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1. Brokeback Mountain

Published in 1997, Brokeback Mountain is a short story written by Annie Proulx. During 1980s, many writers began

to shift their interest to the issue of homosexuality. Brokeback Mountain is one of the most famous writings focusing on this

particular subject. Although Brokeback Mountain presents the struggle of people living in rural America, this short story is

primarily concerned with the complicated issue of gender and sexual orientation.

The story centers around two male characters, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist. They are the representation of poor

and uneducated men living in the rural area of the United States. As the story goes on, the readers will be able to identify that

poverty is a major factor having a negative impact on the feelings of the protagonists, especially Ennis;

“They were raised on small, poor ranches in opposite corners of the state, Jack Twist in Lightning Flat up on
the Montana border, Ennis del Mar from around Sage, near the Utah line, both high school dropout country
boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough-mannered, rough-spoken, inured
to the stoic life.”

Gender identity is one of the major topics of this story. Although the two protagonists are male, their sexual

characteristics do not entirely follow their biological sex. However, Ennis is still presented with masculine qualities. It is

mentioned since the beginning that he has already engaged to a woman named Alma Beers. Living alone, Ennis does not care

much about his appearance. Proulx described how masculine Ennis look;

“Ennis, high-arched nose and narrow face, was scruffy and a little cavechested, balanced a small torso on
long, caliper legs, possessed a muscular and supple body made for the horse and for fighting”

When Ennis first meets Jack at Aguirre’s trailer office, he acts like a typical man who neither verbalizes nor expresses

his feelings much, while Jack apparently performs his gaze toward Ennis. Furthermore, Ennis offers to go out and take care of

the sheep himself after Jack begins to complain about his duty. This shows that Ennis is comfortable to take a masculine role

and give feminine tasks to Jack. However, both of them normally dress like a cowboy. At that time, there is a stereotype of

American cowboys that they are strong, tough and heroic. Desiring to be seen with those qualities, Ennis and Jack dress

themselves with cowboy clothes. However, those traits are all fake. Internally, they are not as strong as the way they present

themselves.

Mountain is a significant symbol of this story. It is the isolation of the mountain that brings the two men together.

Ennis and Jack are able to begin their secret relationship because they are alone at this quiet location. Although they often have

sex with each other, the two men hardly talk about their affair. They do not admit that they might be gay or bisexual;

As it did go. They never talked about the sex, let it happen Ennis said, “I’m not no queer,” and Jack jumped
in with “Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody’s business but ours.”

Ennis is confused with his own feeling. He has believed all along that he is a straight man, but now he just has an

affair with another man. His confusion results in an aggressive reaction as he punches Jack. Ennis’ inverted affection is his

denial to admit his sexual relationship with Jack. The two men decide not to share their feelings verbally even the moment
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they leave Brokeback. Separating with Jack, Ennis tries to vomit but nothing comes out. This implies that no matter how hard

Ennis wants to forget what has happened with Jack at Brokeback, he cannot. He is sad, yet hates himself at the same time, that

he might not have a chance to meet Jack again;

“He stopped at the side of the road and, in the whirling new snow, tried to puke but nothing came up. He felt
about as bad as he ever had and it took a long time for the feeling to wear off.”

Ennis is a representation of male stereotype. The fact that he does not share his thoughts with the others leads to

internal conflicts in his mind. He is unable to handle his confusing feeling by himself. Four years after the incident at

Brokeback, Ennis receives a letter from Jack saying that he is coming to pay a visit. What Ennis replies is only ‘you bet’. This

is, once again, a representation of male stereotype as men do not verbalize much about their thoughts. Ennis is delighted to

meet Jack for the first time in many years, so they spend the whole night at the motel. At this point, Ennis realizes how

important Jack is to him. However, Ennis still does not believe that he himself is homosexual. He thinks that their affair is

only something special between them two. Certainly, Ennis would not have sexual relationship with other men. Hence, he asks

whether Jack feels the same way or not in order to make sure that he is not gay

Poverty is the major obstacle in Ennis’ life. After the divorce, Ennis lives alone and has to work harder in order to

send child support to Alma. Therefore, Ennis thinks it is impossible for him to afford to go to Mexico when Jack invites him.

Ennis believes that his life has come to a dead end. He could not do anything to improve his circumstance. Ennis is trapped by

poverty. Moreover, both of them never think of leaving rural areas to a big city. This shows how difficult for poor upcountry

people to begin their lives in a city;

“Jack, I got a work. Them earlier days I used a quit the jobs. You got a wife with money, a good job. You
forget how it is bein broke all the time. You ever hear a child support? I been payin out for years and got
more to go. Let me tell you, I can’t quit this one. And I can’t get the time off. It was tough gettin this time”

Jack, on the other hand, is different from Ennis in several ways. He takes a feminine role in their relationship. He

shows his interest in Ennis since their first meeting. Furthermore, Jack is the one who initiates their intimacy at Brokeback.

He is certain about his feeling for Ennis, while his partner’s emotion is still unstable. If Jack had not begun to have sex with

Ennis himself, they would not have had a chance to develop their deeper relationship;

“Jack seized his left hand and brought it to his erect cock. Ennis jerked his hand away as though he'd touched
fire, got to his knees, unbuckled his belt, shoved his pants down, hauled Jack onto all fours and, with the help
of the clear slick and a little spit, entered him, nothing he'd done before but no instruction manual needed.”

While Ennis is still confused about his gender identity, it is quite clear that Jack is gay. Ennis never has sex with any

guys except Jack. However, it is possible that Jack has an intimacy with other men. Jack admits that he has already been to

Mexico. This suggests that Jack might have sex with a male prostitute in Mexico. Moreover, Jack tells Ennis that he secretly

has an affair with the wife of a rancher. However, this could possibly be a lie. Actually, Jack might have a sexual relationship
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with another man. Although he lies to Ennis to make his partner feel comfortable, Jack is honest to himself about his real

gender identity.

The major theme of this story is destructive rural homophobia. It presents the struggle of homosexual people to live

in the rural areas of the United States. Homosexuality is considered illegal at that time. One of the reasons that Ennis never

wants to settle his life with Jack is his fear of death. It has been in his memory, since a child, that two gay men were found

dead tragically. Thus, no matter how hard he wants Jack in his life, their relationship must be kept in secret. Living together

with Jack is impossible;

“And I don’t want a be dead. There was these two old guys ranched together down home, Earl and Rich … I
was what, nine years old and they found Earl dead in a irrigation ditch. They’d took a tire iron to him, spurred
him up, drug him around by his dick until it pulled off, just bloody pulp … Two guys livin together? No. All
I can see is we get together once in a while way the hell out in the back a nowhere”

Although Jack is confident that he is gay, social system does not allow him to reveal his real identity. Jack has to

marry Lureen in order to cover up his sexual preference. It could be said that Jack does not have any affection for his wife and

his son at all. He would be happier to leave his family and be with Ennis. However, his desire never comes true due to an

obsolete social norm. Although the two protagonists have developed deep feelings for each other, their attempts to sustain the

relationship are not even. Jack is the only one who always searches for the possible ways to settle their complicated lives down

together, while Ennis rejects all of his partner’s offers. In terms of gender, Jack explicitly talks about how overwhelming his

feeling is since he embraces feminine qualities. On the other hand, masculinity in Ennis is apparent. He does not verbalize

much until their last fight. Jack’s death then makes him realize what he should have done in the first place. However, the main

factor that prevents them from having ‘a real good life’ together is social norm. Unlike other normal couples, their homosexual

relationship is not accepted in the place where they live. Social control forbids Ennis from following his heart. It is fear of

social punishment that locks him up. Poverty is another obstacle. While Jack is able to escape from being poor by marrying

Lureen, Ennis still struggles with poverty. If he had been rich, it would have made things much easier for him.

The story ends tragically, like most homosexual novels, to present the truth of destructive rural homophobia.

Brokeback Mountain reminds the readers of the struggle of homosexual people living in rural America during 1970s. Many

people were considered outcast because their sexual identity did not follow the social norm.

2. High Fedality

Released in 1995, High Fidelity is a novel written by Nick Hornby. His works are primarily concerned with music, sport,

and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. The story centers around Rob Fleming, a record shop owner who is

recently dumped by his girlfriend. High Fidelity presents serious subjects in a light way. By reading this novel, the readers can

enjoy its humour as well as perceive the author’s message at once. The major themes of this novel are gender relations, male

psychology, and the crisis of male identity.

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Rob is the character who embraces the idea of New Land. Although he has been in a relationship with many women,

he never treats any of them nicely. He enjoys having a girlfriend but not for a long term. Whenever he gets bored, he is ready

to find a new one. He treats women as his sexual object. However, this reflects his obsession and his fear at the same time.

Actually, Rob is scared to be dumped. Thus, no matter how much he loves his girlfriend, he must push her away first to avoid

being the dumped one. This can be seen when it is revealed that Rob has done many bad things to Laura;

1) That I slept with somebody else while she was pregnant.

2) That my affair contributed directly to her terminating the pregnancy.
3) That, after her abortion, I borrowed a large sum of money from her and have not yet repaid any of it.
4) That, shortly before she left, I told her I was unhappy in the relationship, and I was kind of sort of maybe
looking around for someone else.

The central theme of this novel is the crisis of male identity. Rob is a 35-year-old man who has not yet grown up.

Social expectation is a major obstacle of Rob’s growing up process. As a kid, Rob might be taught by his father of how he

should behave towards women. However, the society has changed due to the rise of feminism. Rob finds himself get lost in

the modern society. As there is no proper guidance, he does not know how he should deal with his confusion. While women’s

position in the society gains more recognition, male duty remains unclear. The success of feminism threatens the role of men

in the society. However, the society still expects men to behave in a certain way. Men who live alone would be seen as those

who have not grown up yet. Public gaze is what men, inevitably, have to deal with;

“This, really, is the bottom line, the chief attraction of the opposite sex for all of us, old and young, men and
women: we need someone to save us from the sympathetic smiles in the Sunday-night cinema queue, someone
who can stop us from falling down into the pit where the permanently single live with their mums and dads.
I'm not going back there again; I'd rather stay in for the rest of my life than attract that kind of attention”

The significant change after the success of feminism is the role of women in the society. Women are more likely to

acquire good and stable job than men. This issue can be seen through the two protagonists. Laura is a lawyer who has a high

income, while Rob owns a small record shop in which he does not make much money;

“This was when she'd been in the new job a few months and her salary was starting to pile up in the bank a
bit. She lent me five grand; if she hadn't, I would have gone under. I have never paid her back because I've
never been able to”

Rob’s immaturity is the outcome of the rise of feminism. While modern society places an importance on women,

men are left with confusion. Without proper guidance, men are able to grow up physically, but not mentally. Rob is confused

with his own identity. He is not satisfied with his present job as a record shop owner, but he does not know what he should do

to improve his circumstances. Requested by Laura, Rob lists a journalist, a producer, a musician, a film editor, and an architect

as his top five jobs. At this point, Laura tells Rob that the first four are not practical and assures him that his current career is

the most suitable job for him. She brings confidence to Rob. This is an example of a woman giving an advice to an immature

man. Modern men are in need of direction from the society;

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“Well, there you are then. It comes in at number five in your list of dream jobs, and as the other four are
entirely impractical, you’re better of where you are.”

However, at one point of the story, Rob realizes that his immoral manners towards women do not fulfill his happiness

at all. At the end, he is the one who is mentally suffered, not the women he has slept with. He needs to overcome his immature

behaviors in order to survive in the modern society. Male psychology is another significant issue of this novel. There has been

a stereotype that men do not speak much about their inner feelings. Rob is the representation of men who attaches himself with

this quality. However, this seems to have a negative effect for him. Lack of communication and consultation even increases

his confusion regarding his own identity. This can be seen when Rob refuses to have a heart-to-heart talk with Dick although

deeply he needs someone to comfort him;

“For a moment, I'm almost tempted: a heart-to-heart with Dick would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But
I tell him there's nothing to say, and for a moment I thought he was going to hug me.”

After breaking up with Laura, Rob starts to re-examine himself through his five exes. As Alison never considers

Rob as her boyfriend, it means that Rob never gets dumped by her. Although it is true that Penny has sex with another man

after breaking up with Rob, he feels better by knowing that she really loves him once. His third girl on the list is Jackie.

Realizing that Jackie and her husband are a boring couple, he is sure that he has made a better boyfriend than her husband. In

the meantime, he learns that Sarah gets dumped by her boyfriend so her life cannot be better than Rob’s at all. The last one is

Charlie. At first, Rob thinks that Charlie has changed into another girl whom he is not admired, but then he realizes that she

has always been like this all along. Hence, Rob tells himself that there is no point to mourn for all those girls whose personalities

are not right for him. Rob feels much better after contacting all exes in his list. He tells himself that he is not the cause of all

previous break-ups. His ex-girlfriends are not right for him. He is too perfect for them. This is how Rob psychologically

comforts himself. It is an example of how male psychology plays an important role in fixing a man’s mental state;

This is the woman who broke my heart, ruined my life, this woman is single-handedly responsible for my
poverty and directionlessness and failure, the woman I dreamed about regularly for a good five years, and
I'm sending her up. I've got to admire myself, really. I've got to take my own hat off and say to myself, 'Rob,
you're one cool character.'

As Rob has not grown up yet, he enjoys treating women badly. This is an example of how men aggressively respond to the idea of feminism.

He does not respect women because he wants to have a revenge on them. Thus, he enjoys changing sexual partners frequently and treats them

as his sexual objects;

“Ten partners in a couple of decades of sexual activity is actually pretty feeble, if you think about it: one partner every
two years, and if any of those partners was a one-night stand, and that one-night stand came in the middle of a two-year
drought, then you're not in trouble exactly, but you're hardly the Number One Lurve Man in your particular postal
district. Ten isn't a lot, not for the thirtysomething bachelor. Twenty isn't a lot, if you look at it that way.”

However, at one point of the story, Rob realizes that his immoral manners towards women do not fulfill his happiness at all. At the

end, he is the one who is mentally suffered, not the women he has slept with. He needs to overcome his immature behaviors in order to survive

in the modern society;

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“We got to adolescence and just stopped dead”

Fear of commitment is another significant theme of this novel. Although he has been in a relationship with several

women, each one does not last long. He never plans to get married to anyone, even Laura. However, he does not admit it. This

can be seen when Rob blames Laura that she is the one who does not want to marry him. Rob’s fear of commitment is

caused by his fear of seeing the ones he loves die. However, this could possibly be an excuse of a man who does not want to

commit himself with a bigger responsibility as a husband and father;

“What happened to me during the funeral was something like this: I saw, for the first time, how scared I am
of dying, and of other people dying, and how this fear has prevented me from doing all sorts of things … But
most of all it has prevented me from sticking with a relationship, because if you stick with a relationship, and
your life becomes dependent on that person's life, and then they die . . . well, you're up the creek without a
paddle, aren't you? It's OK if I die first, I guess, but having to die before someone else dies isn't a necessity
that cheers me up much: how do I know when she's going to die?

At the end of the novel, Rob has learned where he should position himself in the contemporary society. Overcoming

his immaturity, Rob realizes that there is no need to look at gender issue in a binary way. Extreme viewpoint has no benefit on

both sides. He does not have to follow the traditional value that husband must earn money more than wife. It is better to adjust

his role in the relationship following the ongoing change of the society. Mixing choices from both genders would be a proper

solution to the crisis of male identity. Modern men should move away from stereotype and redefine masculinity. This is the

key idea that Hornby, who represents male psyche, wants his readers to achieve after reading his novel. High Fidelity does not

only present the truth of masculinity, but also works as a guidance for modern men living in the contemporary society.

3. Orange Are Not The Only Fruit

Winterson’s 1985 novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, often labelled as a postmodern bildungsroman, is a lesbian

political manifesto based on the coming-of-age story of the protagonist, Jeanette. While it focuses on her individual

development and moral growth, the novel examines issues of homophobia and the ways in which heterosexuality establishes

itself as the norm, while at the same time celebrating homosexuality. Based on her own traumatic childhood, Winterson

displays a young girl’s struggle with the dominance of the mother and the church, as well as her quest for self-realization.

In the novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson, most of the important, decision-making, characters

are female. Jeanette, the female protagonist, is greatly influenced by her mother, a strong, overbearing, eccentric woman, and by

Elsie, a prominent member of the family parish who becomes Jeanette's only friend and closest confidant. During her childhood

Jeanette is under the strong influence of her mother and the church, both being authority figures dominating her early years.

Jeanette’s mother is a quite religious person whose sole aim in life is to be a successful missionary. The Evangelical church

she belongs to is quite strict about everything, especially bodily pleasures. It is opposed to even heterosexual desire, seeing

that a complete absence of sex as the best option. Thus, the mother who articulates this kind of discourse does not accept sex

even within marriage.

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She had a mysterious attitude towards the begetting of children; it wasn’t that she couldn’t do it; more that
she didn’t want to do it. She was very bitter about the Virgin Mary got there first. So she did the next best
thing and arranged for foundling. That was me.

In Oranges, the church is a controlling mechanism tied to the governing institutions of society which repeats the

discourse that defines what is normal and what is pathological. When Jeanette is a very young child, religion makes her feel

as if she has power, agency, and purpose. However, religion is also the means by which Jeanette’s mother controls her daughter.

As she grows older and discovers her sexuality, the church becomes a place of hate, control and fear. When Jeanette reveals

her sexual identity, her mother and Pastor Spratt lock her into a room without any food for hours, only to make her repent. She

lies in order to get out. The hold that Jeanette’s religious upbringing continues to have on her is also apparent in how the novel

is organized: the chapters are named for the first eight books of the Bible, beginning with Genesis and ending with Ruth. In

this way, religion exerts a formal control over the novel as well as a thematic one.

These children of God’ began the pastor, ‘have fallen under Satan’s spell….These children are full of
demons.’

‘I am not’, I shouted, ‘and neither is she.’

‘Listen to Satan’s voice’, said the pastor to the church, pointing at me. ‘How the best become the worst.’

‘To the pure all things are pure,’ I yelled at him. ‘It’s you not us…I love her. ’

‘Then you do not love the Lord.’

‘Yes, I love both of them.’

‘You cannot’.

Oranges is an out and out lesbian text. It tells the story of an adopted girl called Jeanette, growing up a lesbian inside

a strict religious community. It is the story of Jeanette’s quest for subjectivity and homosexuality. Through her struggle for

autonomy and sexual identity, she sketches a counter-narrative of conventional masculine bondage that highlights female

specificity and gender difference. Being an adopted child, Jeanette herself reports that from a very young age she always knew

that she was special. Ironically, this specialness most obviously relates to her future as a lesbian, a group often categorized as

special and different since as a lesbian she will not fit into the normal dualistic, heterosexual world. As Jeanette grows into her

teenage years, she falls in love with a girl called Melanie, her first lover; “Melanie, I plucked up courage to ask at last,

“why do you have such a funny name?” She blushed. When I was born I looked like a melon”.

Most of Jeanette’s feelings are repressed by the church and her mother. Even if her feelings are repressed and her

life is full of those trying to keep her in emotional stasis, she still is making important emotional discoveries. Both the church

and her mother cannot prevent her from becoming herself. Ultimately, she confronts the entire society in refusing to repent,

stay and conform. This is the beginning of her successful conquest over her internal territory. She longs to liberate herself. She

stands in a serious dilemma whether to free herself from the church and stay alone or to deny her feelings and identity and

follow the church restriction. Finally, she decides to be true to her desires. This is the key question that Winterson deals with

in this story, whether to stay with a ready-made world that may be safe but which is also a limitation or to push forward and

pass the frontiers of common sense, into a personal place, unknown, and untried. After Melanie left the city, Jeanette starts a
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new relationship with Katy, a girl from the church. After sometimes Jeanette’s love affair with Katy came to light. Jeanette’s

love is found incorrect and she is accused of imitating a man.

It all seemed to hinge around the fact that I loved the wrong sort of people. Right sort of people in every respect
expect this one; romantic love for another woman was a sin. “Aping men” my mother had said with disgust. Now if I
was aping men she’d have every reason to be disgusted. As far as I was concerned men were something you had
around the place, not particularly interesting, but quite harmless. I had never shown the slightest feeling for them,
and apart from my never wearing a skirt, I saw nothing else in common between us

In the example above, when Jeanette talks about men, it is seen that she has no relation to men. They exist around

her but as she finds them as something uninteresting and harmless, she does not even perceive them. The only thing she finds

in common with men is that she does not wear a skirt and they do not wear it as well.

Moreover, Oranges are not the only fruit talks about gender relation from the perspective of women. In a literal sense

as the story has a very limited cast of male characters. Specifically, Numbers section Jeanette tries to figure out the nature of

relations between women and men. She repeatedly overhears conversations between some of the women belonging to the

religious community regarding their unhappy marriages and their worthless husbands.

It was hard to tell he was a pig. He was clever, but his eyes were close together, and his skin bright pink. I tried to
imagine him without his clothes on. Horrid. Other men I knew weren’t much better. And what about my Uncle Bill,
he was horrible, and hairy

she thinks about men as if they were animals. She wonders whether all innocence women marry beasts. Oranges are

not the only fruit become a way of further characterizing Jeanette’s mother, showing how she perceives the world categorically,

and showing how she desires to limit the options that Jeanette can have. Moreover, since oranges are the only fruit that are

validated from the mother’s perspective, all of other fruit go on to lack legitimacy. Much later on in the novel, when Jeanette

gets slightly ill, her mother brings her a bowl of oranges, and the following scenario takes place. I took out the largest and

tried to peel it. The skin hung stubborn, and soon I lay panting, angry and defeated. What about grapes or bananas? I

did finally pull away the other shell, and, cupping both hands round, tore open the fruit. Moreover, in the novel its also

show an example below indicates that Jeanette perceives that there is femininity in every man and masculinity in every woman.

Winterson proposes that the concept of gender is socially constructed not biologically inherent. The world generally and the

world described in the book are constructed in binary systems limits. They exclude those people who exceed the social

construct such as being homosexual.

“Then I remembered the famous incident of the man who’d come to our church with his boyfriend. At least,
they were holding hands. “Should have been a woman that one,” my mother had remarked. This was clearly not true.
There are shades of meaning, but man is a man, wherever you find it”

` The following passage quoted below indicates a moment when the pastor asserts that Jeanette is confused as shown

by her acting beyond her gender’s limitations. He has a strongly sexist belief that women are biologically inferior to men.

Winterson uses this example to challenge the idea that men and women have set biological roles, or that they exist in a

biological binary. This is an example of patriarchy in the story. The pastor and the church decide that Jeanette has experienced

sexual confusion because of her many church responsibilities that made her believe that she belongs in a man’s role. This
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scandal of her homosexuality forces the church to reevaluate their policies. Jeanette’s mother and the church community

reasserted the gender hierarchy.

In conclusion, the novel grants neither Jeanette, nor the reader any ultimate answer, no absolute truth as to identity

and gender construction. The stories, fables and myths interspersed in the novel provide a contrast to Jeanette´s life story and

expose the constructed nature of all stories and identities. In other words, just like in the case of the contents of storytelling,

identity is changeable and shifting depending on who is telling the story or who is constructing an identity. However, in my

opinion I think that Orange Are Not The Only Fruit of Winterson still not success because it doesn’t make argument about

lesbian strong.
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