Proulx, Annie: *1935

Brokeback Mountain, 1997 - Thematic Parallels: Repression

Repression is a psychological concept. It refers to the unconscious process of keeping distressing, threatening, or socially unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or desires out of conscious awareness.
Proulx, Annie: Brokeback Mountain, 1997
The story explores themes of forbidden love, societal repression, identity, isolation, and the struggles of living a life constrained by social expectations.
The following books are thematically simliar. They lend themselves well to being read in groups, compared with one another, or used to teach a similar topic over an extended period with a class:
- Chopin, Kate: The Awakening, 1899, ~200pp
  This is a novel that explores personal freedom against societal norms.
  - Both works center on forbidden desire, societal repression, emotional isolation, nature as a space of freedom, tragic consequences, and social critique. They explore the universal tension between individual desire and societal expectations.
- Hosseini, Khaled: The Kite Runner, 2003, ~340pp
  This is a novel dealing with profound emotional struggles, identity, repression, and societal conflicts.
  - Both novels share profound explorations of forbidden desires, societal pressure, secrecy, guilt, and the struggle for redemption or fulfillment. Both are ultimately about the human heart constrained by forces beyond it.
- Morrison, Toni: Sula, 1973, ~170pp
  The novel deals with societal and personal struggles, including repression and identity.
  - Both works examine relationships that exist outside societal norms. They show that strict societal norms can harm individuals and that nonconformity carries social punishment. They share a thematic focus on how society shapes—and often punishes—those who live outside its norms.
- Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar, 1963, ~250pp
  The novel explores psychological repression and struggles.
  - Both works portray the human cost of societal limitation, isolation, and internal conflict, even though they do so in very different contexts—"The Bell Jar" focussing on gender and mental health, "Brokeback Mountain" on sexuality and cultural norms.
List of general discussion questions on Repression (pdf)
List of essay prompts on Repression (pdf)