Character Analysis of Jack Twist

[Ministering angel]

Cally, so how do you see it in light of my second post? I can see why he wouldn't "propose" after the punch, but I still don't see how he would remain silent before the punch, unless he knew to remain silent about such matters. What would be wrong with inviting a straight friend home for an extra month up at Lightning Flat? If Ennis was "hungry for work" at the start of summer and prepared to take a job on the mountain then it sounds as if work wasn't plentiful. And if Jack's father was always moaning that he couldn't get anyone to work up there, then there was a chance he'd hire Ennis on for a month or so. There's really nothing that would have stopped Jack asking Ennis up there, or asking him to maybe travel with Jack a while and try to find work elsewhere. And yet he doesn't do it. Not even before Aguirre calls them down does he suggest any sort of future.

[CANSTANDIT]

Once the punch is thrown I don't see that there's any hope of Jack asking Ennis, yet it seems to me that if he can ask four years later, when Ennis is well and truly married, that he should be able to ask while on the mountain. That he doesn't, that he feels he can't tells me clearly that all was NOT as right as the ingeniously written description insinuates it was.

If Jack can ask in the motel (after first ascertaining that Ennis is amenable to more sex), what has changed between the mountain and the motel? Why does he feel he can ask then when he couldn't (or didn't) ask before?

My answer FWIW is that there has been some major shift in their interaction - yes, the great big hug!

It's a good point..you think he'd be LESS inclined wtih Ennis married...But Ennis has somehow given him hope. How? Is it just the talking? Is that all Jack needed? No-there has to have been something powerful and new transpiring between them that gave Jack MORE than hope-he had to think, 'how could Ennis say no?' Jack has to believe Ennis thinks differently than he did on BBM-or else, as you said, he'd have not pushed-just like he didn't push on BBM. It only makes sense. He does not sound desperate or anything-just fed up with his marraige and LD and so forth. So that can't be the reason.

[Ministering angel]

I apologise for the huge numbers of "thats" in the bit you just quoted, Jo 

Look, this is the thing, isn't it. What's different between the mountain and the motel? They're friends and lovers so why the change? It HAS to be about the way they interact.

[Dal]

~They're friends and lovers so why the change? It HAS to be about the way they interact.

I can't pin it down to a single factor, but part of it must be that there is always a huge change in perspective between 19 and 24;  and that both have had a lot more experience of what they don't want.

[Desecra]

Well, Ennis has gone through a huge change - he's admitted the attraction to Jack, rationalised it and so on.   I think that's a big part of what's changed, from not even acknowledging it on the mountain.

[myrine]

I agree. Maybe Jack thought that they were finally on the same page, although they weren't.

[Cally]

Cally, so how do you see it in light of my second post? I can see why he wouldn't "propose" after the punch, but I still don't see how he would remain silent before the punch, unless he knew to remain silent about such matters. What would be wrong with inviting a straight friend home for an extra month up at Lightning Flat? If Ennis was "hungry for work" at the start of summer and prepared to take a job on the mountain then it sounds as if work wasn't plentiful. And if Jack's father was always moaning that he couldn't get anyone to work up there, then there was a chance he'd hire Ennis on for a month or so. There's really nothing that would have stopped Jack asking Ennis up there, or asking him to maybe travel with Jack a while and try to find work elsewhere. And yet he doesn't do it. Not even before Aguirre calls them down does he suggest any sort of future.

Hadn't noticed the 'thats' .  I've been trying to remember a sentence that was something like:

She said that that "that" that that man had used should have been "this".




OK, my thoughts on reasons for Jack not suggesting a 'Let's keep this going', working backwards from his driving away:


"Like I said, Alma and me's getting married".

The punch.

The shock of the premature ending of the job.

The mood Ennis was probably in after 'everything seemed mixed'.

Before that, 'They never talked about the sex', they were 'suspended above ordinary affairs';  they were completely immersed in "now", not thinking about what might happen next.

My subjective, but I hope rational , reading of the text.


By the Reunion, so much had changed for both of them.

[CANSTANDIT]

~They're friends and lovers so why the change? It HAS to be about the way they interact.

I can't pin it down to a single factor, but part of it must be that there is always a huge change in perspective between 19 and 24;  and that both have had a lot more experience of what they don't want.

I think that tends to not explain with some other stuff, though-the key turning the tumbler, for example.  Something is Happening in those moments. Because Jack already knew how he felt-that's no news. It is Ennis, behaviorally, that manages to convince Jack that he has changed enough for Jack to take the chance, despite the punch. I don't think Jack's experience has done any more for him than reinforce what he already knows-he escapes to Texas, basically, to try to escape his feelings for Ennis, is the way I interpret that-and that handily gets him away from Twist, Sr, too. His fatherhood probably changes him, although we get no sense he is more than obligatorily attached to Bobby....

It is Ennis that undergoes the true transformation. He goes from jerking his hand back at what he thinks is the wrong moment-to feeling a hot jolt that drives him into Jack's arms at a truly 'wrong' moment-in front of Alma and the rtest of the world, potentially. Jack  I think would've have accepted that on BBM. We get no evidence Ennis even approched such directness on BBM. Can you imagine for example, hiim hugging Jack in front of Alma, if Alma his fiancee were to come and pick him up from the mountain?

So to me, Ennis is the key to Jack thinking it's ok to say something he didn't say before. I can't believe it's just about 'talking', although that is a major thing between them. He sort of approached a continuance of the friendship just off BBM-'you going a do this again next summer?'-he just knew enough not to take it further. I think it's incredibly bold and brave of him to ask about a C and C, now that Ennis and he are both married-to me that shows he felt there was a good chance Ennis might say "yes". The tragedy is, he has yet, at that moment, to really understand Ennis. He doesn't until 16 years later.

[o2binla]

Hmm, in the film at least, it seems to me that Jack's response during the reunion kiss makes it very clear that something major has changed, or been clarified beyond a doubt: they've missed each other and are thrilled to be reunited.  Ennis' response is what gave Jack the nerve to ask him about the C&C, when it was impossible before their four years apart. 

[CANSTANDIT]

Cally,  if I may aske, what are your thoughts about Ennis saying, 'I'm not no queer' to Jack-?do you think Jack dismissed it on BBM? I wonder, do you think Jack telling Ennis, 'I'm not you' at the end, means he knows he's gay, but just doesn't understand how he can be the way he is, ie, not running around in between times, and still going after women? Just curious....

[Cally]

Cally,  if I may ask, what are your thoughts about Ennis saying, 'I'm not no queer' to Jack-?do you think Jack dismissed it on BBM? I wonder, do you think Jack telling Ennis, 'I'm not you' at the end, means he knows he's gay, but just doesn't understand how he can be the way he is, ie, not running around in between times, and still going after women? Just curious....

Of course you may ask, anything you like .

Ok, this is another gut reaction of mine that you won't like:  I've never thought Ennis really meant it, film or book, when he says 'I'm not no queer/ you know I ain't queer'.  I feel he just said it for the sake of form, perhaps half-believing it, but no serious emphasis to it.  I'm not trying to be logical here - just intuition.  And yes, I think Jack did dismiss it (His 'Me neither' I'm sure we wouldn't disagree about ).



'I'm not you'... hmm.  Well, I suppose I do see it the way you expressed it, although the main emphasis for me is that Jack is talking about his own needs here.  He doesn't understand why Ennis doesn't have the same needs, but does recognise that's how he is. But at this moment he's not considering Ennis or Ennis's sexuality; his reaction to Ennis's anger is the magnificent outburst of his own anger, frustration, despair and love which has been pent up for so long.

[CANSTANDIT]

So you don't think Jack thinks Ennis is straight then, if I understood you. so what do you think causes him to take the attitude of 'you won't catch me again'?

[Ministering angel]

Cally, if Ennis isn't straight, and is just saying he's not queer for the sake of appearances, then why would Jack not suggest they head off together at the end of summer? If there's been a dozy embrace, if Jack dismisses the protestations of straightness, if everything seems to be going swimmingly, if it's idyllic, etc. why doesn't he say something??

There seems to be a general feeling that something changes, that Ennis's reaction when they reunite gives Jack confidence, etc., if I've read the recent responses correctly, but why did something have to change if the time on the mountain was so good?

I really can't see how people work their way around this. It is a little like the age-old and unanswered question: how did Jack know Ennis would not then embrace him face to face? How did he actually know this?

The two questions go together -- if Jack knew Ennis wouldn't embrace him face to face then he had a pretty good idea that a suggestion of them going off together would not meet with a positive response.

[Cally]

So you don't think Jack thinks Ennis is straight then, if I understood you. so what do you think causes him to take the attitude of 'you won't catch me again'?

I don't think I understand this question, CSI.  Particularly as Jack immediately comes in with his cow and calf suggestion.  Can you explain please ?

[andy]

I see Jack as having pretty much come to terms with his sexuality by the time the story begins. I don't buy the belief that 2 straight guys could come together this way. And by the time of the F/SNIT and with AP's words, -both knew how it would go for the rest of the summer - , the sexual chemistry between them is not that of straight men, to whatever degrees they may lean. Jack seems to pick up on Ennis' complicated character and hang ups etc pretty quick and boxes clever, using wisdom maybe learned in preceding years during his own awakening and amongst others not dissimilar to Ennis.