Kate Cutrer Character Analysis in The Moviegoer

Kate is Aunt Emily’s stepdaughter, Jules’s daughter, and Binx’s step-cousin. She is five years younger than Binx, making her about 25 in the story. She has been shy and sensitive since childhood, and it’s implied that she has often had difficulty making friends and feeling comfortable around other people. Binx is one of the only people who really understands her and can make her laugh. Kate also appears to suffer from mental illness of some kind, though the novel does not make its nature clear—the symptoms seem consistent with anxiety or what is now known as PTSD (the term didn’t come about till about 20 years after the novel is set). She sees a therapist named Merle Mink. Every once in a while, Kate comes up with a grand vision for changing her life but inevitably becomes depressed soon after. Kate and Aunt Emily have a contentious relationship; though Emily once took an older sister role in her life, Kate now feels she has surpassed her stepmother and resents her. Kate was once engaged to a good man named Lyell Lovell, but Lyell was killed in a car crash on the eve of their wedding, when Kate was 19. Kate calls the accident’s aftermath the happiest time in her life because she felt so free from people’s expectations of her, though the trauma of this event causes her ongoing distress. After that, she is briefly engaged to Walter Wade but breaks the engagement. Binx casually proposes to her during one of her painful episodes. After Kate recovers from a sedative overdose, she and Binx take a train to Chicago and discuss their future. Eventually, they agree that if Binx gives her lots of guidance and reassurance in daily life, her anxiety will improve, and they can have a good marriage. A year later, Kate’s anxiety appears to be more manageable—she can venture into public alone for small errands—and she and Binx are contentedly married.

Kate Cutrer Quotes in The Moviegoer

The The Moviegoer quotes below are all either spoken by Kate Cutrer or refer to Kate Cutrer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Have you noticed that only in time of illness or disaster or death are people real? I remember at the time of the wreck—people were so kind and helpful and solid. Everyone pretended that our lives until that moment had been every bit as real as the moment itself and that the future must be real too, when the truth was that our reality had been purchased only by Lyell's death. In another hour or so we had all faded out again and gone our dim ways.”

Related Characters: Kate Cutrer (speaker), Binx Bolling (John “Jack” Bickerson Bolling), Lyell Lovell

Page Number and Citation: 81

Explanation and Analysis:

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 minute 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. And I walked out, as free as a bird for the first time in my life […] I know I am right or I would not feel so wonderful.

Related Characters: Kate Cutrer (speaker), Dr. Merle Mink

Page Number and Citation: 115

Explanation and Analysis:

It was ten years ago that I last rode a train, from San Francisco to New Orleans, and so ten years since I last enjoyed the peculiar gnosis of trains, stood on the eminence from which there is revealed both the sorry litter of the past and the future bright and simple as can be, and the going itself, one's privileged progress through the world. But trains have changed. […] Our roomettes turn out to be little coffins for a single person. From time to time, I notice, people in roomettes stick their heads out into the corridor for some sight of human kind.

Related Characters: Binx Bolling (John “Jack” Bickerson Bolling) (speaker), Kate Cutrer

Related Symbols: Cars, Buses, Streetcars, and Trains

Page Number and Citation: 184

Explanation and Analysis:

She takes the bottle. "Will you tell me what to do?"
“Sure."
"You can do it because you are not religious. God is not religious. You are the unmoved mover. You don’t need God or anyone else—no credit to you, unless it is a credit to be the most self-centered person alive. I don’t know whether I love you, but I believe in you and I will do what you tell me. Now if I marry you, will you tell me: Kate, this morning do such and such, and if we have to go to a party, will you tell me: Kate, stand right there and have three drinks and talk to so and so? Will you?'”

Related Characters: Binx Bolling (John “Jack” Bickerson Bolling) (speaker), Kate Cutrer (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 197

Explanation and Analysis:

"I've got to be sure about one thing […] I'm going to sit next to the window on the Lake side and put the cape jasmine in my lap?"
"That's right."
"And you'll be thinking of me just that way?"
"That's right."
"Good by."
"Good by." […] I watch her walk toward St Charles, cape jasmine held against her cheek, until my brothers and sisters call out behind me.

Related Characters: Binx Bolling (John “Jack” Bickerson Bolling) (speaker), Kate Cutrer

Page Number and Citation: 242

Explanation and Analysis:

Kate Cutrer Character Timeline in The Moviegoer

The timeline below shows where the character Kate Cutrer appears in The Moviegoer. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...knows this means she wants to discuss something serious, probably Binx’s future, or her stepdaughter Kate. Binx is reminded of his brother Scott’s death; Binx was eight at the time. As... (full context)

...into her office for a talk. It soon becomes clear that the talk is about Kate. Aunt Emily shows him a carton of empty bottles which were found in Kate’s room.... (full context)

Modern Life and the Search for Meaning Theme Icon

Uncle Jules is at lunch, along with Kate and her fiancé, Walter, and everyone is smiling. Binx and Uncle Jules get along well... (full context)

Kate has a “brown-eyed look.” It’s not unprecedented for Aunt Emily to ask Binx to help... (full context)

Fulfilling his promise to Aunt Emily, Binx looks for Kate. He finds her cleaning an old fireplace in the basement, seeming more cheerful. Kate tells... (full context)

Binx is still at his aunt’s house; the rain has stopped. Kate calls him. She is working on renovating a section of the house and is in... (full context)

They chat about Walter. Kate says she isn’t sure if she’s going to marry him—even though he’s already going around... (full context)

Kate tells Binx about the happiest moment of her life. It happened in the fall of... (full context)

Kate’s happiest moment came during the bus ride. She remembers the bus traveling through the bright... (full context)

Kate and Binx end up going out that evening after all. They’re sitting in an oyster... (full context)

After dark, Binx and Kate catch part of the parade downtown. Soon a vanguard of robed, flame-bearing figures come down... (full context)

...called Panic in the Streets, which was filmed in New Orleans. In her own way, Kate understands Binx’s moviegoing. When a scene shows the very neighborhood which contains the theater, Kate... (full context)

Though Kate sounds a little better, Binx knows she isn’t—she’s just playing a role, this time being... (full context)

Binx talks to both Aunt Emily and Kate on the phone. Aunt Emily says that Kate has agreed to see Dr. Mink (Merle),... (full context)

...and eventually becoming one of them. He watches this until it’s time to pick up Kate. (full context)

...season.) Yesterday, he noticed that the same theater was running Picayune, another Western. He and Kate watch the movie and emerge from the theater to the same smell of privet. It’s... (full context)

After the movie, Binx and Kate walk around campus and talk about Kate’s doctor’s appointment. She feels better after having talked... (full context)

Binx and Kate stop by the laboratory where Binx once worked. Kate asks if this is part of... (full context)

...is startled out of bed by the phone ringing. It’s Aunt Emily; she can’t find Kate. She was supposed to be at a Carnival ball, but she never came home. Emily... (full context)

...buying it and building a gas station there. Just then a taxi pulls up, and Kate gets out. She is unsurprised to see Binx, and she looks as if she’s just... (full context)

Binx waits unhappily for Kate to finish telling him her idea. Every once in a while, Kate has an “exalted”... (full context)

Binx sees that Kate is already feeling strained, and that by morning, her joy will fade. He distracts her... (full context)

...Orleans on a lecture tour. Now, Sam tells Binx that he needs Binx’s help getting Kate out of here. He’s hatched a scheme to move Kate to New York to see... (full context)

Binx is baffled, so Sam backtracks to explain what’s happened to Kate. Last night, when he arrived, Kate was in an exalted mood, and they’d had hours... (full context)

...at the dining room table, occasionally interrupted by Oscar’s less enlightened remarks and Edna’s scolding. Kate observes to Binx that Sam is gentle and kind. After their conversation last night, she... (full context)

Binx and Kate don’t join the others in the dining room. Kate asks Binx if she can come... (full context)

Three hours later, Binx and Kate are on a train. As he boards the train, Binx experiences a “repetition,” remembering his... (full context)

While sitting in the observation car, Binx and Kate encounter Binx’s friend Sidney Gross and his wife, Margot, headed to the same convention. Sidney... (full context)

...once-orderly life; he no longer eats or sleeps or writes observations in his notebook. Meanwhile, Kate, overwhelmed, retreats to their roomette. Binx joins her after a little while. Kate tells him... (full context)

Kate admits to Binx that Sam also proposed to her. He’s lonely and likes Kate, but... (full context)

The train stops in Baton Rouge, and Binx and Kate overlook the Capitol from the train. Kate feels rapt with its beauty, but Binx thinks... (full context)

Kate asks Binx if he will tell her what to do. He is unreligious and self-centered,... (full context)

Binx and Kate head to the conference hotel, where Binx is quickly swept into a welcome reception and... (full context)

...in a new suburb. Binx finds Harold to be a simple, good-natured fellow. Binx and Kate visit Harold for about 20 minutes. Binx admires Harold because he acted heroically in Korea,... (full context)

Binx and Kate go to the movies and see a Paul Newman film about a cynical man who... (full context)

...there. He concludes that businessmen are the best metaphysicians, though they’re unfortunately one-track metaphysicians. When Kate and Binx arrive in New Orleans, street cleaners are sweeping up the remains of the... (full context)

Binx apologizes for not telling Aunt Emily about Kate’s plans to come along to Chicago; it was simple thoughtlessness on his part. But Aunt... (full context)

Aunt Emily asks Binx if he and Kate were intimate during the trip. Binx replies that “intimate” isn’t really the word for it.... (full context)

...taught him. Binx doesn’t have anything else to say in defense of his behavior regarding Kate. (full context)

As Binx is about to drive off, Kate flags him down and leans into his car. She overheard the whole conversation with Aunt... (full context)

...in Gentilly. It’s also Binx’s 30th birthday. He sits on the school playground waiting for Kate. He feels he knows less than he’s ever known before. The present could be described... (full context)

...his aunt, Binx always feels the need to find a woman. He’s been waiting for Kate for almost an hour and growing anxious. He decides to call Sharon, figuring that Kate... (full context)

Binx notices Kate’s car pulling into the bus shelter across the street, and he wonders if it’s not... (full context)

...the church next door. It suddenly dawns on Binx that it’s Ash Wednesday. He and Kate sit in her car. Kate thinks Binx is an idiot for not telling Aunt Emily... (full context)

Binx tells Kate that he’s willing to go to medical school if Emily wants him to, and that... (full context)

Nevertheless, Kate thinks she sees a way forward. If Binx will tell her simple things to do,... (full context)

Binx and Kate got married in June. Sharon got married, too, and took over Binx’s office so that... (full context)

The day before Lonnie died, Kate went to visit him in the hospital. Binx had his doubts about this idea, and... (full context)

Kate admires Binx’s sweetness with the children. Binx asks her if she will do him a... (full context)

Kate stares uneasily at a cape jasmine blossom along the fence, and Binx picks it and... (full context)

Kate Cutrer Character Analysis

Kate Cutrer Quotes in The Moviegoer

Chapter 2, Section 3 Quotes

Chapter 2, Section 12 Quotes

Chapter 4, Section 2 Quotes

Epilogue Quotes

Kate Cutrer Character Timeline in The Moviegoer