Ennis may not be the salesman that Jack was, he was no isolated loner. He had a friend willing to let him and Jack use the cabin. He was acquainted with Alma's boss when he went to drop off the kids. He could be social and had social graces when necessary. He was just not interested, being caught up in fantasies of Jack. After all, before the two met on Brokeback, it was Ennis who had a fiancée, not Jack. It was Ennis who managed to snag the young Cassie, while Jack, though the extrovert and social butterfly, had to go to Mexico. He wasn't too social with the rodeo clown either. We are never too sure about him and Randall in the end. Jack was all show and little substance, while Ennis was the quiet one getting the job done, with sheep and with women, and with men, too, platonically.
The reason the two got off so well together on Brokeback was because they fitted each other perfectly. The clowning yet inwardly insecure Jack enjoyed the laconic yet self-confident Ennis. The two fitted together like hand in glove, or two shirts one inside the other.
I disagree. Ennis was a loner, even his name means that he was an island, but that doesn't mean that his life was empty. He had the most important person, Jack. And Ennis just did not like being around many people. He valued his solititude, and only wanted to be around Jack. When Jack wasn't around, Ennis could be alone for months, it didn't bother him. He didn't need socializing to fulfill him. In fact, Ennis is was probably one of those people whom would get a headache after socializing and need to recharge alone. Also, Ennis was a person who didn't go actively seeking, he waited for things to come to him. Sure, Ennis had acquaintances, but what human being doesn't? He did not live on desert island.He talked enough as was necessary. It's clear he was an introvert, and he was very shy around people until he got to know them. His life took a turn when he met Jack where he met someone he clicked with on such a profound level that Ennis felt comfortable around him so that he laughed and talked and behaved like more of an extrovert. However, this behavior was only reserved for Jack. Around everyone else, Ennis just wanted to be left alone. It was a combination of him being shy and introverted and him simply wanting to be left alone. Whatever acquaintance he had with this Don Wroe guy (who might have been one of his bosses), it wasn't some friendship where they hang out together.
As for being acquainted with Monroe, well it was the only grocery store in their area, and Ennis probably went there to buy things often. Of course he would have made a bit of small talk with Monroe at some point. It doesn't mean he was actually friends with him. They were just acquainted, as any grocery store clerk/manager would be acquainted with frequent, local customers. I would describe myself as an introvert, but I make small talk with a few people who work at the grocery store I go to a few times a week. They see me so often, that it was bound they talk to me at some point. As for Ennis having a fiancee...does it ever occur that the reason Jack was not engaged to a woman is because he did not want to be? Jack had a better understanding of who he was. He knew he was attracted to men, and he certainly did not try to kid himself about that fact. It makes sense why Jack, who was more open about his orientation, would not be engaged to a woman.
Even afterwards, when he goes to Texas, he tries to hit it off with a man (Jimbo), until Lureen comes onto him, and he sees it as a good opportunity because her family had money, and he wasn't able to make a living rodeoing, and probably did not want to return home to his father (who saw him as a loser). It makes sense that Ennis would be the one to get engaged at a young age. His sister got married and left for another town. So did his brother. He probably had attended church socials with his siblings, and hence he met Alma, a nice church-going girl. "That's the most I've talked in a year." Shows how he barely knew Alma or talked to her...clearly he'd known her for some months before his Brokeback summer, but clearly he was just doing what is expected of him when he got engaged to her. As for Cassie, well I thought the film made it obvious that she was the one who snagged him. He clearly didn't want to be bothered by her, but she came on so strong, and Ennis just really wasn't such an assertive person (I know he's assertive around Alma and such, but so much of what he showed outwardly was just a facade). It's clear to me that Cassie saw Ennis, had been wanting him for a while, and went up and got him. (Cassie is basically the female Jack). When he wanted her to leave him alone, he hides from her and ignores her, rather than just telling her outright that he does not want to see her anymore. Plus, I find the reason he agreed to her advances in the first place was to try and prove to himself, once again, in yet another futile attempt, that he "was no queer". There was also the timing. Cassie came along some months after the Thanksgiving outing by Alma, this is the time that the rumors about Ennis would have been flying around Riverton, hence Ennis outright telling Jack that he felt that people around town knew about him.
That's not what an assertive person would do. Throughout the story and film, Ennis is shown as the introvert, shy, quiet, withdrawn, with only Jack having the key to unlock him. I would describe him as an isolated loner, and I also feel that he did not mind it. He was content with a few close relationships in his life (Jack, of course, and later his daughter Alma Junior, and perhaps Jack's mother). That's typical introvert right there. They have very close relationships with very few people, not a bunch of casual relationships with many people. I would also say that Ennis being so shy and introverted had a lot to do with his upbringing, the society/culture he lived in, how his father treated him, and his reaction to it. Jack grew up in the same type of culture, and also had an abusive father, but reacted differently, instead of closing himself off to the rest of the world like Ennis did. I would also say that Ennis is the completely opposite of self-confident.
He was an extremely insecure person, in so many ways. His angry outbursts demonstrate that. I think the best examples of this is how Ennis reacted to Alma when she outed him, or anytime he felt people knew the truth about him, versus how Jack reacted. Ennis reacted like he had something to prove, like it got to him on such a deep level, because deep down he knew what he was, and yet he lived in denial. Jack reacted in a way that showed that he was a very secure person and did not care what the hell anyone thinks. Ennis's exterior was all a facade, Jack did not build a facade to hide behind. He showed himself to the world and didn't care what people thought about it. Ennis was always trying to prove to himself that what he deeply knew about himself wasn't true, while Jack embraced it.
The irony of "you can't fix, you gotta stand it"...is that Ennis was the one always trying to fix himself because he believed something to be wrong within himself, as society had taught him. Jack never tried to fix himself, he knew he wasn't broken, he knew who he was and he was comfortable with it. This radiated in all aspects of their personality. Ennis was never comfortable in his own skin, till after his discovery of the two shirts, then he begins on his road to understanding and accepting himself. Jack was always comfortable, just was ostracized by society because of who he was. Now this Ennis being an introvert is not a bad or inferior thing, in fact, it was part of what attracted Jack to Ennis, there is nothing wrong with being an introvert, and nothing wrong with not wanting to have a bunch of friends. But the thing with Ennis is that he was also insecure, only around Jack was not he not insecure, and even then, there were times when he was, such as how he spent all those years doubting what Jack really felt for him, at the end getting angry when he learned of Jack's infidelity, feeling that he might be nothing more than a notch on Jack's belt.
Of course, he was wrong, Jack truly cherished and loved him and wanted only him, but the self-doubting Ennis couldn't see that fact until the two shirts proved it to him once and for all. They were two halves of one soul, or two souls with a perfect fit. They complemented each other perfectly, and Ennis was one of the few people in life to not alienate Jack. (The only other person to accept Jack was his own mother). I don't agree at all that Jack had "little substance".Both Jack and Ennis were not what society expected them to be, or wanted them to be. Hence their souls found each other, regardless that they weren't actively seeking a companion. (Well Jack was) Both Jack and Ennis had lots of substance, they were just different, two different personalities, who melded perfectly and completed each other, they were exactly what the other needed, and there would be something missing in their life if they never met, or at least if they never met people exactly like each other.
