"Whoa, whoa, whoa. It ain't goin a be that way. We can't. I'm stuck with what I got, caught in my own loop. Can't get out of it...And I don't want a be dead" (270).
In previous stories we have discussed the public nature of relationships and how the success of some relationships depends on public approval and encouragement. Unfortunately, Jack and Ennis's relationship only flourishes in the isolated natural locations they visit. Ironically, the 'unnatural' nature of their relationship in the eyes of the people around them can only grow and take root in pure nature. As we are told in the story, from the 1960s through the 1980s gay men were being killed in a manner paralleling lynching. Ennis's instincts seem privy to this fact and although he loves Jack, he loves breathing a little more. In the lines above, Ennis is explaining 'Survival 101' to Jack. He is explaining how society, not nature, decides the acceptable parameters for the way we should love, copulate, and with whom. The loop of life gives Ennis a guideline to living successfully and it's why he doesn't ask Jack to be with him after his divorce. In fact he has relationships with other women in his town. Society wouldn't allow two men to live together and Ennis knows that if he crosses the boundaries that dictate his life then he will get the tire iron. However, Jack seems more tuned to his natural instincts instead of his societal instincts. We see the consequences of breaching those parameters when Jack doesn't get rehired by Joe Aguirre, Alma finally leaves Ennis, and the eventual death of Jack Twist. Although nature accepts Ennis and Jack for who they are, eventually society decides if it's right.
How are nature and the forces of nature used to illustrate this love story? Why don't Ennis and Jack return to the first place they discovered their love for each other, Brokeback Mountain?
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