Final Exam Essay
“Brokeback Mountain” was originally a short story, written in 1997 by Annie Proulx, published in The New Yorker magazine. The film Brokeback Mountain was released in 2005, directed by Ang Lee, screenplay by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry. It is set first in 1963 and spans about 20 years in the lives of two men who fall in love at a time when being gay was considered shameful and treated as a crime. That the two men are cowboys (stereotypically male iconic types) and that they are married family men adds to the dramatic conflict.
Here is the link to this film:
For your final essay choose one of the following topics:
a) Compare the way the way homosexuality was treated by society back in the mid-twentieth century to the way it is perceived now. You may google some key words like “Stonewall” and gay rights. The movie Brokeback Mountain provides some examples. You may use bits and pieces of prompt b. or c. for your response to topic
b) Discuss your opinions of gay lifestyles based on the way gay people are portrayed in the media: TV, motion pictures, popular music, and professional sports. You should use as many specific examples (in addition to the film we watched) as you can think of, and certainly mention any people you may know who are LGBTQ, and if the real people are like the ones in the media.
If you are religious, how do your beliefs affect your opinions?
c) Discuss your opinions about such matters as same-sex marriage, same-sex adoptions, and the latest new developments: gender-neutral or all-gender restrooms and transgenders in the military. These social issues are changing rapidly. A few years ago same-sex marriage seemed very strange and controversial; now it is legal in many states. In the past, gay people had few if any rights. Now, no longer ostracized, those who openly oppose them are called intolerant bigots and homophobes and often must accept these changes or lose their jobs or businesses. On the plus side, Pete Buttigieg, a mayor in Indiana, was a recent serious contender for the Democrat Presidential nomination.
Whether you choose to write on a, b, or c, your essay must have at least five paragraphs, should make some references to the characters in Brokeback Mountain, and–as with any good essay–should use transitionals.
You are not obligated to have internal quotes and references.
PS This was the most discussed movie in 2005. If you do not know anything about it, I suggest you go to Rottentomatoes.com to learn what to expect.
A scene occurs at the end regarding shirts. To help you appreciate it more fully, please look at which character is wearing which shirt at the 0:40:00 minute mark. Soon afterward (0:41:25), one character says he thinks he left his shirt somewhere… The shirt reappears at the 2:00:34 mark, and then at the end.
