Topic: Jack's postcards *spoilers*

[masetane]

I think he meant that he was driving through on his way to see his folks.  After 4 years, he probably got the courage to write and see if he was around....

[tpe]

I think he meant that he was driving through on his way to see his folks.  After 4 years, he probably got the courage to write and see if he was around....

This poses another interesting and related question: did Jack visit Wyoming regularly during the intervening 4 years, and did he intentionally made sure not to search for Ennis?

My feeling is that he did not go back to Wyoming during the 4 years.  I think he was trying to escape the sadness of being parted from Ennis, and life a spurned lover, moves to a different place to go on a fresh start.

I do think that he perhaps visited his parents then in order to see them after his marriage and the birth of his son.  But in the back of my mind, I think the pimary reason was to re-establish connections with Ennis once more.

[welshwitch]

I think he must have visited his parents regularly, but after the first summer he did go back to Brokeback, or at least back to Aguirre and discovered that Ennis hadn't been there - he was obviously thinking about seeing him again. After that he got involved in rodeoing, then he met and married Lureen and Bobby was born. Maybe he tried to put it all out of his mind, then when he saw LD's attitude to him - once Jack had fathered a son he was essentially irrelevant in LD's view -  maybe he thought it was worth one last try.

[tpe]

I think he must have visited his parents regularly, but after the first summer he did go back to Brokeback, or at least back to Aguirre and discovered that Ennis hadn't been there - he was obviously thinking about seeing him again. After that he got involved in rodeoing, then he met and married Lureen and Bobby was born. Maybe he tried to put it all out of his mind, then when he saw LD's attitude to him - once Jack had fathered a son he was essentially irrelevant in LD's view -  maybe he thought it was worth one last try.

WW, so you think that during the 4 intervening years, Jack didn't visit his parents?  Sorry if this isn't clear to me...

[welshwitch]

Yes, I'm sure he must have gone back in between the summer of '63 and the summer of '67. For instance, what about that year he tells Ennis he nearly starved? (?1964 or 5?) And he must surely have gone back to tell them he was getting married, if not to invite them to the wedding. I just assumed that he visited Aguirre the second year on his way to or from LF, then after that was too tied up with rodeoing, getting married and being involved ( or not) in Lureen's pregnancy and giving birth to do more than go up quickly now and again. Once the baby was born, LD and his wife made it pretty clear he was redundant in their opinion; that's when I think he both felt more of a need for Ennis and had time to try to make contact.

[tpe]

Yes, I'm sure he must have gone back in between the summer of '63 and the summer of '67. For instance, what about that year he tells Ennis he nearly starved? (?1964 or 5?) And he must surely have gone back to tell them he was getting married, if not to invite them to the wedding. I just assumed that he visited Aguirre the second year on his way to or from LF, then after that was too tied up with rodeoing, getting married and being involved ( or not) in Lureen's pregnancy and giving birth to do more than go up quickly now and again. Once the baby was born, LD and his wife made it pretty clear he was redundant in their opinion; that's when I think he both felt more of a need for Ennis and had time to try to make contact.

manhattangirl also seemed to have turned me around on this point.  Jack would have probably visited his parents during the 4 years if onle to see the shirts.  Hence, the postcard mus have indeed been sent during one such trip to visit his parents -- probably his first after his marraige and the birth of Bobby.

[welshwitch]

I have a feeling too that Jack always saw LF, despite his father's presence, as a bolt-hole. In Childress he was almost totally dependent on the goodwill of LD ( and Lureen of course); if he were to lose that and be pushed out he still had somewhere to go.