Topic: Why Joe Aguirre didn’t expose two boys?

[aintfoolin]

Just got done reading the back and forth comments of this thread. Yes Aguirre was a business man but what's with the humiliation? What's up with that?. Jack had worked for him two years in a row and yes there were some losses in those years but as Jack explained he could not control lightning storms. 42 sheep were killed the previous year but yet he hired Jack again.  It was not until he decided to spy on them one day that he found them enjoying a little" free time." that all of a sudden they're not fit do his dirty work for him anymore. Why he  did'nt expose them may have something to do with the illeagal way that he ran the thing. Might he have feared that Jack and Ennis would report his illeagle business practices or in anyway prompt any investigation by the Forest service.  He could never know,.  In my opinion he turned against them both over what he saw that day. And yes the cheap shot about"stemming the rose" and being no good ranch stiffs,  was meant to embarrass and humiliate because of the gay aspect,  and for that reason he is not a very nice peson but I don't hate him. although he came across as a homophobe.  He just SUCKS as a boss.

[welshwitch]

If he was employing people from an agency that suggests he couldn't get anyone local to work for him, so maybe he was paying low wages, imposing demanding ( and illegal) conditions and ending up with people desperate for a job. He knows himslef that what he's doing is illegal, hence he's angry and defensive anyway - I suppose in theory he could have been reported to the Forest Service and that would have caused him problems. He's one of those people who seem to be permananetly angry with the world - he's not just unpleasant to Jack and Ennis ,but when on the phone to someone else too. He may well be homophobic - he also seems to be people-phobic.

[greenfrog]

Great post Welshwitch 

I agree with what you said, Aguirre doesn't seem to be a people person.

[BBBOY]

Right, Aguirre was most definately not a people person. He strikes me as one of those types who is so tied up in his business affairs that everything else is left by the wayside. I doubt he was a homophobe, just pissed that the boys were shirking their duties.

[greenfrog]

Right, Aguirre was most definately not a people person. He strikes me as one of those types who is so tied up in his business affairs that everything else is left by the wayside. I doubt he was a homophobe, just pissed that the boys were shirking their duties.

Probably . . . I don't think he really cared about what else they did as long as they did their job.

[Mahogany]

I really like Aguirre, at first view he is supposed to be a disgusting homophobic man, but he is not.
He waits the guys finish what they are doing and then he goes to tell Jack about the uncle.
He didn't even suggest that Jack should leave the mountain, he says there's nothing Jack could do down there.
He shows up some days later to tell that Jack's uncle didn't die and bring down the sheep because of the storm.
Down the mountain, he is really disappointed about the sheep, but never tries to humiliate Jack and Ennis.

He doesn't hire Jack again in 1964, because Jack really wasn't a good employee , and wasn't getting paid to leave the dogs baby sitting the sheep.

Aguirre only cared about the sheep.

[bluemountainsky]

I always wondered why Aguirre didn't just fire them when he first saw them. Maybe it was too late to find anyone else to fill the job, so he let the stay till the end of their term. Actually, I also thought that him letting them go early, almost a month early, had something to do with him finding out. When Jack comes back the following year, it's clear that Aguirre doesn't want Jack to work for him again because of Jack's homosexuality. I wonder if Aguirre ever told other people about them, maybe he did. I tend to think there were whispers among people going on about them, that they were unaware of. I just wonder why he didn't let them know he knew when he'd first found out, why did he wait a year till Jack came back to work again and then he basically told him to get out because he didn't want people like him working for him. This is partly because they neglected their work, but also because he is homophobic and didn't want to be associated with some queers as it might tarnish his reputation and business.

[Mahogany]

Not really.
Aguirre orders them to bring down the sheep early because of the storm, the chilean herders bring down their too, because of the storm.
He doesn't hire Jack again because Jack wasn't a good employee and Jack didn't really care about the sheep (as we saw).

What you think is exactly what Ang/Annie meant at first, make us think the guys are victims, but ends up showing us the only person who really prevented them from being together, Ennis Del Mar.

[bluemountainsky]

I know he brought him the down because a big storm was coming, and the main reason he didn't hire Jack again was because Jack neglected his work and therefore wouldn't do a good job like Aguirre wanted. However, there was some element of homophobia. As for why he didn't tell anyone, maybe he did tell some of his buddies about, and other people he knew, or casually brought it up in a conversation to make fun of Jack and Ennis like saying "you know last summer I hired these two guys to work for me and turned out they were a couple of queers." I can definitely imagine that.

 But he lived in Signal, so no one there would have known Jack and Ennis, because right after they parted ways Ennis left Signal to go wherever Alma's family lived and Jack went up north to Lightning Flat to his parents' house. Then later, Ennis moved to Riverton and Jack to Texas, so the rumors about Ennis and Jack would have stayed in Signal, no one outside of there would have known. I still wonder why though didn't Aguirre just fire them from the moment he found out...obviously he was angry that they weren't doing their work. So why keep them on for another month? The only answer for that is that it was just to late to hire anyone else, and he had to keep them till the end of term.

 Lucky for him the storm came through, and he had a good excuse then to get rid of them earlier. But I do agree that the main reason that kept Jack and Ennis apart was Ennis himself. Yes, I sympathize with him because I know what kind of society he lived in, and I can completely understand his fears. However, him caring too much about what other people think, and him being in denial make me very frustrated with him, the way poor Jack must have felt, a mixture of love and frustration. Ennis himself was his own worst enemy sometimes.