Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What is it about Jack and Ennis that makes them unable to resist each other? Does Brokeback Mountain have something to do with it? If so, why does their passion continue well after they leave Brokeback?
- Do you think their love would get less intense if they weren't separated for most of their lives? Why or why not?
- Why does Ennis's marriage end and Jack's doesn't, even though both wives clearly know about their husbands' sexuality?
- How important is it that Joe Aguirre confronts Jack about their homosexuality instead of Ennis? How would Ennis have reacted if it did?
- Why does Jack hold Brokeback Mountain responsible for their passion? What was it about that summer that couldn't be repeated?
- Why do you think this story sticks so closely to Ennis, while keeping its distance from Jack? Does the story lose something from not giving us his perspective?
- What do you make of the beginning of the story, which then flashes back to Jack and Ennis's meeting? Why not just start at the beginning?
- How does this story fit in the western genre? Is it even a western to begin with? Why or why not?