{"id":433,"date":"2021-03-04T22:59:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T03:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/?p=433"},"modified":"2021-03-04T22:59:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T03:59:45","slug":"fire-metaphor-in-brokeback-mountain-the-importance-of-queer-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/2021\/03\/04\/fire-metaphor-in-brokeback-mountain-the-importance-of-queer-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Metaphor in Brokeback Mountain: The Importance of Queer Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annie Proulx\u2019s <\/span>Brokeback Mountain<\/span><\/i> is chock full of natural simile and metaphor, but perhaps the most consistent natural metaphor is fire, as it represents Jack and Ennis\u2019 romance. At the beginning of the novella, Jack viewed Ennis as \u201cnight fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain\u201d (Proulx 9). This is meant to symbolize that Jack is beginning to feel desire for specifically Ennis, and no one else. When their relationship deepens further than friendship, the bed is described as \u201cdeep enough, warm enough, and in a little while their intimacy deepened considerably\u2026 Jack seized [Ennis\u2019] left hand and brought it to his cock. Ennis jerked away as if he\u2019d touched fire\u2026\u201d (Proulx 14). It is important to notice that the bed is described as deep and warm, which are the same conditions needed to kindle a fire. Yet fire itself is only described when Ennis touches Jack, meaning that the \u201cfire\u201d is something that happens specifically between them.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the first time Ennis and Jack have sex, fire imagery and metaphor broadens itself to Brokeback mountain\u2019s environment. \u201cThey never talked about sex, let it happen, at first only in the tent at night, then in full daylight with the hot sun striking down, and at evening in the fire glow\u2026\u201d (Proulx 15). At this point, Proulx is describing a fire metaphor that exists in natural imagery, which is somewhat broader than Jack and Ennis\u2019s relationship. Yet even with natural imagery\u2019s involvement, Proulx only draws comparisons to fire when Jack and Ennis have sex, meaning that Jack and Ennis are now immersed in this personal, romantic, and passionate world they had the freedom to create on Brokeback mountain.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Natural metaphor has appeared frequently in our assigned readings but each element is used to describe the queer community through a different lens. Adrienne Rich uses water metaphor in her poem <\/span>Study of History<\/span><\/i>, as the river she writes about represents both the individual queer body and queer community (see my first blog post for a deeper analysis). However, <\/span>Study of History <\/span><\/i>never focuses on relationships or interactions between queer people. Fire metaphor in <\/span>Brokeback Mountain<\/span><\/i> seemingly fills in the gaps that water metaphor leaves behind; it acknowledges the beauty of queer connections, queer relationships, and queer romances. Bodies of water, such as rivers, seem to last as long as time; they erode and divert channels to freely flow into horizons we cannot see the end of. Yet fires are kindled in very intimate, specific conditions, and burn brightly before fizzling out. While it is important to study queerness as an individual or communal body, acknowledging the brightly burning, unique relationships that queer bodies create adds a new level of depth and beauty to analyzing what it means to be queer. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annie Proulx\u2019s Brokeback Mountain is chock full of natural simile and metaphor, but perhaps the most consistent natural metaphor is fire, as it represents Jack and Ennis\u2019 romance. At the beginning of the novella, Jack viewed Ennis as \u201cnight fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain\u201d (Proulx 9). This is meant … Continue reading Fire Metaphor in Brokeback Mountain: The Importance of Queer Relationships<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}