Social Norms

Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain presents social attitudes regarding sexuality. The film depicts that affections between people does not exist only within the confines of traditional relationships between men and women. The characters Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist exemplify this dynamic in the film by maintaining a relationship, despite the normative social attitudes in their community regarding traditional relationships. Ennis is depicted as an assimilationist because he hides his relationship with Jack from his wife and employer. The scene when Jack is murdered because his sexual orientation is discovered exemplifies the social prejudice of his community and their propagation of heterosexism.