Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain and Lee’s Film Adaptation: Reconstructing the Myth of the Cowboy in the American West Anonymous College

Brokeback Mountain is a short story by Annie Proulx that touches upon social issues such as intolerance and gender stereotypes in the American West. Using the beauty but also the vast wilderness of the landscape of the American west and the stereotype of the cowboy, she subverts this romanticized image by exposing the great psychological and physical violence towards those who are different, something that although milder than it was in the past, is still an issue. In order to achieve the above, Proulx makes a very significant and meaningful choice of both the setting of the short story but also of the stereotype that her two main characters represent. The setting and its connotations are also highlighted in the film adaptation with the same title by Ang Lee (2005). The story is set in Wyoming which is a state that is closely associated with the American frontier and manifest destiny that hold a great significance for the American national identity and the westward expansion, all embodied in the stereotypical and even mythical image of the cowboy.

As O'Connor and Rollins point out, “indeed, throughout its history, American culture would be almost unimaginable without the West as a touchstone of national identity” (2). The idea...