Closing Reading About Gender Rules In Brokeback Mountain

“BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN” LITERARY ANALYSIS AND CLOSE READING
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Introduction
“Brokeback Mountain” is a film that features two men, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist who work in a homophobic town that traces not only their sexual encounters, but also their mutual feelings about various issues there. The whole storyline of the film is based on a love story between two men instead of a man and a woman which introduces the gender rules of the society. The phrase, “if it weren’t two men, no one would care” can be used to show the perspective about the gays in the society surrounded by an old town filled with close-minded people. The paper argues that “Brokeback Mountain” uses various signs and literary elements to clearly represent its themes and intended message to the audience. For instance, the mountain is used to denotatively represent the landscape of the small town while at the same time connotatively representing the sexuality and relationship of the two men.
Analysis
The Brokeback Mountain is portrayed in a physical sense as its casts its shadow on the underlying plains is an idyllic representation of life as Jack and Ennis share their memories of the town. The term “Brokeback” itself is used to portray the hidden meaning of the experience that the two men had in 1963 during summer and all the loss they had to endure. This is because the film does not specifically outline each event but rather uses “Brokeback” to refer to all the feelings and events without specification. This is evident is Jack’s word when he says, “What we got now is Brokeback Mountain”. Because Ennis is familiar with the events and the feelings, the shorthand makes much more sense than a narration of events. The Brokeback Mountain is also seen as it contrasts to the rest of the landscape, the flatlands of Wyoming. This contrast echoes the stark duality between the past and the present, Jack and Ennis, man and woman, resistance and acceptance, life and death.
As Ennis makes a postcard memorial for his dead lover, the event is held at the mountain where the tombstone is and the audience is quickly flashed to the hidden meaning that the men’s relationship was now over and could be buried here. Jack’s quotation, "We could a had a good life together, a fuckin real good life. You wouldn't do it, Ennis, so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain," repeats the word good to emphasize on the awesome life that the two lovers would experience together. But Ennis is adamant into staying in Brokeback and their love cannot be resurrected. As such, Brokeback Mountain is used to represent the permanent sad story of the love between the two.
Mountains are always considered to represent higher achievements. The mountain can therefore be thought to present the yearning to rise above all that is lif...