Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Moviegoer, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Value Systems
Women, Love, and Sex
Modern Life and the Search for Meaning
Loss, Suffering, and Death
Summary
Analysis
Binx enjoys the evening in Gentilly. The sky is huge and bright, with ibises flying toward the marshes; on the streets, vehicle taillights trail in the direction of the Gulf Coast. Binx decides to stop by the movie theater, but the movie that’s playing looks depressing, so he declines. He also chats with the ticket seller, Mrs. DeMarco, about her son in the Air Force. Binx always gets to know the operators of movie theaters. This isn’t a kind gesture on his part; it’s a selfish one—if he doesn’t get to know the theater owner or ticket seller, he feels disconnected from space and time. He could be watching the movie anywhere in the world.
Binx’s chat with Mrs. DeMarco is an example of how moviegoing fits into his search. He doesn’t just go to the theater in order to get lost in a film, but to find a way of connecting himself more strongly to his environment. By talking to the ticket seller, he gains specific points of context—he’s not just having an anonymous experience. This approach subverts the idea of moviegoing as a form of generic consumption.
Themes
Binx first became aware of his place-time problem while watching Red River in the Tivoli. As he watched a fight scene between Montgomery Clift and John Wayne, he wondered where the wood of his theater seat would be centuries from now. Once, in Cincinnati, he watched Holiday in a neighborhood theater and befriended the ticket seller, Mrs. Clara James, with whom he still exchanges Christmas cards.
The specific details of movies aren’t all that important to Binx, except in connection with real places, people, and thoughts he had while watching the film—specifically thoughts related to the passage of time and the meaning of life. Again, moviegoing is more about his context than about escapism.
Themes
When he gets home, Binx finds a memo from his aunt, but before he can read it, Mrs. Schexnaydre drops by to lend Binx her Reader’s Digest. Mrs. Schexnaydre is a tidy landlord and a very lonely woman; she doesn’t know anyone in New Orleans. Occasionally Binx watches TV with her or brings her along to the movies. Mrs. Schexnaydre is fearful of Black people, even though few of Gentilly’s residents are Black, and she keeps three fierce dogs for protection. The dogs also hate Binx.
Racism isn’t dealt with directly in the book but is occasionally touched on, as here; Binx’s landlord doesn’t really know any of her Black neighbors but makes the worst assumptions about them regardless. She is disconnected from her environment in general, which actually makes her a fitting companion for Binx’s search for connection.
Themes
Mrs. Schexnaydre habitually marks heartwarming articles for Binx to read, often featuring strangers who discover unlikely things in common. Binx enjoys these articles, but right now he has to read his aunt’s memo. It contains a quote from Marcus Aurelius urging Binx to “think steadily as a Roman and […] do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity.”
Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic philosopher of the second century C.E. His straightforward focus on duty and dignity appeals to Aunt Emily’s values; with this quote, she encourages Binx to follow her advice and start medical school.
Themes
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Binx maintains a plain apartment, with a small television and some generic prints. He sits directly in front of the television, watching a play about a cynical man who tries to take over a small town newspaper, only to be thwarted by the kindly townsfolk and eventually becoming one of them. He watches this until it’s time to pick up Kate.
Binx watches a television play that showcases the way that such productions always get the “search” wrong, in his view—an outsider gets swept up in typical “everydayness” until he can no longer be distinguished from everyone else. American culture seems to be pressing this narrative on Binx, and he resists it.
Themes
