Women in a Man's World

The women in both Brokeback Mountain and Fight Club are secondary characters. They are supporting characters, used to help the story along for their male leads. In all three stories each women is viewed as more of an object than a character, a space-filler that has only one particular purpose and is only there to fill a specific role. The men in the story just use the women to achieve some kind of means.

The first woman we meet in Brokeback Mountain is Alma, Ennis’ wife. She is a typical 60’s era housewife. She cooks and cleans and watches the kid while Ennis goes to work and makes the money. Even though she finds out about Ennis’ affair, she keeps quiet about it and doesn’t call him out on it. She does this because she is afraid of embarrassment. She also relies on Ennis for her well being; she doesn’t want to lose him.

Jack’s wife, Lureen, is also definitely a supporting character. She appears sporadically in the story, signifying that she is not a very reliable sense of comfort and love for Jack. She comes off as very cold and calculating, without much feeling and depth. Jack marries her out of convenience more than anything else. By the end of the story, the relationship is nothing but going through the motions.

Finally, in Fight Club we meet Marla. She is a troubled soul who is just looking for a connection with someone, anyone. She has no faith in herself and is worried life is passing her by. Tyler accidentally gets her swept up in his world and she becomes a pawn in his game.

All three women struggle to navigate through the masculine community and feel that somehow they don’t quite fit or belong.