How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Brokeback Mountain.
Quote #7
ENNIS: I tell ya, there were these two old guys ranched up together down home, Earl and Rich. And they was the joke of town, even though they were pretty tough old birds. Anyway, they…they found Earl dead in an irrigation ditch. Took a tire iron to him, spurred him up and drug him around by his dick till it pulled off. […] Yeah, I was, what, nine years old? My daddy, he made sure me and my brother seen it. Hell, for all I know, he done the job. Two guys livin' together? No way.
This violent flashback explains Ennis's fear of being outed. He's afraid of the same awful violence being perpetrated against himself or against Jack.