Character Analysis of Jack Twist

[bkm]

I came to this thread hoping to get a view on 'Jack, the Sexual Predator' angle that I've heard expressed on other threads, but everyone here is in love with Jack [and Jake].  I can easily see how such a negative view can be established.  Any thoughts, anyone?   Here are some of mine:

Is there any significance in his name - Jack Twist?   Alma calls him "Jack Nasty". 

It has also been put that Jack took advantage of Ennis right from the get-go:

- checking him out at their first meeting,
- displaying himself in a blatant sexual pose,
- finding out how he was raised - parents death and ended up here because there was no room with his brother - "That's hard",
- focusing on a lonely, isolated boy with no sexual experience even though we learn he is engaged to be married 
- learning this was his first time away from his family [brother],
- setting out to get such an obviously repressed personality talking and pointing it out to him that he had,
- We notice Ennis's great joy to share with someone for the first time in his life - He "paw the white out of the moon" ,
- ordering Ennis to "Get in here" out of the cold after his reluctance to share the tent
- taking advantage of Ennis's drunken state
- making the move on him in the tent by placing his hand on his erection. 
- his very gently and tender guidance to a still reluctant but now sober Ennis in the second tent scene

It has also been said that Ennis is not queer, only in love with Jack - the first person to show any real interest in him.  The combination of this love and the great sex binds him to Jack.  After this traumatic and liberating experience he finds no other man, [or woman] of real sexual interest to him - only Jack.  Without Jack's seduction Ennis would have lead a very different existence, free from the conflict that tortured him for the rest of his life - both before and after Jack's death.

Others on this thread have commented that Jack stands up and takes what he thinks he deserves.  Unlike Ennis he has expectations and has had previous sexual experience.

Ennis's heart breaking - "Why don't you let me be.   It's because of you, Jack, that I'm like this.  I'm nothin'.  I'm nowhere."

Please defend Jack's character from such slander as this.

[bkm]

Hey rockburn the word twist refers to the thigh and leg strength that a bronco or bull rider has to posses in order to hold on,used as metaphor for the stubbornness and tenacity Jack must have to wear down Ennis'barriers.

[Scott88]

Deliberately getting a reluctant sexual target, of whatever sex, drunk after asking him or her out on a date could very well be one of the acts of a sexual predator.

But this is where the argument falls part.  We saw absolutely no concrete evidence that Jack deliberately got Ennis drunk.  The scene cuts from them laughing about "sinning" to well into the night, where the boys are already inebriated. 

If Lee wanted to suggest there was more deliberation involved on Jack's part, he would have given us some indication of that.  He didn't.  And, IMO, the sequence as written and filmed presents a much more organic situation.  Jack and Ennis bond, get drunk, and their inhibitions are lowered, allowing Jack the confidence to make the first move and allowing Ennis to finally give into his repressed attraction to Jack.

IMO, Jack Twist is many things, but sexual predator he is not.  One partner usually has to be the initiator, and Ennis made it very clear in short time that he was more than willing to reciprocate.

[Rockbern]

Rockbern,
You are a provocateur, and I like that.

Thanks, but some of the reactions I'm getting are not the ones I wanted. 

I'm trying to unearth aspects of this great work of art that I have not been able to discover myself.  There are some brilliantly insightful posts here.  The story is such a treasure trove of implied, ambiguous and even conflicting meanings that we each, as Annie Proulx said - complete her story ourselves and make it our own.   I'm trying to 'provoke' [I'd use 'discover from minds greater than my own'] more, but unfortunately some posters are understandably upset since my views may conflict strongly with the illusions they have built up around this story in this process of making it their own.

[Rockbern]

Deliberately getting a reluctant sexual target, of whatever sex, drunk after asking him or her out on a date could very well be one of the acts of a sexual predator.

But this is where the argument falls part.  We saw absolutely no concrete evidence that Jack deliberately got Ennis drunk.  The scene cuts from them laughing about "sinning" to well into the night, where the boys are already inebriated. 

If Lee wanted to suggest there was more deliberation involved on Jack's part, he would have given us some indication of that.  He didn't.  And, IMO, the sequence as written and filmed presents a much more organic situation.  Jack and Ennis bond, get drunk, and their inhibitions are lowered, allowing Jack the confidence to make the first move and allowing Ennis to finally give into his repressed attraction to Jack.

IMO, Jack Twist is many things, but sexual predator he is not.  One partner usually has to be the initiator, and Ennis made it very clear in short time that he was more than willing to reciprocate.

I agree.  You misunderstood.  I was not referring to the story, but the poster's statement that taking a reluctant woman on a date with predatory motives would be regarded as being okay.  I don't think it would or should.

[Scott88]

I agree.  You misunderstood.  I was not referring to the story, but the poster's statement that taking a reluctant woman on a date with predatory motives would be regarded as be okay.  I don't think it would or should.

Oh I apologize for the misunderstanding, Rockbern.

Guess my BBM obsession sometimes causes me to misread.

[helen_uk]

I don't think Jack is a sexual predator.  If he was then he would be displaying markedly different characteristics to the ones he does exhibit.  At the very beginning he is a bit full of himself, a bit "aren't I gorgeous, go on look at me I know you want to."  But underneath this act of bravado(and yes I do think it's an act) he is just as vulnerable as Ennis in a lot of ways. 

He continues to like the look of Ennis...but then WHAM, he finds himself falling in love.

The two of them become closer, until they get to the stage of very obvious flirting whilst getting pissed together.  Jack being the more forward of the two then makes a move on Ennis in the tent.  Someone has to make the first move.  And Ennis is up for it - so much so that their roles become reversed and Ennis takes Jack, and quite aggressively at that.  Hardly the actions of someone who is being taken advantage of, I wouldn't have thought.

Sexual predators to not drive 1200 miles three or four times a year for twenty years to be with someone in a tent for four days. 

[cms]

I came to this thread hoping to get a view on 'Jack, the Sexual Predator' angle that I've heard expressed on other threads, but everyone here is in love with Jack [and Jake].  I can easily see how such a negative view can be established. 

Others on this thread have commented that Jack stands up and takes what he thinks he deserves.  Unlike Ennis he has expectations and has had previous sexual experience.

Ennis's heart breaking - "Why don't you let me be.   It's because of you, Jack, that I'm like this.  I'm nothin'.  I'm nowhere."

Please defend Jack's character from such slander as this.

Jack was obviously interested in Ennis from the beginning and may have had experience w/ other guys before that summer.  He wants him and puts the moves on him, and I don't consider it "predatory", but even if it can be interpreted that way, why is it mutually exclusive from Jack actually falling in love with Ennis? 

And Ennis' "why can't you let me be" has more to do with Ennis than with Jack. 

It's really interesting actually...predatory behavior requires a helpless victim.  I never saw Ennis that way - he seems able to protect himself.  And Lureen's actions are quite aggressive, but it's not seen as predatory because the recipient is Jack. 

[Rockbern]

Hey rockburn the word twist refers to the thigh and leg strength that a bronco or bull rider has to posses in order to hold on,used as metaphor for the stubbornness and tenacity Jack must have to wear down  Ennis's barriers.

Thanks for that.  This makes a lot of sense.  In the novella - motel scene - Jack goes into a lot of detail about his rodeo injuries that kept him out of the Army.  I think he mentions his thigh.  You have softened the image I had, since I now realize that I mistakenly assumed Annie Proulx may have chosen that word to imply a devious character.  Twisting and wriggling, trying to sort things out are much more appropriate descriptors for Jack.

[Melisande]

Twist = holding on, according to Annie, not wriggling. And doesn't Jack hold on? Past the point where, if he'd asked me, I would have said "Dump him." But the word "twist" does involve those implications of wriggling.   

It's really interesting actually...predatory behavior is requires a helpless victim.  I never saw Ennis that way - he's quite manly.

One doesn't have to be manly in order not to be a helpless victim. I, for example, am not at all manly, yet I'm not a victim.

[peteinportland]

Rockbern, at some point when I have a little extra time (probably Thursday), I will post my fairly complicated take on both Jack and Ennis (in their respective threads). Suffice it to say, my take on Jack is a bit different than most of those here.

I started these character analysis threads because other threads kept drifting into very good discussions about their characters. From what you have said, you have slogged through some of the other threads and posts and have found some of that great analysis. These are very complex characters and both have good and bad qualities. Like you, I think it important that we try to examine both parts of each.

I look forward to our continued discussion in a couple of days. 

[cms]

One doesn't have to be manly in order not to be a helpless victim. I, for example, am not at all manly, yet I'm not a victim.

I agree.  But I was talking about Ennis specifically.  He would have punched Jack's lights out if it wasn't what he wanted.

[andrewLosAng2407]

 Jack Twist.... I am him.

 We are hopeless romantics, optimists, dreamers, the glass is half-full.

 We are lonely and we crave....love. We want to save and craddle that wounded guy (Ennis in this case).

 We are like puppies chasing after you for your approval and attention as Jack went after Ennis,  ex.- after he heard about his divorce.
Only to be shot down because he(Ennis) had his daughters that weekend.

  Jack cant hold it in and explodes  like a firecraker- as they are ready to part their ways that last time together in the 1980's.

 The sad thing is that sometimes people change when its too late.


 There are more Ennis in this world than there are Jacks.

[RonitR]

Hey All.

Firstly, I'd like to say hello and introduce myself.
I saw BBM for the first time , and it blew me away. Glad I found this Forum 

About Jack as a predator - I really don't see it that way.

I think Jack didn't have an "agenda", and wanted nothing more from Ennis than his love, acceptance and living their lives together. I certainly didn't feel he was "using" Ennis in any way.
The second tent scene confirms this - Ennis is the one that stands outside of Jack's tent, hat -in-hand, wanting to come inside.
It was Ennis's job to spend the night away, in his own tent, with the sheep.
Ennis takes his responsibilities very seriously.
And yet, he chooses NOT to do that, to spend the night with Jack. This to me is free , aware choice.

Also, I was thinking about Jack, and his choices.

Jack (IMHO) certainly worked hard to pick-up Ennis when they first came to the mountain.
Jack is the one that sent the postcard, four years later.
Jack tries to pick up the rodeo clown.
Jack drives 1,200 miles (heartbreaking!) when he hears of Ennis's divorce.
Jack choses the Mexican guy.

It seems to me that Jack is an active person, who knows what he wants, and very much goes after it.

Howeve, it was Loreen (sp?) who picked him up at the bar.
Also, I think it was Randall who tried to pick Jack up.

This, to me, signifies that Jack was not as interested in them, and that he probably agreed to go along, but his heart wasn't in it. Not like with Ennis, where Jack was willing to go the extra mile, and then another one, and then 1,200 more.

It seems to me that whenever he "went along" other than actively wanted and pursued, it didn't end so well for him.

What do you think?

[ImEnnisShesJack]

Jack Twist.... I am him.

We are hopeless romantics, optimists, dreamers, the glass is half-full.
We are lonely and we crave....love. We want to save and cradle that wounded guy (Ennis in this case).
We are like puppies chasing after you for your approval and attention as Jack went after Ennis,  ex.- after he heard about his divorce.
Only to be shot down because he(Ennis) had his daughters that weekend.
Jack cant hold it in and explodes  like a firecraker- as they are ready to part their ways that last time together in the 1980's.
The sad thing is that sometimes people change when its too late.
There are more Ennis in this world than there are Jacks.

Welcome Andrew and hats off to another "Jack".

We're everything you said and more. (impulsive and hopeful and open and vulnerable)
Unfortunately, as a "Jack" I know all too well that your "ennis" doesn't change in time. 

What do you think would have changed, if anything, on that last camping trip if Ennis had given in a little?  Made a trip to Texas instead of Jack making the trip to Wyoming?  Jack was already involved with Randall at this point...what needed to change and when to have prevented this from happening?  And would it have prevented it?  Jack seemed to be very needy of Ennis - and hornier then all get out at 39. lol - but would Ennis' change of heart stopped Jack from having the affair with Randall???