“What Jack remembered and craved in a way he
could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback
when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace
satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.
…. Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat,
the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into
sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis,
dredging up a rusty but still useable phrase from the childhood time before his
mother died, said “Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you’re
sleepin on your feet like a horse,” and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off
in the darkness. Jack heard his spurs tremble as he mounted, the words “see you
tomorrow,” and the horse’s shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone.
Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his
memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and
difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not
then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that is
was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they’d never go much farther than
that. Let be, let be. “(Proulx 278-279)
In Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, this passage portrays the last
time lovers Jack and Ennis meet before Jack’s tragic death. It’s a really
poignant and beautiful scene within the story, and ties a lot of things
together. Jack longs for what once was, during his and Ennis’ summer up on
Brokeback Mountain. This moment in time is put up against his present, which,
even though it is irrevocably different, and Ennis can’t look him in the face
as they embrace because he can’t accept his own sexuality, is similar in some
ways, even if they are superficial. Jack views it “as the single moment of
artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives.” Despite how
they’ve aged and grown apart, this is a happy moment for them, and one of the
few that they’ve had since their summer on Brokeback Mountain. And he accepts
that Ennis may not be able to do more than embrace him from behind, because
that is all that he needs. That is how much he cares for Ennis, and I think
that this is just a really beautiful passage for all of its simplicity.
