Brokeback mountain

The theme to be discussed is deterioration in relationship. Ideally speaking, a marriage is supposed to be couples’ opening their heart to each other. They share each other’s happiness and burden. However, not only does not the couple Ennis and Alma do so, but also develop a ‘care-nothing’ attitude. When a relationship deteriorates to a certain extent, it can only be called off instead of being worse.

At the very beginning, the relationship between Ennis and Alma was already so-so, without passion and much care. Ennis claimed to find a job in order to earn money, which to Ennis is not a necessary as the narrative goes ‘in Ennis’s case that meant a tobacco can with two five-dollar bills inside’. Ennis can afford his luxury. Finding a job is a bonus and is just to escape from all-day face to face living with his fiancé.

As time goes by, what can be seen in the marriage of Ennis is the ascending level of Alma’s hatred. An example is that Alma had always to work in order to ‘keep ahead of the bills on what Ennis made’ which Ennis seemed taking granted for it and care little about making a living for his family (14). Another example is Alma’s rejections to having sex with Ennis for one of the reasons is due to the practical issue – they cannot afford it. ‘Alma asked Ennis to use rubbers because she dreaded another pregnancy. He said no to that, said he would be happy to leave her alone if she didn’t want any more of his kids.’ Not only is Ennis being selfish indulging himself to sensual pleasure, but also his despise to Alma treating her nearly like a sex slave.

Furthermore, Ennis’ ignorance to the family is which finally turned Alma’s hatred to indifference, if not acceptance. The first incident is that Ennis rejected indirectly the idea of moving near a clinic even though the second child is suffering from asthma. Trivialities which shows he places more value on others (namely Jack) than his family are never travel with Alma and the daughters, ‘never bringing any trouts home’ (15) even upon request etc. Worse still, Ennis’s indifference to the family became too explicit that he didn’t even care to cover for his lie – Ennis’s claim of catching a bunch of fish but note in the case was never used.