Landscape plays an important role in the story. Give some examples of strong landscape imagery and discuss how those descriptions relate to and illustrate the story’s themes.

Jack appears more willing to acknowledge and embrace his orientation than Ennis does. Identify two to three passages from the text that illustrate this difference and discuss each character’s (conscious or unconscious) reasons for behaving how they do. Address how the characters’ attitudes change throughout the story, assuming they do.

Choose another work that deals with forbidden love, such as Romeo and Juliet, and discuss the similarities and differences between the two stories. Is “Brokeback Mountain” a “traditional” story of star-crossed love in everything but the protagonists’ gender?