Physical Space In Brokeback Mountain

1453 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Concept of gender and gender and sexuality in literature

Man is constantly in a battle over physical space. Physical space has the ability to define many things in a person’s life. Where a person lives has the ability to dictate their everyday life. Literature in particular, is obsessed by the idea of physical space. The physical space that an author presents in story has the ability to create much more than a setting. Physical space has the ability to define a character and their life choices. In the novel Never Let Me Go written by Kazuo Ishiguro and the short story BrokeBack Mountain written by Anne Proulx the concept of space is manipulated by the author’s to help the storyline. Furthermore, the characters in both pieces, allow space to dictate their decisions and actions. Space has the ability
In the story, the reader is aware; the two main characters are gay. However, in the 1963 setting of the piece, the society and town the two men are in do not accept homosexuality. Therefore, space plays a strong role in allowing the two men to live their lives. When the two men were leaving BrokeBack Mountain for the summer, Ennis suddenly started to feel ill as he was driving away from Jack. “ Within a mile Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts out hand over hand a yard at a time…He felt about as bad as he ever had and it took a long time for the feeling to wear off”( Proulx). Those few lines describing Ennis feeling of sickness are extremely important. They are important because they happen right in the transition between the free open space of the mountains and the confined space of the town. Ennis was not experiencing pain due to illness, but rather he was coming to the reality of the world he lived in. When Ennis and Jack were not on the mountain together, they were unable to have the same relationship. The society Ennis and Jack live in prevents the two of them from being together. The societal pressure is dictating how the two men have to live their
This creates an interesting dynamic within both pieces, because space ends up defining the characters actions. In BrokeBack Mountain, the scenes that take place in the open spaces truly give the piece its identity. In the open spaces of the mountain, the two men can be gay and not have to worry about any societal repercussions. On the mountain they were alone, “There were only two of them on the mountain, flying in euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawks’ back and the crawling lights vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs… They believed themselves invisible…”(Proulx). This excerpt from BrokeBack Mountain truly shows the freedom that opens space provide to the characters. Proulx diction and word choice also contribute to the underlying meaning. For example, Proulx chose to reference a bird and more specifically a hawk. Birds have always been associated with freedom and the ability to be free in space; there are no restrictions on how birds act. Additionally, the fact that Proulx chooses a hawk out of all the other birds is very interesting. Hawks, too many, are not a very glamorous bird, and when most people think of a bird flying freely over the mountains they picture an eagle. Hawks, just like Jack and Ennis’s relationship, are not as sought after in the society they live in. However, in the mountains both the hawk, Jack,

Show More
Related

  • The Riders

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    An individual’s ‘Sense of Place’ is predominantly their place of belonging and acceptance in the world, may it be through a strong physical, emotional or spiritual connection. In Tim Winton’s novel ‘The Riders”, the concept of Sense of Place is explored through the desperate journey of its protagonist, Fred Scully. Scully’s elaborate search for identity throughout the novel is guided and influenced by the compulsive love he feels for his wife Jennifer and their family morals, the intensity of hope and the destruction it can cause and the nostalgic nature of Winton’s writing. Two quotes which reflect the ideals of a person’s Sense of Place are “Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.’(Aldous Huxley) and “It is not down in any map. True places never are.” (Herman Melville). Huxley and Melville’s statements closely resemble Fred Scully’s journey and rectify some of his motivations throughout the text.

    Read More

  • Brutal Wyoming

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Annie Proulx’s work Close Range she tells stories that emphasize the rugged landscape of Wyoming and how it has shaped the characters in her short stories. In the short story “A Lonely Coast” Proulx uses the Narrator and her friend Josanna Skiles, as the models for what life is like for a single woman in the rugged, masculine, male-dominated culture of Wyoming. Josanna’s boyfriend Elk functions as the personification of the state of Wyoming, pushing Josanna to her limits until she snaps, just like the landscape of Wyoming pushes its residents to the point that they either leave or die there.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Peculiar Benefits By Roxane Gay

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gay begins her article by first mentioning how her parents took her on an unexpected trip which educated her for the future. Since Gay was a child when she witnessed all the poverty and uncleanliness of the

    Read More

  • Examples Of Nonverbal Norms

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are two important areas in this research- territoriality and use of personal space, all while each have an important bearing on the kinds of messages we send as we use space. Standing at least three feet apart from someone is a norm for personal space.

    Read More

  • I Like Guys

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    The topic of homosexuality has become a constant issue throughout our society for many years. Many people believe that being gay is not acceptable for both religious and moral reasons. Because being gay is not accepted, many homosexuals may feel shame or guilt because of the way they live their everyday lives. This in turn can affect how the person chooses to live their life and it can also affect who the person would like to become. Growing up, David Sedaris struggled to find the common ground between being gay as well as being a normal teenager. He often resorted to the conclusion that you could not be both. Sedaris allows us to see things through his young eyes with his personable short story "I Like Guys". Throughout his short story, Sedaris illustrates to the reader what it was like growing up being gay as well as how the complexities of being gay, and the topic of sexuality controlled his lifestyle daily. He emphasizes the shame he once felt for being gay and how that shame has framed him into the person he has become.

    Read More

  • Setting in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    Confinement intensifies the settings of Life of Pi by Yann Martel and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These stories rely strongly on the element of setting to define the bounds of their freedom and survival as human beings. Both possess similar situations with restrictions because of the place of occurrence, but their interactions with other things vary with their setting. Each characters’ situation corresponds with the other, but differences appear. No matter their setting or interactions, their territories remain beyond their control.

    Read More

  • Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem by Erich Fromm

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... mothers, the ability to pick out their own clothes is different from their mothers choosing what they will wear. What separates us from our parents and our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers—it’s rebellion. The differences between us define us and make us matter. And this begins in childhood. It begins with blue hair dye, blown curfews, and mouthing off. The self needs distance if it is to form.

    Read More

  • The Character of the Husband in Raymond Carver's Story Cathedral

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    The husband describes the moment by saying, "I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything" (357). The previous information of how he saw the world to be and how he sees it now gives him a feeling of a connection with a higher being, more than just Robert. Yet he describes himself being separated (unconnected) from his body, free from this cage that has him materialistic and prejudice to the not-normal. The husband finally sees the world in a more liberal way than what he thought it to be, than what the stereotypes of society told him it was.

    Read More

  • What Are The Issues On Indian Reservations?

    1918 Words  | 4 Pages

    The characters in this novel are impacted by the conditions of the Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota on which they live. The issues of domestic violence and poverty continually plague the characters in this novel, as they do in real life. Along with conflict, traditional customs and beliefs unite the characters in the novel Love Medicine. For example, the death of June Morrissey, Albertine’s aunt, brings the Kashpaw and Lamartine families together, all back onto the Reservation. On the night of this gathering, King attempts to drown his wife Lynette, who’s white, in the kitchen sink (Erdrich 41). Albertine hurries form where she is outside to see what’s going on and she tries to pull King off of Lynette but isn’t strong enough ( 41). She eventually bites King’s ear and he releases his grip on Lynette (41). The fact that King was horribly drunk caused this incident, he’s usually quite drunk. As a result of this chaos, the pies that had been made for the next day had been destroyed and Albertine describes her attempt to put them back together, “I worked carefully for over an hour. But once they smash there is no way to put them right.” (Erdrich 42). This symbolism represents the hopelessness that many people feel when destruction occurs. They don’t feel that

    Read More

  • Book Review: Borrowed Time By Paul Monette

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Borrowed time is a book written by Paul Monette, Paul writes about his lover and companion Roger who has been diagnosed with AIDS and is dieing from this disease. Paul has written every detail about everyday they've had to deal with this battle. The couple was always happy because they had health. Gay marriage is very common now adays and there are younger generations of gay men today. Many gay couples are more likely to obtain Aids. Love struck the author and he decided to write a book about his lover and life companion. There was many events that this couple struggles through.The author said he remembered nothing in his diary in December 1981 he thought it was reports of gay cancer then adds, but he knew he didn't know a thing about cancer. Gay cancer did not exist and a couple of months later ,driving to Palm Springs to visit Roger’s parents, Paul read out loud the title from a gay magazine article that said "Is Sex Making Us Sick?" He felt as if this statement was true but that what couples did they had intimacy or in other words sex. He thought that it was a disease that targeted gay men but there is no disease that targets people because of their sexuality.

    Read More

  • Culture: It Makes Us Who We Are

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    Irwin, Mary. “Sense of Place”. Interview by Interview by Mrs. Thibo’s H-English 10 class. 12 May 2010.

    Read More

  • Kazu Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Kazu Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, he choices to depict children as outsiders to the world which can be furthered by the setting in Britain’s countryside because it helps give a sense distance from true reality. In the framework throughout his novel Ishiguro focuses on three main characters Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy. These three students are seen by others to have an advantage because they were lucky enough to be raised at Hailsham by the guardians. Over the watchful eye of the Guardians the children were able to grow accustom to being different than others. This can be seen when the characters all mature and grow after they leave Hailsham and become accustomed to life at the cottages. There newly found freedoms at the cottages lead them to question many of their previous schooling standards and beliefs. These freedoms can be seen by every student trying to hold on to their sense of individuality through small and random collections. This suggests that humans attempt to create an appearance through their own belongings and incorporate into their own lives. The students at Hailsham are encouraged to seek creativity and individuality in the things they create which could include sculptures, paintings or poems. These many collections that each student holds close to themselves offers them a small chance for control in their life because they can pick and choose the pieces they would like to incorporate into their individual collections.

    Read More

  • Explaining Sacred Space in The Sacred & The Profane: A Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    Space is something everyone experiences. However Eliade points out that different people have different reactions to the spatial aspect of the world. A profane man may experience space/spaces homogenously, “ no break qualitatively differentiates the various parts of its mass.” (pg. 22). For an example a profane man might classify a mall and church in the same way because he sees no religious value within them, but he then could regard a hospital sacred because that may be the place of his birth (in page 24 Eliade such sacredness is worthless). A religious man, on the other hand, could look at that same space, a mall and a church, and differentiate the sacred space, also known as the cosmos, from the profane space, also known as the chaos. In this case the religious man would classify the church as sacred place because it has some holy value and the mall as the profane space because it has no holy value at all. In clearer terms the the profane space is h...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: We Should All Be Feminist

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    Portraying the characters rejection to conformity, American literature illustrates the distinctive following of one's own standards. From what has been analyzed previously, the authors are trying to display a message of change through the characters words and actions. Many times it is apparent that the characters are in there times of most comfort when they are acting in such that makes them their own being, stepping aside from the standards of the rest of society. Writers try to express the importance of stepping outside of that comfort zone in order to grow and develop as a human being. How will one ever know who they are if they conform to be what everyone is told to be? The biggest advocate of rejecting the norms of America is Chris McCandless.

    Read More

  • Accepting Fate

    2046 Words  | 5 Pages

    Never Let Me Go is a mysterious story to the reader at first, but as they begin to get more in-depth, find out it’s more than one could think. Kazuo Ishiguro’s vivid imagination reflects well into his book Never Let Me Go, as the book explores one’s own morality into real life as they read it. Kazuo Ishiguro reflects the ideas of Post-Modernism and his own life and imagination through Never Let Me Go, which explores the morality of humans and their fate.

    Read More

More about Physical Space In Brokeback Mountain

Open Document