I'm sure Alma did some thinking about how she was going to handle this new knowledge she picked up by viewing the kiss. She had to weigh the pros and cons. She obviously wasn't ready to give Ennis up at this time -- didn't want to raise two little girls alone -- what could she do? On the other hand, she couldn't feel the same about Ennis as she had before the kiss. What to do? I think she did the only thing she could do -- pretend it didn't happen. However, pretend all she might, she still knew what she had seen. In those days, there would not have been any discussing this issue with Ennis. It would have just been an argument -- denial on Ennis's part, then, if his temper flared up ( as it often did) the scene could have turned nasty. Alma didn' want to chance that. For the time being, she decided to let things go. Kept her mouth shut and lived with her secret knowledge.
Very well said. Perhaps she tried hard to pretend that everything was the same as before. After all, she held on to the marriage for as long as she could. She is quite interesting in her stoicism -- a stoicism not unlike Ennis's, although sometimes, I wonder if her stoicism was more extreme. It was utter humiliation for her. Perhaps her love for him was enormously greater...
I know. Can you imagine the first time they had sex after that incident, how Alma must have felt, thinking about what Ennis had probably done with Jack, if she could imagine it. But anyway, women then, in her kind of situation, so often felt "trapped" when they had young children. It wasn't too long, though, before she found her way and realized she didn't need Ennis. My sister was with a man who turned out to be horrible and abusive, but to her, the idea of trying to make her way alone, with three kids (and she didn't drive) was too much for her. She was also manic-depressive, and died at 38, leaving the kids with him. But wait, my point was, Ennis wasn't horrible and abusive -- he was "just" emotionally neglectful toward Alma. "That's a life?" you could say, but it wasn't overtly horrible anyway.
kathy
