Physical Space In Brokeback Mountain

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Recommended: Concept of gender and gender and sexuality in literature

Man is constantly in a battle over physical space. Physical space has the ability to define many things in a person’s life. Where a person lives has the ability to dictate their everyday life. Literature in particular, is obsessed by the idea of physical space. The physical space that an author presents in story has the ability to create much more than a setting. Physical space has the ability to define a character and their life choices. In the novel Never Let Me Go written by Kazuo Ishiguro and the short story BrokeBack Mountain written by Anne Proulx the concept of space is manipulated by the author’s to help the storyline. Furthermore, the characters in both pieces, allow space to dictate their decisions and actions. Space has the ability
In the story, the reader is aware; the two main characters are gay. However, in the 1963 setting of the piece, the society and town the two men are in do not accept homosexuality. Therefore, space plays a strong role in allowing the two men to live their lives. When the two men were leaving BrokeBack Mountain for the summer, Ennis suddenly started to feel ill as he was driving away from Jack. “ Within a mile Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts out hand over hand a yard at a time…He felt about as bad as he ever had and it took a long time for the feeling to wear off”( Proulx). Those few lines describing Ennis feeling of sickness are extremely important. They are important because they happen right in the transition between the free open space of the mountains and the confined space of the town. Ennis was not experiencing pain due to illness, but rather he was coming to the reality of the world he lived in. When Ennis and Jack were not on the mountain together, they were unable to have the same relationship. The society Ennis and Jack live in prevents the two of them from being together. The societal pressure is dictating how the two men have to live their
This creates an interesting dynamic within both pieces, because space ends up defining the characters actions. In BrokeBack Mountain, the scenes that take place in the open spaces truly give the piece its identity. In the open spaces of the mountain, the two men can be gay and not have to worry about any societal repercussions. On the mountain they were alone, “There were only two of them on the mountain, flying in euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawks’ back and the crawling lights vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs… They believed themselves invisible…”(Proulx). This excerpt from BrokeBack Mountain truly shows the freedom that opens space provide to the characters. Proulx diction and word choice also contribute to the underlying meaning. For example, Proulx chose to reference a bird and more specifically a hawk. Birds have always been associated with freedom and the ability to be free in space; there are no restrictions on how birds act. Additionally, the fact that Proulx chooses a hawk out of all the other birds is very interesting. Hawks, too many, are not a very glamorous bird, and when most people think of a bird flying freely over the mountains they picture an eagle. Hawks, just like Jack and Ennis’s relationship, are not as sought after in the society they live in. However, in the mountains both the hawk, Jack,

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