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 and Sharon are working overtime on a dull, warm Saturday morning. Binx has a plan, and at 11 a.m., he tells Sharon he’s closing the office—he’s driving to the Gulf Coast and invites her to come along. In a scolding tone, Sharon insists on finishing her work, but then she agrees. Binx tells her to go home and get her swimsuit first. When they set out in Binx’s car, it’s as if Sharon’s only desire is to go swimming, and Binx is her generous boss who’s offered to drive her to the ocean.
Showing that he didn’t mean anything serious by “proposing” to Kate last night, Binx continues his plan to woo Sharon the next morning. In keeping with her restraint the other day, Sharon remains detached as they set out, suggesting—for now—that nothing romantic will come of the trip.
Themes
Not long after Binx and Sharon have gotten underway, they’re in a car accident. Binx considers this to be good luck—it overcomes the “malaise.” Binx explains that “malaise” is simply “the pain of loss,” specifically the loss of the world and an inability to feel at home in it. Even when someone is on the verge of great happiness, there’s a risk of malaise.
Malaise is something that inevitably accompanies Binx’s search. The antithesis of the search, it’s the feeling of despair that comes with the failure to discover the meaning of the world and one’s place in it.
Themes
Binx believes that the car one drives is critical. Once, not long after he moved to Gentilly, Binx bought a new car, a sensible Dodge sedan. Driving it, he felt like a respectable citizen and veteran whose life made sense. But when he drove his previous secretary Marcia to the Gulf Coast, his security collapsed. Despite driving along like a couple in an advertisement, Binx felt choked by malaise no matter what he did; the trip was a disaster.
Cars, like movies, were a big part of the booming American consumer culture in the 1950s. At first, Binx’s car seems to deliver the feelings of security and status promised by advertising, but this was short-lived. With Marcia, he discovers that such feelings are an illusion, or at least aren’t sustainable for very long.
Themes
That’s why Binx prefers buses, streetcars, and walking. But his little red sportscar is an exception; it seems to be unaffected by malaise. Nevertheless, Binx is worried as he and Sharon start out. With Sharon, the stakes seem higher than with Marcia or Linda. When Binx picked up Sharon from her rooming house, things shifted, and he realized that Sharon considered herself Binx’s date. She told him to wave to Joyce, and Binx does a double-take at the brunette in the leather jacket looking out the window. But as they start out in the car, Sharon bumps against him freely, and Binx feels good.
After the experience of malaise in his car, Binx comes to prefer modes of transportation that keep him more connected to the people and places around him. In his current car, though, he can’t help hoping for a different outcome—suggesting that the attractions of consumerism remain seductive. In fact, at first, Sharon’s new flirtatiousness makes it look as if Binx’s hopes will be realized.
Themes
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Suddenly, however, a Ford doing a U-turn collides with Binx’s car, sending them careening off the road and into a ditch. The older couple in the Ford, unhurt but scared, speed off. Sharon touches Binx, whose bad shoulder is hurting. When Sharon cuts Binx’s T-shirt off, she’s startled by the sight of his war wound. Binx, however, is happy as they drink whiskey together. Sharon supports him to the car, which still runs, and drives them to Ship Island.
Like in Korea, Binx has a traumatic experience in a ditch which disrupts the fog of malaise in his life. In this way, Binx finds the accident fortunate—as well as a good omen for his relationship with Sharon.
Themes
The ferry to Ship Island is filled with Mississippi country folk. Binx and Sharon pass a dreary Civil War fort and cross a salt marsh to the beach, which is bright, clean, and inviting. Sharon immediately sheds her outer clothes and dives into the ocean, and Binx is moved by her beauty. They alternately drink beer and swim, and finally they kiss. At one point, Binx embraces Sharon’s thighs, telling her he’s been waiting three weeks to do this. They end up tussling playfully in the sand, Sharon wanting to show Binx how strong she is. Binx tells her how much he loves her and has planned for this moment.
Binx finally begins to realize his hopes for a romance with Sharon. Notably, though, they’re in an unusual setting, they’ve been drinking, and they’ve just survived a car accident—it’s not a normal day in the office. And though Binx believes this is just what he’s been waiting for, Sharon makes it clear to Binx that she is comfortable stopping things at any time.
Themes
As they drive homewards in the evening, Binx is relieved to feel no malaise. He realizes that joy and sadness take turns, and that beauty can be heartbreaking. He decides it isn’t a bad thing to settle for the “Little Way,” not the search for a big happiness but the search for a sadder, smaller happiness. As night falls, they agree to stop at Binx’s mother’s fishing camp in the bayou, Sharon nestling against Binx.
At this midpoint of the novel, Binx comes to a realization about his search. Not only is sadness part of happiness, but one should accept both rather than constantly striving for a transcendent happiness. This “Little Way” suggests contentment with the ordinary things of life rather than dissatisfaction.
Themes
