Setting

The short story “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx is set in rural North America and presents episodic conflicts and encounters that take place over 20 years, from 1963 to 1983.…

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Physical setting

The physical setting includes the fictional area called “Brokeback Mountain” but also references to real geographical locations: “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…” (p. 32, ll. 21-23);

After the characters marry different women, Ennis lives in Riverton and Ennis in Childress, Texas.

The author focuses on the landscape of Brokeb…

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Social setting

The social setting conveys aspects of American society between the 1960s and the 1980s focusing on status and economic position, the life of the cowboy, married life, homosexuality, and homophobia.

The story follows two characters that come from cowboy families who owned ranches but who lost their status. Ennis and his siblings are forced to sell when their parents die because of mortgages, while Jack’s family barely survives. The characters have l…