45 pages • 1 hour read
Walker PercyThe Moviegoer
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Debauchery of Carnival and the Parade
Mardi Gras is an opportunity for the city of New Orleans to celebrate and engage in self-indulgent gluttony, and the parades in celebration of Carnival are external expressions of the city’s appetites. Binx’s own self-indulgent behaviors are set against this backdrop, where the excesses of the Carnival-goers normalize his emotional and intellectual excesses.
The religious implications of Mardi Gras, which takes place before Ash Wednesday and the start of forty days of Lenten self-restraint, impact the reader’s understanding of Lonnie’s decision to fast. Lonnie’s decision is not an abstract one, meant to take place at some point in the future; he means to begin fasting immediately, despite the fact that his health is still fragile after a difficult winter. Lonnie’s bold choice to live by the law of the Catholic Church emphasizes the spiritual lawlessness of Carnival and Mardi Gras.
Binx’s MG
Binx’s sporty red convertible is a symbol of freedom from the melancholia that sneaks up on Binx when the ordinary world overwhelms him. The MG literally and figuratively transports Binx, allowing him a sense of lightness that contrasts with the existential angst that appears to burden Binx on a regular basis. Historically, the MG takes Binx on car rides with his secretaries who are full of romantic promise, but the most recent drive with Sharon ends in traffic and a serious case of the “malaise.” The car accident they experience with the old couple, on the way to the Gulf Coast, foreshadows Binx’s disappointing episode with the malaise despite the MG’s previous immunity to it; just as the MG cannot protect Binx from a hit-and-run accident, it also cannot protect him from the malaise.
Movies and Movie Stars
Movies are more than just escapist entertainment for Binx. The stories depicted on the screen offer Binx a more reliable validation of his life than his real-life interactions, so Binx grows to rely on movies for a sense of connection to the world around him. His experiences with “repetitions,” which he enjoys individually and sometimes shares with others, are examples of the meaning movies can hold for him; they offer him a way to refer back to other times in his life, when he perhaps felt more connected or less angst-ridden. Movies are opportunities for Binx to feel a link with other humans who share the same interests, like movie-house managers and ticket sellers. Because these managers and sellers spend their lives around movies, Binx assumes they must understand his impulse to want to live in someone else’s story for a while.
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By Walker Percy
