I read 70-year-old Annie Proulx’s short story "Brokeback Mountain" several times before I saw the movie. The story is beyond excellent. Every line is so well crafted and the story, published in The New Yorker magazine in 1997, is much more than two young men falling in love.
One of the major themes of the movie is fear. Fear to embrace the parts of one’s life that one has "learned" to repress and deny – from society, religion and internalized hate. Ennis Del Mar has lived his whole insulated life in Wyoming working as a ranch hand. He tells Jack Twist that the only place he’s ever been "is around the coffee pot looking for the handle." He doesn’t get to finish the 9 th grade
Before the death of his parents at 13, his father takes him and his older brother to see what happens to queers. There, in a ditch is a dead man who had been drug behind a truck by his genitals until they had been ripped out. Though Ennis is one tough guy, he still can’t conquer his fear of living as a gay man with Jack. His fear is constantly overpowering his desire to be with the man he loves.
It’s a story of missed opportunities because of fear. Sound familiar? Isn’t that what most Jws do? Live a numb, half life because they fear a god that is going to butcher them "soon" if they don’t follow draconian measures laddled out by the FDS? Live a repressed existence because they fear being disfellowshipped and shunned by once loving family members? Deny talents and aspirations that might bring them some joy in life because they fear going down a path that might ttake hem away from the "protection" of an angry god – who seems to dislike anything imperfect people do?
See the movie! Read the short story! Read the script! There are lots of parallels for Jws.
Peter
PS: All JWs live in some kind of closet.