Youth

"An older woman would have seen that although they were little more than children, they were shifting out of the days of clutching love and into the long haul of married life.
'Cows cost money, specially butter and cream does. We ain't got enough for a butter dish even....'Missus McLaverty, I wouldn't work in no mine. You married you a cowboy'" - pg. 57

In the first part of this section, Archie is dreaming of a better, impractical life, complete with a spring and a butter cow when, as Rose points out, the couple doesn't even have the money for a butter dish. The second part of this passage illustrates Archie's idealism and determination to be a cowboy and find ranch work, much like Ennis and Jack in Brokeback Mountain. This story seems another one of Proulx's western parables, and once again, she seems interested in the topic of idealism. If Archie hadn't been so insistent on being a "cowboy" and so resistant to working closer to home in a mine, perhaps their love would have survived, perhaps they would have survived? Yet, so as not to beat the topic of idealism in Proulx's stories to death, this story has an ingredient that 'Brokeback Mountain' does not; youth. Archie and Rose were an incredibly young couple, and this arguably led to several of their struggles and indirectly caused their death in the stories.

What role did youth play in Archie and Rosie's idealism, romance, and interactions with nature?