life choices as it did with Ennis and Jack. Ennis is a stoic character in the story as described by Proulx; thus stoicism plays a major part in this story. Ennis does not ignore or neglect his feelings; instead, he acts upon them quite intensely. He also used to leave his wife and kids and ‘go fishing’ with Jack even though he feels that by doing sohe is betraying his family. As he says to Jack “Love my little girls. Alma? It ain't her fault. You got your baby and wife that place in Texas. You and me can't hardly be decent together if what happened back there" (Proulx, 13). This is also the main reason why he gets angry at Jack whereas Jackalso reciprocates his emotions at Ennis by lashing out at him because he did not want to continuethis relationship. The homosexual relation of Jack and Ennis is contrasted against the reprehensible life and landscape that propagates the traditional values of the American West. The story is set in the American West because in reality during this time period, homosexuality was not considered a social norm. It was seen as a horrible thing that was punishable. People caught in such acts were often killed. Homosexuals were undesirable and only the Mafia had power and the money to open and run gay bars. The discrimination went as far as the authorities not permitting homosexuals to be offered service in licensed bars and they could be denied accommodation according to a decision made by a court in the 1940s. However the ‘gay liberation’ movement that took place in the late 1960s and mid 70s urged many homosexual men and women to ‘come out’ and reveal their sexuality and instead of being shameful they were encouraged to feel ‘gay pride’ (Valocchi, 446). By the late 1960s terms such as ‘Gay Power’ and ‘Gay is Good’ were being heard as slogans and these became pretty common by the 1970s. Thus the background of Brokeback Mountain is perfectly set in 1963 in American West when homosexuality was not a common and acceptable thing. In the morning after their first sexual experience, both men find that a coyote has killed a sheep; a metaphor showing that they had committed a sin and its consequences are messy. Beyond Brokeback Mountain: The Impact of a Film was published in 2007 and talked about the hopes, aspirations of the readers of “Brokeback Mountain.” This book affected so many of readers positively to change their lives. Brokeback Mountain is indeed a very moving story by Annie Proulx. For many young people today who were born in a world where homosexuality is considered to be a norm, it might seems odd that two men who were obviously in love with each other had to part ways, hide their love and even more got married and had children. But the truth is that Ennis and Jack are a very factual part of our history. In those times people had to obey with the dictates of the society and for a man getting married to a woman was a given. Both of them ended up getting hurt as the husband did not find any fulfillment in the relationship and in turn the wife could not get any satisfaction or love from the husband as it was simply not there. People were forced to do things that they did not want to. Where the book changed the views of many people about this issue there are still closed minded people who do not agree with the openness of the homosexuality issue. In “Brokeback Mountain”the two individuals were not even allowed to acknowledge their love not to themselves as well. Unlike the films of nowadays that try to show homosexuality as a very common and normal thing this story talks about the real feelings and issues that were challenges in the 1960s and before that. This story relates to the lives of many people and also serves as a lesson for people today so they can realize the importance of the sexual freedom they have now a days. People can empathize with these characters as they read their experiences by going deep in their homophobic world and the society’s attitudes towards homosexuals. Conclusion The story of “The Brokeback Mountain” talks about the realities of this world and how social boundaries and cultural norms have affected and keep on affecting our actions. And even though we live in a free world today the factor of surveillance is still present. Social norms have developed over the centuries; some evolved and developed according to the time while others remain strict even today. It is almost impossible to change these rules that we call normal; however, with time, as one person decides to work against them, others may follow suit. Thus gradually something considered as a normal social value at a particular time changes to another norm at a different time. Ennis and Jack went through a rough life that had a rather sad ending, but today people are generally more acceptable of homosexuality, something that was seen as a sin in the old days Works Cited Bank, Barbara J. Gender and Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Print. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. Print. Proulx, Annie. Brokeback Mountain. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Proulx, Annie, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Brokeback Mountain. Story to Screenplay. NewYork:Scribner, 2005. "Queer Theory - Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick." Http://science.jrank.org/. Http://science.jrank.org/, n.d. Web. Sonstegard, Adam, Karla Jay, and Julie Abraham.“Literature.”Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America.Ed. Marc Stein.Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004.184-201. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Web. 5 Apr. 2012. Valocchi, Steve. "Individual identities, collective identities, and organizational structure: The relationship of the political left and gay liberation in the United States." Sociological Perspectives 44.4 (2001): 445-467. Print. Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. New York: Free Press, 1999. Print. Read More