Jacks parents
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Rontrigger — 9 years ago(November 28, 2016 12:52 PM)
It seems clear to me that Jack's parents knew what his relationship with Ennis was. But they seemed to have different reactions to it.
Jack's father seemed to focus on the fact that Jack, despite his constant promises, never brought Ennis to help "lick this ranch into shape." Old Man Twist (OMT) seemed more mean than dumb, so I'd have to say that he knew what it would have meant had Jack and Ennis moved up to remote Lightning Flat and built a cabin for the two of them. It didn't seem to meet with his approval necessarily, but clearly he had his priorities.
Jack's mother, on the other hand, seemed more accepting of the relationship. Note that when she invited Ennis to go up to Jack's room, she gently pushed his shoulderpractically ordering him to go up there. And that's where the shirts were; although they were tucked into a "jog" in the closet wall, it doesn't seem possible that their existence could have been hidden from Mrs. Twist all those yearsespecially since she looked up from her coffee with an approving look on her face when Ennis returned to the kitchen with the shirts. ("Good, you found them," is what many people on here have speculated was in her mind at that moment.)
"You can't have Ennis without Jack."Annie Proulx -
tinasparklesau — 9 years ago(January 23, 2017 04:12 PM)
I agree, but i think the father's reaction was due to more than just Jack's promises that never came to pass. I think it's clear they both knew Jack was gay and had a relationship with Ennis and didn't like it but still accepted it (the mother more so). At first i found it odd that Jack's father divulged so much information to Ennis, but what i took from it was that he at least in part blamed Ennis for his son's death (by proxy maybe but still saw him as being the person who could have avoided it). Imo Jack's father believed his son was lynched and believed that if Ennis had come up to the ranch when Jack was always talking about him, it never would have happened. It was only until Jack started talking about this 'other fella' that was going to come with him instead, that his son ended up dead. So he's bitter at Ennis I could almost hear his cranky old man inner dialogue grumbling "If you had just come up here when Jack was talking about it all the time, he'd still be alive today". He told him what he did because he wanted Ennis to know that not only was he aware of their 'lifestyles' but he was disappointed in Ennis for whatever he did to cause Jack to look elsewhere, culminating in his death.
I can't add much regarding the mother, she knew too and was more accepting. I think she wanted to understand her son better, knew that Ennis had made her son happy for a long time and probably hoped that he would come back - through Ennis, she may have been able to understand her son more, maybe ease some of her own guilt/regrets by showing Ennis acceptance and openness. I'm not sure how deep one could go into her psychology with just the shirts and a couple of sentences though. But to me the father was more "i'd rather have a gay son than a dead son".