Ennis and Cassie Scenes

[AZ.bbm]

Ennis was comforting Jack in a physical space, true enough, but in another reflection, his own emotional space, it may have been that he was emulating his mother as she tried to console her tortured husband, Ennis' poor, lost father.

Hi, AZ, interesting post...can you elaborate on above, please?

Hi, CSI,

Speculating here: I think Ennis was a sensitive child at one time before he hardened over; felt synpathy for his father and the hand life had dealt him. 

Perhaps Ennis understood that something in their relationship was missing, that the support and validation he had expected to receive from his old man would not be forthcoming.

According to AP, Ennis was self-loathing, and like Jack, he too never could 'get it right' with his old man. With his father gone there was no chance to finish this work with him.

Again, I'm speculating, based on similar stories by AP where validation is an issue,  that Ennis had probably witnessed his mother trying to console his father and wanted to do likewise but was not allowed to demonstrate to his homophobic father the affection he held for him for fear of being shamed.

Finally up on BB, Ennis can utilize Jack as the proxy for his own father. Ennis didn't want to know or feel that it was Jack he was holding, because his focus was being redirected toward a different end ('atonement').

That's not to indicate that Ennis stepped out of the entire DE with Jack, but only that Jack helped to  facilitate Ennis' recovery.


Regards,
Az.

[Ministering angel]

Azbbm, nice thoughts there about the DE. One thing which strikes me, and always has, however, is the height difference between Ennis and Jack, and the way that plays into his being able to hold Jack, parent to child fashion.

In the film it's okay that the actors are roughly the same height, but in the SS I think Jack's height is critically important. Ennis can ignore the fact that this is a full-grown man he's holding. I'm pretty convinced that it's his mother holding him which is the image of love he is building on as he rocks Jack, rather than any image of his mother holding his father or something similar.

[AZ.bbm]

Azbbm, nice thoughts there about the DE. One thing which strikes me, and always has, however, is the height difference between Ennis and Jack, and the way that plays into his being able to hold Jack, parent to child fashion.

In the film it's okay that the actors are roughly the same height, but in the SS I think Jack's height is critically important. Ennis can ignore the fact that this is a full-grown man he's holding. I'm pretty convinced that it's his mother holding him which is the image of love he is building on as he rocks Jack, rather than any image of his mother holding his father or something similar.

That was my first reading, i.e., Ennis felt a spontaneous impulse to openly administer to Jack without rationale (echo the Reunion kiss!), which wasn't particularly his way, and therefore the boy was having a struggle with it...  'Mercifully,' in the film version the DE was over rather quickly...

It seems unlikely that Ennis would struggle for 'a long time' (as in the SS) to comfort Jack, yet not want to see or feel that it was him who he was holding; NOT want to know if his efforts to console Jack were at all effective, etc.

There have been some studies (Tripp, Hite, et.al.) re men who identify as 'gay', their relationships with their fathers, and later with their significant others which have parallels to the lives of the characters in the SS.

FWIW.


Regards,
Az.
 

P.S. Regarding the height difference it could suggest that Ennis was the 'superior' or the dominant partner in the relationship.

AL ironed that Pringle flat by including SNIT, I thought.


P.P.S: Are you familiar with "Transactional Analysis"..?  I ask because you used the term "Parent To Child"..(?)

[Ministering angel]

Not familiar with Transactional Analysis, I'm afraid. I just used parent to child because that's what it looks like to me.

Regardless of SNIT, I think Ennis does need to take the dominant role, hence his abrupt taking control in FNIT, and the discernible warming of their relationship after the roles are switched and Ennis becomes the herder while Jack does the domestic duties.

I'm aware of studies into father/son relationships, and AP was certainly drawing on some quite strong perceptions when she drew her characters the way she did.

I'm not sure where you get the idea of Ennis struggling from. I think the DE is a changing situation, one where Ennis can approach Jack from behind (as he has done often enough in the previous weeks), hold him in a non-sexual but loving way (because he is not threatened by having an armful of Man), and then slowly get lost in the magic of the moment.

And I'm not sure why this has developed on the Ennis And Cassie thread. Perhaps we should adjourn to Relationship or To Last Scene J&E, the latter being the usual place on which the DE gets discussed.