Brokeback Mountain (Proulx)
Short Summary
Wyoming, 1963. Two young ranch hands met while working as sheep herders on Brokeback Mountain.
During their summer job, they developed an intense romantic relationship. After the season ended, they parted ways. Ennis married his fiancée Alma and had two daughters, while Jack married a wealthy Texas woman named Lureen and had a son. Four years later, Jack contacted Ennis, and they rekindled their relationship, meeting a few times each year for 'fishing trips.'
Tell you what, we could a had a good life together, a fuckin real good life. You wouldn't do it, Ennis, so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everything built on that. It's all we got, boy.
Their secret relationship continued for twenty years, though Ennis refused Jack's dreams of them living together, fearing violent repercussions. Alma divorced Ennis after discovering their affair. Years later, Ennis learned that Jack had died, allegedly in an accident, though Ennis suspected he was murdered for his sexuality. After Jack's death, Ennis discovered that Jack had kept their old shirts nested together as a memorial of their love. He hung the shirts in his trailer alongside a postcard of Brokeback Mountain, creating his own shrine to their relationship.
Detailed Summary
Summary sections do not match original text structure.
Summer on Brokeback Mountain
In 1963, two young ranch hands met while seeking work in Wyoming. Both were high school dropouts with dreams of saving money for their own ranches.
They were hired to tend sheep on Brokeback Mountain - Jack as herder and Ennis as camp tender. Their boss gave strict instructions about maintaining separate camps, with Jack required to sleep with the sheep.
As they worked together on the mountain, Jack and Ennis developed a close friendship. One cold night, after drinking whiskey, they shared an intimate encounter in their tent. Though initially conflicted, with Ennis claiming he wasn't 'queer' and Jack agreeing it was a one-time thing, their relationship deepened throughout the summer.
They believed themselves invisible, not knowing Joe Aguirre had watched them through his 10x42 binoculars for ten minutes one day, waiting until they'd buttoned up their jeans, waiting until Ennis rode back to the sheep.
Their time on Brokeback Mountain was marked by intense passion and connection, though they never openly discussed their feelings. The summer ended abruptly when a storm threatened and Aguirre ordered them to bring the sheep down early. Their parting was brief and awkward, with both men feeling the weight of their unspoken emotions.
What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close.
Separation and Marriage Years
After parting, both men moved forward with their planned lives. Ennis married his fiancée Alma in December and had their first daughter by January.
Meanwhile, Jack pursued rodeo work in Texas, where he met and married Lureen, the daughter of a wealthy farm equipment dealer. They had a son together, though Jack struggled with his son's learning difficulties and his father-in-law's disapproval.
Four years after their summer on Brokeback Mountain, Jack sent Ennis a postcard saying he was passing through. Their reunion was passionate and immediate, leading to a night in a local motel. During their conversation, Jack suggested they could have a life together on a small ranch, but Ennis refused, haunted by a childhood memory of a gay rancher who was brutally murdered.
Friend, we got us a fuckin situation here. Got a figure out what to do... I doubt there's nothin now we can do. What I'm sayin, Jack, I built a life up in them years. Love my little girls.
Secret Meetings and Final Loss
Over the next twenty years, Jack and Ennis met a few times each year for 'fishing trips.' These meetings were their only chance to be together, though the arrangement left Jack increasingly frustrated. Meanwhile, Ennis's marriage to Alma ended in divorce after she witnessed an intimate moment between him and Jack.
Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable—admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears—rose around them.
Their last meeting was tense, with Jack expressing his frustration about their limited time together and his trips to Mexico, which prompted a jealous reaction from Ennis. The conversation ended unresolved, with both men unable to bridge the gap between what they wanted and what seemed possible.
Months later, Ennis's postcard to Jack was returned stamped 'DECEASED.' When he called Jack's house, Lureen informed him that Jack had died in an accident while changing a tire. However, Ennis suspected Jack had been murdered, beaten to death with a tire iron.
Grief-stricken, Ennis traveled to Jack's childhood home to meet his parents and offer to fulfill Jack's wish to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain.
In Jack's childhood bedroom, Ennis discovered their old shirts nested together on a hanger, preserved from their summer on Brokeback Mountain.
The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack's sleeves. It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he'd thought, long ago in some damn laundry.
Jack's father refused to release the ashes, insisting Jack would be buried in the family plot. Ennis took the nested shirts home and hung them with a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. In his trailer, he would sometimes wake from dreams of Jack, experiencing both grief and joy, understanding that some things couldn't be fixed, only endured.
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.