Mini, why so combative?
I think it's one of those irregular verbs: I am conversing, you are debating, she is being combative.
In describing Ennis as an "island in the sea" I was using the name given him by the author Annie Proulx. It is a significant name when attached to the character that she created, as no doubt is the name "Twist" when attached to Jack, but it is Ennis we are discussing here.
In giving the name Ennis (Ynnis) del Mar to her character she was describing to us a person who was incapable of moving very far in many ways, both practically and emotionally.
This is the joy of giving characters meaningful names. If AP's major point with his name was to give him an aura of being unable to move, then she might easily have called him something like, say, Aaron Meadows, which would thus avoid the intrusion of ocean images which would appear to be discordant with the story's setting.
Ennis's name tells us far more than that he is unmoving (although I do agree that it is part of his nature. He moves, as I have said before, in big leaps followed by long periods where he settles and refuses to budge. Not sure how an island can move in big leaps
) His name ties in with a number of other themes, that of water-as-emotion, of loneliness and isolation, of the Aeneid imagery, etc.
You seem to be suggesting that I have fabricated this notion based on his given name, but that is only part of the information we are given about him both in the narrative voice and in the characters own words.
I didn't feel that I would need to explain further to someone as well versed in the story as yourself, so I used just the name as a form of shorthand.
The further information comes in several ways, one is the song "Water Walking Jesus" which suggests that Jack must walk on water to get to Ennis, and is probably the only person who can. The next obvious one is Ennis own words " You know me Jack all the travelling I ever done was round the coffee pot looking for the handle."
There is also the complete stasis of the four years between the journey away from Brokeback and the reunion in which Ennis just sits tight and waits for Jack to find him.
There is the utter incredulity shown by Ennis at the suggestion of going to Mexico, and of course the impossibility of him imagining a life with Jack either in Denver or through a cow and calf operation.
Yes, this is a nice list and it certainly indicates that Ennis is, surprise surprise, a poor Wyoming ranch hand with limited possibilities for leisure activities or job opportunities. But given his limitations, why is it that he does not then take up Jack's suggestion of a C&C op? He could stay in his home range and never have to smell petrol fumes. But he doesn't, not because he's an island in the sea but because he's a homophobic gay man who's in love with another man but can't admit it to himself.
Ennis is also unable to contemplate leaving ranching with its long hours and low pay to work for the power company. He would rather stick with what he knows.
Well, actually he DOES leave ranching and gets on the road crew. He gets back to ranching only after Alma leaves him. So he's capable of making a career change when he has to.
As to lack of imagination, my reference was to the kind of imagination needed to envisage a life for him and Jack anywhere. He has no gay role models, he has nothing to base his dreams on, not from books or life experiences, other than one very bad one.
That is why he is stuck where he is.
But his imagination is not what's holding him back. If he could contemplate living with Jack then he might be able to imagine how it would work out. But he never gets past first base. He cannot allow himself to imagine such a life because that means he's queer. It always comes back to that.
It is possible to restrict these characters to two dimensions, and to make the story purely about homophobia. It is not. They are well rounded three dimensional people who live on the page because the writer and her vision were greater than that.
I assume this is just a dig. As you well know, I see them as 3D characters. The story is not
purely about homophobia, but I'd draw your attention to this passage from AP's recent interview:
The story, says Proulx, spine straight, hands slapping her knees for
emphasis, "was about homophobia in a place."Homophobia is not just the background noise; it is an integral part of the story. Ennis's homophobia is what warps an otherwise touching love story into a tale of tragic consequences.