The Moviegoer

“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life […] To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” 

Binx mentions his “search” at several points throughout the novel, but he never explicitly explains for what he is searching. He has a deep longing for something that perhaps he cannot name himself, and the experience of this longing is just as important to him as the object or experience he desires. In this passage, Binx’s critique or fear of the “everydayness” of life contradicts his desire stated elsewhere in the novel for an ordinary life, implying that Binx is perhaps not as reliable a narrator as his articulate way with words suggests he might be.

“But my father is not one of them. His feet are planted wide apart; the katy is pushed back releasing a forelock. His eyes are alight with an expression I can’t identify; it is not far from what his elders might have called smart-alecky.”

Binx is observing a photograph of his father in his Aunt Emily’s house. In this photograph, Binx’s father is standing with two of his brothers, and Binx carefully notes that his father is separate from his siblings, despite the closeness of their posture. As well, Binx projects onto this image of his father a “smart-alecky” persona. Because Binx’s father died when Binx was an infant, he must rely on his impressions of his father to feel he knows him at all. Binx’s interpretation of this photograph is an example of one of these impressions.

“When Kate was ten and I was fifteen, my aunt became worried about her. Kate was a good girl and made good grades, but she had no friends. Instead of playing at recess, she would do her lessons and sit quietly at her desk until class began.”

In this brief introduction to Binx’s troubled cousin, Kate, the reader understands that Kate’s difficulties may have started when she was very young. Kate’s friendlessness as a child foreshadows her adult feelings of alienation. Now, fifteen years later, as Binx is about to turn 30 and Kate is in her mid-20s, Binx’s aunt continues to worry about Kate as she did when Kate was a schoolgirl. 

“It seems to serve her well enough, this discovery of the possibilities of hatred. She warms under its influence. It makes the basement a friendlier place.”

Binx comments on Kate’s emotional life, noting that her capacity for negative feeling seems to strengthen her and give her confidence. His tone is matter-of-fact, which suggests that he, too, understands how feelings of hatred can be empowering or energizing. Binx seems less worried about Kate when he acknowledges this side of her personality.

“From the sleaziest house to the sleaziest town, from the loins of redneck pa and rockface ma spring these lovelies, by the million.”

Binx’s general appreciation for the female form is somehow simultaneously superficial and personally meaningful. He makes this observation about women while discussing the positive qualities of his current secretary, Sharon Kincaid, noting that even her stereotypically-unfeminine qualities are beautiful simply because she is young and a woman. In some ways, Binx’s admiration of women is troubling, because he seems not to care much about what is beneath the surface of each individual. In other ways, his adoration of women seems naive and innocent, which speaks to his immature understanding of relationships. 

“The young man you see inside is clearly the soul of integrity; he asks no more than to be allowed to plan your future. This is true. This is all I ask.” 

While Binx describes the outside appearance of his office, he focuses the attention on himself, as he might be perceived by a passer-by. Though Binx’s mental and emotional states are not always stable and he does not always act responsibly, he wants to be steady and reliable to his customers because such qualities are honorable and masculine. His simple request to be trusted is touching in its honesty and its vulnerability.

“If I did not talk to the theater owner or ticket seller, I should be lost, cut loose metaphysically speaking. I should be seeing one copy of a film which might be shown anywhere and at any time. There is a danger of slipping clean out of space and time.”

Without human contact, Binx feels as if he might not exist. Due to experiences in his past or to his own interpretations of the human condition, Binx’s understanding of himself is not reliable enough to ground him and to give him reason to feel certain about his position in the world; therefore, he relies on connections he forges with others to give him a sense of belonging and reality. Though movies are sometimes reassuring to Binx, the artificial quality of the world within the context of movies leads him to question the reality of the world in which Binx actually lives. Perhaps it is this act of questioning that Binx finds so reassuring.

“The fact is, however, I am more Jewish than the Jews I know. They are more at home than I am. I accept my exile.”

Though Binx lives and works among family members and friends, he feels separate from his community. His feeling of isolation may be explained in existential terms. Even before Binx experienced the trauma of war, he had a loner personality, choosing to observe life from afar, rather than engage fully. This tendency may be why he is drawn to his cousin, Kate; they share a tendency to perceive themselves as different and separate from others.

“Though I do not know whether I am a liberal or a conservative, I am nevertheless enlivened by the hatred which one bears the other. In fact, this hatred strikes me as one of the few signs of life remaining in the world. This is another thing about the world which is upsidedown: all the friendly and likeable people seem dead to me; only the haters seem alive.”

Though most people living in communities find pleasant interpersonal interactions an ideal way to engage with their neighbors, Binx finds such activity depressing. He feels that there is a predictability to friendly behavior, as well as a depersonalized quality that means that everyone is treated the same and no one really needs to pay attention to what they are doing. To Binx, at least hatred incites passion and energy, which he believes are important to rich and varied life experiences. 

“What a discovery! One minute I am straining every nerve to be the sort of person I was expected to be and shaking in my boots for fear I would fail—and the next moment to know with the calmest certitude that even if I could succeed and become your joyous and creative person, that it was not good enough for me and that I had something better. I was free. Now I am saying good-by, Merle.”

Kate speaks to Binx of her last appointment with Merle, her therapist whom she has been going to since her fiancé died in a car accident she survived on the eve of their wedding day. Though Kate’s energetic and celebratory tone implies positivity, in actuality, the freedom she embraces foreshadows dark times ahead. Kate’s psychological state is fragile, and her mentions of success suggest, perhaps, that she no longer feels she must fight the suicidal impulses that cause her family great worry.

“Where there is chance of gain, there is also chance of loss. Whenever one courts great happiness, one also risks malaise.” 

Binx reflects philosophically on the opportunities in his life while driving along the Gulf Coast with Sharon Kincaid. Though the reflexive nature of his musings does indicate a sort of wisdom, these kinds of thoughts also serve as an excuse for Binx’s intentional disengagement from the world around him. Binx chooses a non-committal existence and justifies it with his own personal life philosophy, but the fact remains that Binx’s inability to commit reflects a selfish and underdeveloped side to his personality. Later in the novel, Binx does commit when he marries Kate, but even this gesture is questionable when he makes his interest in earning money clear to the reader.

“My little red MG, however, is an exception to the rule. It is a miserable vehicle actually, with not a single virtue save one: it is immune to the malaise.”

Here, Binx refers to “the malaise,” a catch-all term he uses when describing how ordinary, quotidian experiences make him feel down. Sitting in traffic, facing relatives, and other typical activities that impact most people can all lead to an episode of “the malaise,” but somehow, Binx is able to escape the condition when he drives his sports car. 

“We swim and lie down together. The remarkable discovery forces itself upon me that I do not love her so wildly as I loved her last night.”

Binx’s assessment of his time with Sharon Kincaid suggests that he feels disappointment. His imagined connection with Sharon, as well as his imagined version of Sharon herself, are much more exciting and passionate than the reality. Despite this realization, Binx plays the role of lover and boyfriend doggedly, while Sharon simply goes along for the ride.

“It is good to see the Smiths at their fishing camp. But not at their home in Biloxi. Five minutes in that narrow old house and dreariness sets into the marrow of my bones […] but here on Bayou des Allemands everybody feels the difference.” 

When Binx drops by the fishing camp with Sharon and they see his mother and her children, Binx’s half-brothers and half-sisters, he is surprised and pleased. Binx romanticizes the natural environment of the camp, imagining the children outside enjoying the wonders of the bayou. The house in Biloxi reminds Binx of endless dinners and time passing in the dullest way imaginable. 

“But Fort Dobbs is as good as can be. My heart sings like Octavian and there is great happiness between me and Lonnie and this noble girl and they both know it and have the sense to say nothing.”

Binx takes Sharon and Lonnie, his half-brother, to the movies, revealing his special connection to Lonnie. Lonnie, at fourteen, is now the eldest of Binx’s mother’s children, as Lonnie’s older brother drowned last summer. Binx feels sure that he is good friends with Lonnie because he treats Lonnie as he would anyone else, despite the fact that Lonnie is confined to a wheelchair.

“Everydayness is the enemy. No search is possible. Perhaps there was a time when everydayness was not too strong and one could break its grip by brute strength. Now nothing breaks it—but disaster. Only once in my life was the grip of everydayness broken: when I lay bleeding in a ditch.”

Binx describes his own brand of ennui in this passage, explaining that the search that occupies him cannot even carry on when he feels so overwhelmed by the ordinariness of day-to-day life. He remembers his traumatizing experience in the war, when he was wounded, as an exciting break in his general sense of listlessness. The fact that only an experience as severe and violent as getting shot can break the monotony of life speaks to Binx’s general, and perhaps lifelong, mental state.

“It was like he thought eating was not—important enough. You see, with your father, everything, every second had to be—"

Here, Binx’s mother describes a moments of her marriage to Binx’s father, during which he inexplicably and suddenly refused to eat, unless she fed him herself while reading out loud to him. Her interpretation of his behavior echoes elements of Binx’s personality; perhaps Binx inherited his intolerance of the mundane from his father, who was similarly impatient with experiences that did not excite him, like eating. It also illustrates where Binx’s moments of infantilism extend from. 

“Sorrowing, hope against hope, I put my hand on the thickest and innerest part of Sharon’s thigh.”

Binx, in the throes of “the malaise” while driving home from the fishing camp with Sharon, attempts to cheer himself up by touching Sharon in a sexually-intimate manner. When she rebuffs him, he is annoyed and claims to himself that he wasn’t actually interested in her sexually anyway. Moments later, she kisses him and asks him to get her home quickly, presumably to meet her boyfriend. This revelation implies that she has toyed with Binx as much as he has toyed with her during their weekend together.

“(Aye, sweet Kate, and I know too. I know your old upside-down trick: when all is lost, when they despair of you, then it is, at this darkest hour, when you emerge as the gorgeous one.)”

When Sam, a family friend of Aunt Emily and Uncle Jules, comes to visit Kate, Binx stops by the Cutrer family home. Sam reveals that something happened to Kate after he experienced hours of excellent conversation with Kate the night before. Binx understands exactly the effect this conversation has had on Sam, as he knows how alluring Kate can be, when everyone seems to expect only the worst from her. 

“Sure enough, three hours later we are rocking along an uneven roadbed through the heart of the Ponchitoula swamp.” 

Recklessly, Binx has allowed Kate to accompany him to Chicago on a business trip, at her request. He fails to let anyone else know of their intention to travel together and to leave New Orleans, which causes significant upheaval in the lives of Aunt Emily and other relatives. At this moment, they are on the train to Chicago. 

“What has upset her is not the incident of the capsules but meeting the Grosses. It spoils everything, this prospect of making pleasant talk, of having a delightful time, as Sidney would put it…” 

Soon after boarding the train, Binx and Kate encounter a couple they know, and this interaction upsets Kate. She leaves the train car temporarily to escape the banal conversation and the disappointment she feels at having their adventure interrupted.

“Listen, with Merle I could break wind and he would give me that same quick congratulatory look. But you. You’re nuttier than I am. One look at you and I have to laugh. Do you think that is sufficient ground for marriage?” 

When Binx suggests to Kate that they marry, she appears reluctant to take his proposal seriously, but she acknowledges that they are two of a kind. As well, Kate appreciates that Binx sees her for who she is and that his treatment of her is authentic. Binx responds to her question seriously, explaining that he feels their similar outlooks are better suited to marriage than love.

“Ten years ago I pursued beauty and gave no thought to money. I listened to the lovely tunes of Mahler and felt a sickness in my very soul. Now I pursue money and on the whole feel better.” 

Binx’s focus on money contradicts his other pursuits of excitement and vitality, though he is consistent in his avoidance of discomfort. His choice to concentrate on making money simplifies his life and his attitudes towards making decisions. Kate’s personal wealth comes into focus at this moment in the novel, and the reader wonders if Binx is as drawn to Kate’s person as he is to her money.