Topic: Why that Shirt?

[tpe]

I agree with WW.  There is an intrinsic feel that the shirts were some kind of relic.  The term gives an almost religious feel to their love -- a sense of sacredness for the profane. 

Ennis's shirt is akin to martyr's robe stained in blood.  For Jack, it probably had the power to evoke the actual person  and his "passion" (i.e., suffering) like nothing else -- exactly the same sensibility that informs the popular cult of relics.

[manhattangirl]

It may have seem that Jack and Ennis at times were battling each other, but they were fighting for the same thing in different ways.   Ennis was more of a conformist, his love for Jack had to fall within the parameters of his conformity, but Jack totally went by faith, faith in his love for Ennis, he believed deeply that Ennis would come around understand, and spent most of his life doing just that faithfully believing in Ennis.  

Ennis didn't understand Jack's faith until after his death, and inherited it and carried on with that same ritual Jack had.    The blood stained shirts were a symbol of Jack's love he left behind, and Ennis's love for Jack continued this faith based ritual.    

[aintfoolin]

Indeed MG. I feel the shirts were *spiritual* to Jack. One was his , the other, his soulmate's. They hung together in Jack's closet as they hung together for 20 years fighting a battle that Jack had personally won back in "63" . His love for Ennis and his faith refused to let him give up on Ennis.  Though he fell to hate and misunderstanding Jack went down standing up, for what he believed was right. A soldier in the army of freedom, justice, and acceptance .  He is to be remembered and admired for it...and I do.