In case I didn't emphasize this, Ann, I want to re-quote this below, I thought it was so astute:
Another very painful aspect was how deeply imprinted his father's lessons were on Ennis - remember, he lost his father at an early age, before he was old enough to have some rebelliousness, some natural questioning of what he heard. So he carries with him the message that men who love men are unnatural, will be found out, and hounded or even killed. He lives with that terror, cannot for that reason admit to himself that he is one of them, and, on hearing of Jack's death, projects that same fate upon him. [How did Jack really die? In the story, the clear implication is that he was murdered.]
It never occurred to me that the early death of Ennis's father left him no time for opportunities to resist that message, the way a child normally would in his older youth and teen years.
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Re: My two (or more like, fifty) cents worth
Date: 2006-02-07 03:53 am (UTC)Another very painful aspect was how deeply imprinted his father's lessons were on Ennis - remember, he lost his father at an early age, before he was old enough to have some rebelliousness, some natural questioning of what he heard. So he carries with him the message that men who love men are unnatural, will be found out, and hounded or even killed. He lives with that terror, cannot for that reason admit to himself that he is one of them, and, on hearing of Jack's death, projects that same fate upon him. [How did Jack really die? In the story, the clear implication is that he was murdered.]
It never occurred to me that the early death of Ennis's father left him no time for opportunities to resist that message, the way a child normally would in his older youth and teen years.